Soil degradation threatens food security, water resources, biodiversity, and climate resilience. A new article explores its causes, impacts, monitoring methods, and restoration solutions.
soils
Posted inResearch Spotlights
Patterned Frozen Soils Get Their Shape from Gravity and Funky Physics
An enigmatic feature of frozen soils can be explained in part by non-Newtonian fluid physics. Enter the Oobleck.
Posted inEditors' Highlights
A Satellite-Based Global Carbon Flux Product is Sensitive to Droughts
A parsimonious ecosystem model constrained by data from NASA’s Soil Moisture Active and Passive mission generates a global daily carbon flux product that is highly sensitive to drought and pluvial events.
Posted inScience Updates
Confronting Salty Problems in the Coastal Plain
An interdisciplinary network of scientists and stakeholders is working to understand how saltwater intrusion and sea level rise are affecting rural communities and to help address the consequences.
Posted inEditors' Highlights
Soil Biogeochemistry Models Omit Key Processes Due to Geographic Bias
Popular soil biogeochemistry models inadequately represent regionally-important processes and lack transferability, resulting in poor predictions of soil organic carbon stocks in sub-Saharan Africa.
Posted inResearch Spotlights
Mangroves May Be Losing Their Grip on Carbon Storage as Sea Levels Rise
Locally, mangroves can sometimes adapt to rising seas, but global trends look troubling.
Posted inResearch Spotlights
How Much Will Western Wildfires Worsen Under Warming?
A new study reevaluates the use of vapor pressure deficit, or VPD, in climate models to predict increases in area burned by wildfire across the U.S. West.
Posted inNews
Antibiotic Resistance Might Get a Boost from Droughts
Drought has the potential to turn normal soils into perfect breeding grounds for antibiotic-resistant bacteria, new research has found.
Posted inNews
Hurricane Helene Ravaged Farmers’ Topsoil. They’re Still Fighting to Build It Back.
“We’re dirt farmers. Our primary job is to tend the dirt. That’s the basis of everything.”
Posted inNews
Cleanup of Battery Recycling Sites May Lower Childhood Lead Exposure
Unsound recycling of lead-acid batteries pollutes the soil around houses and agriculture fields in developing countries. Soil remediation might help in lowering the blood lead levels of children.