Soil health and ecological restoration

Publication date: 15/11/2024
Extent: 34 pages

Contributions by: Alice Day, The University of Manchester, UK; Ezekiel M. Njeru, Kenyatta University, Kenya; and David Johnson, The University of Manchester, UK

Chapter synopsis:

Soil health is central for provisioning and supporting ecosystem services for both agriculture and restored natural lands. Agricultural systems create different challenges for soil health that can degrade land and require implementation of restoration strategies. It is important that restoration practices create landscapes that are resilient to the combined challenges of climate, environmental and land-use change, and consideration of soil health is vital to achieve this. Here, we highlight the usefulness and practicality of soil health and degradation indicators for the restoration of degradation gradients caused by current agricultural practices. We emphasise the importance of integrating state-of-the-art knowledge of plant-microorganism interactions, which are the ‘engine’ driving many ecosystem functions, and the key ecological concepts of plant-soil feedback and biodiversity-ecosystem function relationships, to enhance soil health as part of a restoration strategy. Finally, we emphasise how consideration of scale and connectedness in restoration practices is vital for maximise ecosystem multifunctionality.

DOI: 10.19103/AS.2024.0134.06