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Sustainable Soil Management

Dan Pennock Canadian representative

Intergovernmental Technical Panel on Soils

Global Soil Partnership

Formed by the Food and Agricultural Organization of the UN in 2013

All 135 member states of the FAO are partners, along with NGOs, universities, etc.

Intergovernmental Technical Panel on Soils

Formed to provide scientific support for the work of the GSP

27 members from 7 regions

Global Soil Partnership

“The overarching goal for all parties is to ensure that soils are managed sustainably and that

degraded soils are rehabilitated or restored.”

World Soil Charter 2015

1st and 2nd Drafts by ITPS 2013

Passed by GSP Plenary 2014

Adopted by FAO Council

2014

World Soil Charter has new definition of

sustainable soil management

“Soil management is sustainable if the supporting, provisioning, regulating, and cultural

services provided by soil are maintained or enhanced without significantly impairing the soil

functions that enable those services or biodiversity.” (WSC 2015)

Focus is on soil management

“Soil management is sustainable if the supporting, provisioning, regulating, and cultural

services provided by soil are maintained or enhanced without significantly impairing the soil

functions that enable those services or biodiversity.” (WSC 2015)

http://www.thedailystar.net/sites/default/files/beta2/uploads/2013/07/fr0150.jpg

Is this a healthy soil?

New definition based on an Ecosystem Services model

“Soil management is sustainable if the supporting, provisioning, regulating, and

cultural services provided by soil are maintained or enhanced without significantly impairing the

soil functions that enable those services or biodiversity.” (WSC 2015)

“Soil management is sustainable if the supporting, provisioning, regulating, and cultural

services provided by soil are maintained or enhanced without significantly impairing the soil

functions that enable those services or biodiversity.” (WSC 2015)

“Soil management is sustainable if the supporting, provisioning, regulating, and cultural

services provided by soil are maintained or enhanced without significantly impairing the soil

functions that enable those services or biodiversity.” (WSC 2015)

Land use change (for example, native land to crop production) inevitably causes soil change –

FAO traditionally viewed almost all human-induced soil change as soil degradation

Scientific challenge is to find the thresholds at which significant impairment of soil functions and soil biodiversity occurs and to implement

management that ensures these thresholds are not crossed

Next sentence in definition states the main challenge for SSM

“The balance between the supporting and provisioning services for plant production and

the regulating services the soil provides for water quality and availability and for

atmospheric greenhouse gas composition is a particular concern.” (WSC 2015)

Implications of new definition

Previous assessments of sustainability (or soil quality or soil health) have been too focused on soil productivity ; effects of soil management on

air and water under-represented

Example of Soil Erosion

Focus is on the effects of erosion on soil productivity

Transport of sediment, sediment bound-nutrients, and soluble nutrients to water bodies

affects water quality

Regulation of water quality is one of the ecosystem services provided by the soil

https://www.ontario.ca/document/water-quality-15-streams-agricultural-watersheds-southwestern-ontario-2004-2009#section-4

(Provincial Water

Quality Objective)

Global Distribution of Dead Zones

NOAA 2008

“Soil management is sustainable if the supporting, provisioning, regulating, and cultural services provided by soil are maintained or enhanced

without significantly impairing the soil functions that enable those services or biodiversity.” (WSC

2015)

Soil management that fails to maintain water quality parameters above regulatory thresholds is

unsustainable

Evaluation of Sustainable

Soil Management Practices

by ITPS/GSP

Approved by FAO Council

December 2016

Example of evaluation of sustainable

soil management practices

Most widely implemented practice to reduce agriculturally induced soil erosion and reduce

nutrient runoff is reduced tillage/no-till

111 M ha in 2009 (Derpsch et al. 2010)

Era of the meta-analysis

Structured evaluation of individual studies to determine a general result

No-till effects have been assessed in a number of global meta-analyses

No-till reduced soil loss by 60% compared to conventional tillage in temperate climates; no significant difference between the two in

sub-tropical and tropical climates

No-till reduced runoff by 27% compared to conventional tillage; no significant difference between the two

on clay-dominated soils

No-till reduced yields by 5.1% across all observations Greatest yield reductions in tropical latitudes (-15.1%)

and least in temperate (-3.4%)

Reduction least for cereals and greatest for rice (-7.5%), maize (-7.6%), and horticultural (-21.4%) crops

Effect on Yield (%)

Pittelkow et al. 2015 Field Crops Research

Authors use

aridity index: MAP/PET

Saskatoon: Dry

Guelph: Humid

Global Assessment of No-Till

No-till a proven measure to reduce water erosion in dry temperate regions;

adoption results in minor yield increases

Minor yield decreases in humid temperate regions;

limited runoff/erosion benefit on high clay soils

Considerable evidence that it is ill-suited to sub-tropical and tropical regions

Effects on water quality?

Reduction in sediment export in temperate regions a clear net benefit for water quality

Effect on nutrient export less clear

Conservation tillage compared to conventional in paired watershed study

Conservation tillage compared to conventional in paired watershed study

Conservation tillage:

Reduced sediment export by 65%

Conservation tillage compared to conventional in paired watershed study

Conservation tillage:

Reduced sediment export by 65% Reduced nitrogen export by 68%

Conservation tillage compared to conventional in paired watershed study

Conservation tillage:

Reduced sediment export by 65% Reduced nitrogen export by 68%

Increased phosphorus export by 12%

Phosphorus export primarily due to loss of soluble forms in high volume snowmelt runoff

Research/Policy Development Priority

Locally/regionally appropriate measures

need to be identified or developed to address specific threats

to Ecosystem Services

Programs that support adoption of these measures developed

and implemented

Recognition and support of producers that practice

sustainable soil management

Need regionally/provincially developed certification criteria

Approved by FAO Council

December 2016

Thank you for your attention

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“Soil health, also called soil quality, is defined in agricultural terms as the soil's fitness to support

crop growth without becoming degraded or otherwise harming the environment.”