GSA Today
Volume 32, Issue 5

Soils support life on Earth, storing twice as much carbon as Earth’s atmosphere and vegetation combined. For this reason, soils are inherently vulnerable to enhanced degradation due to conventional agriculture and anthropogenic climate change. Strategies aimed at conserving the global soil resource not only mitigate rising atmo- spheric carbon dioxide concentrations, but also promote numerous ecosystem co-benefits. Effective soil conservation is necessary to secure food, fuel, and fiber for a burgeoning human population. Image from Shutterstock.

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