ZHE WANG

Interesting Cited：

Soil is a word whose meaning varies according to context. The patriotic understanding of soil (as in the “soil of France”) and the agricultural understanding of soil have very little in common. Even in the environmental and geological sciences, there are often vast differences between the soil of the geologist, the archaeologist, the geotechnical engineer, and the soil scientist, or pedologist. In the history of soil science, numerous definitions have been formulated, but all tend to have one or more of the following criteria in common: the presence of, or ability to sustain, life; the state and position of the soil as unconsolidated porous matter occupying the topmost layer of the earth, from the surface to the parent rock below; and the ability to demonstrate a record of physical and chemical change (genesis) due to myriad environmental factors over time (Certini and Ugolini, 2013).

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Until now, no other planet has been identified with such a substrate fulfilling these criteria. The Earth’s soil is unique in our universe, and yet represents a presence in daily life so common that it is taken for granted. For the non-scientific public at large, soil is mainly the surface on which we walk, or an obscure part of the larger landscape. Because of its life-giving sustenance for all humans and other living beings, soils are far too important to be studied by soil scientists alone. But we live in a world where disciplinary boundaries define our work. Within the realm of science, boundary crossings – or what Julie Thompson Klein (1990, p. 65) refers to as “border disciplinarily” – are typically of the nearest-neighbor type: i.e., biology + chemistry = biochemistry, or geology and physics = geophysics. Extensions of soil science outside the agricultural or earth sciences, to the arts and humanities, are far less frequent. The last decades show, however, that the activities of the soil science commnity and its traditional partners have been insufficient in pro- tecting our soils and landscapes. Soil degradation due to poor agricultural practice and lack of regulation and soil loss due to sealing and urban sprawl continue to occur at an alarming rate.