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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