Abstract
Soil protection is of strategic importance for protecting UK food security, as soils are responsible for the national provision of food, feed and fibre. In the last 20 yrs DEFRA has commissioned research to provide evidence on which to base its soil protection strategy. Given DEFRA's aim of developing sustainable soil managment across the UK, and tackling soil degradation threats by 2030, this project will provide a synthesis of DEFRA commissioned soils research to date, and provide a vision for future knowledge requirements and research to achieve this aim. The work of the last 20 yrs will be assessed within the 'soil natural capital stocks and soil ecosystem services framework', and the research conducted on threats that may degrade soils will be evaluated within this context. The threats to UK soils are expensive with half of England’s farmers having seen soil erosion on their land, which costs British agriculture £9 million each year and also adds £21 million annually to the cost of supplying clean drinking water to our homes. Moreover, the annual cost of flooding due to soil degradation has been conservatively estimated at between £29 million and £128 million. Given these limited examples of the cost of not sustainably managing our soils it is imperitive that research provides solutiones to reducing these costs for farmers, landmanagers and society as a whole. Both England and Wales have developed plans to protect their soils, in order to ensure that they can be sustainably managed. These plans have highlighted important gaps in our knowledge of the changes taking place in our soils, and the effects of these changes on the goods and services provided by soils. This synthesis will put the last 20 yrs of DEFRA research in this context, furhter identifying knowledge gaps, but also providing a vision of future research requirements.
United Kingdom