Research challenges in soil use and management – meeting multiple

demands

Phil Haygarth and many others,Environment Centre,Lancaster University

APPG on Agroecology: “Boosting Britain’s soils to meet farming needs” Co-Sponsors: British Society of Soil Science and Food Ethics CouncilThursday 6th December 2012Committee Room 16, Palace of Westminster

Photos and concept: K. Ritz

Soil forms slowly

From Heimsath et al (1999)

0.1 mm/yr

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Land Use Futures

We must raise national awareness and get the public to own soil issues

SOIL-BASED ECOSYSTEM GOODS AND SERVICES (Haygarth and Ritz 2009)

CO2, CH4

NOx, N2

CNPKS

Supporting

Primaryproduction

Soilformation

Nutrient cycling

Provisioning

Platform

Refugia

Food supply

BiomaterialsRaw materials

Waterstorage

Biodiversity

Cultural

Heritage

Cognitive

Recreation

Regulating

Water supply

Gas regulation

Erosioncontrol

Water quality

Climateregulation

PROVISIONING: SOILS, BIODIVERSITY AND MEDICINE

• E.g. Streptomyces are found predominantly in soil and decaying vegetation

• Isolates used to produce over two-thirds of the clinically useful antibiotics of natural origin (e.g., neomycin, chloramphenicol)

• Soil organisms may harbour as yet untapped biological and medical resources

(Kieser et al., 2000)

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REGULATING: WATER STORAGE, QUALITY, SUPPLY AND EROSION

• Soil misuse or over-exploitation can have significant consequences for groundwater, rivers and estuarine and coastal waters

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Water

• 66% of the worlds freshwater is stored in soils for use by plants

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Not just overseas

• 35 thousand million tonnes of soil lost every year

• Soil erosion also displaces 23–42 million tonnes of nitrogen

• And 13- 26 million tonnes of phosphorus per year

From Quinton et al, Nature Geosciences (2010)

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SOILS SUPPORT NUTRIENT CYCLING (Stutter et al., 2012). Pie-chart segments denote P compound distributions as means of the extract P data (n = number of soils per country), taken from thirteen

literature sources using soil 31P NMR studies

AT THE MICROBIAL SCALE…..Microbial biomass P and organic P released to water (Turner and Haygarth, Nature, 2001)

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Microbial P (mg kg-1 dry soil)

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SOIL SEALING; CRITICAL LAND USE TIPPING POINT

Foley Square, New York

20091609

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Soil sealing• Every year in Europe an

areas the size of Brussels is sealed off.

• Much of our best land is close to cities

i and Independent 27/11/12SLIDE FROM JOHN QUINTON

National demonstration platforms and observatories…..

The National Defra/EA DTC PlatformWensum

(Norfolk)

Arable farmingConsortium includes:

University of East Anglia, Scott Wilson, Cranfield

University, British Geological Survey, Entec, NIAB and

others...

Avon(Hampshire)

Mixed lowland farmingConsortium includes:

ADAS, University of Reading, University of Bristol, QMUL,

ENTEC and others...

Eden(Cumbria)

Livestock and mixed farmingConsortium includes:Lancaster University, Newcastle University, Durham University,

University of Cumbria, Eden Rivers Trust, CEH and

others...

Focusing effort on 3 catchments but linking closely to other catchment work

Completion of kiosk installations in the Eden DTCNewton Rigg demonstration catchment, March 2011

Morland catchment outlet station, March 2011

Pow catchment outlet station, September 2011

Dacre catchment outlet station, July 2011

10 sub-stations for installation throughout the Eden catchment – 6 installed to date

• 38 staff, 8 organizations• Involve as many staff as possible • Open door to collaborations, shared activities, learning

together• Wide spectrum of capability• Building a new way of working

Eden Catchment Demonstration Centre

A focal point for local engagement

Organise a local stakeholder launch event

Demonstration events

Helping with community engagement

• Leadership and Management team– Adrian McDonald (Leeds)– Robert Gurney (Reading)– Bridget Emmett (CEH)

• WP leaders– Phil Haygarth (Lancaster)– Jim Freer (Bristol)– Wouter Buytaert (Imperial)– Gordon Blair (Lancaster) & Gwyn Rees

(CEH)– Doerthe Tetzlaff (Aberdeen)

Full team• Keith Beven (Lancaster)• Gordon Blair (Lancaster)• John Bloomfield (BGS)• Roland Bol (Rothamsted)• Wouter Buytaert (Imperial)• Bridget Emmett (CEH)• Jim Freer (Bristol)• Robert Gurney (Reading)• Phil Haygarth (Lancaster)• Penny Johnes (Reading)• Paul Quinn (Newcastle)• Mark Macklin (Abserystwyth)• Christopher Macleod (Macaulay)• Adrian McDonald (Leeds)• Sim Reaney (Durham)• Gwyn Rees (CEH)• Marc Stutter (Macaulay)• Doerthe Tetzlaff (Aberdeen)

Convergence of data from many sources

Stakeholders and scientists interact a ‘real’ and ‘virtual’ way to set the science questions, find solutions....

Community involvement, shared information and experience, meetings virtual and real

Emergence and sharing of models, failures and solutions....

0

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40

60

80

100

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140

0 0.1 0.2 0.3 0.4 0.5 0.6 0.7 0.8 0.9 1

kg/ha

£/h

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Mitigation Options:

4 Halve P to 3 index and no P to index 4+ intensive grassland7 Reduce feed P input to dairy39 Riparian Zones38 Install farm track sediment traps36 Move gateways24 Restrict livestock access in marginal places/times35 Constructed wetlands/sedimentation ponds23 Rate of application22 Timing windows (intensive dairy)

4 7 39 38 3624 35

23

22

Continual iteration and improvement...

A Virtual Observatory for Water-Soil systems...towards a new science culture

Developing ways of visualising / analysing / interpreting data

• Live data streams – linking sensors and different sources

• Accessing historical data• Modelling the

environment• Development of

scenarios• Learning and

understanding more about processes

CONCLUSIONS: NATIONAL ‘NEEDS’ FOR SOILS AND LAND USE PLANNING (Haygarth and Ritz, 2009)

1. to maintain the science and knowledge base, education and investment

2. to manage soil for multi-functionality and so critical tipping points are avoided

3. to map soil services and functions, dealing with scale

4. for a soils observatory that builds communities, inventories and the provision for flexible and unified databases

5. for novel prediction frameworks

Briefing document sent to Tim Benton 5th Dec 2012…

“The history of every Nation is eventually written in the way in which it cares for its

soil.”

Franklin D. RooseveltPresident of the United States 1933-1945

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