Summary
This Annual Review article positions soil as the central interface of Earth's critical zone and examines how soil functions—manifest through bedrock weathering and soil aggregate development—transmit impacts of human activity and provide control points for intervention. The authors argue that advances in mechanistic understanding of soil functions and their integration into mathematical models are essential to address global challenges in climate change, food security, and water supply. The paper emphasises that soil degradation during the Anthropocene is reversible through positive human intervention in soil management.
UK applicability
The framework applies directly to UK soil and critical zone management, particularly in addressing climate change mitigation and food security. UK agricultural intensification has degraded soil functions; the paper's emphasis on reversibility through intervention aligns with UK policy shifts towards soil health and regenerative agriculture.
Key measures
Soil function mechanisms, critical zone processes, soil aggregate formation, bedrock weathering, quantitative representation in mathematical and computational models
Outcomes reported
This review synthesises knowledge on soil functions—flows and transformations of mass, energy, and genetic information—and their mechanisms across the critical zone. The paper examines how soil functions arise from soil aggregate development and correlate with soil structure porosity, and identifies computational and mathematical approaches for quantifying these processes.
Topic tags
Dig deeper with Pulse AI.
Pulse AI has read the whole catalogue. Ask about this record, its theme, or how the findings apply to UK farming and policy — every answer cites the underlying studies.