Blog from Marcelo Galdos
Soils Are Having a Moment — But Moments Are Fragile
Soils are finally getting the attention they deserve. Films such as Kiss the Ground, Common Ground and Six Inches of Soil have helped bring soils into mainstream conversations about food systems, climate change and environmental degradation. This renewed visibility is welcome and overdue, providing many audiences with a first encounter with soils as living systems rather than inert backdrops.
Yet moments of attention can be shallow. Awareness alone does not guarantee understanding, and enthusiasm does not automatically translate into the expertise required to make informed decisions about land, food production or climate mitigation. In soil science, we are well aware of the risks of focusing only on the surface. To manage soils effectively, we must look below the upper few centimetres (often treated as the plough layer) — both literally and metaphorically.
Beyond the Plough Layer: Why Depth Matters
Much of today’s public discourse around soils relies on accessible language: soil health, regenerative agriculture, and storing carbon in soils. These terms can be useful entry points, but they risk becoming buzzwords when detached from scientific context. When translated into practice, this surface-focused language can also encourage surface-focused assessment.
In practice, managing soils based only on surface indicators is rarely sufficient. Root development, soil moisture dynamics, nutrient availability and long-term carbon stabilisation are all influenced by processes occurring deeper in the soil profile. Subsoil structure, chemistry and hydrology matter profoundly, even when they are less visible or harder to measure.
The same principle applies to how we engage with soils more broadly. Initial interest may draw attention to the surface, but meaningful progress depends on depth: understanding which soil processes are involved, where, under what conditions, and with what synergies and trade-offs. Without this grounding, even well-intentioned approaches risk oversimplification or unintended consequences. As Darwin recognised in his work on earthworms, the most influential soil processes are often the least visible.
Soil Science as an Integrative Discipline
Soil science is too often framed around outcomes rather than the processes that underpin them. In reality, it is one of the most integrative disciplines within environmental science. It draws on chemistry, physics and biology to understand nutrient cycling, soil structure, water movement and interactions between roots, fungi and microbes.
These processes are linked through land classification and mapping, helping to capture spatial variability and legacy effects at scale. Soil science also informs decisions about infrastructure, contamination and flood risk, and increasingly engages with the arts and humanities, where soils are recognised as archives of environmental and cultural history. Few disciplines operate so comfortably across scales, from molecules to landscapes and global systems, and that breadth is essential if soils are to be managed responsibly.
Capacity Beneath Pressure
At the same time, the capacity to develop and sustain this depth of expertise is under strain. Across the UK, higher education institutions are navigating a difficult landscape shaped by reduced income, rising costs and declining student numbers, including international enrolments.
Long-established programmes in agriculture and soil science have faced uncertainty in recent years, not because they lack relevance, but because the systems that support education and research increasingly prioritise short-term metrics over long-term capacity. This quiet erosion often happens beneath the surface, only becoming visible once expertise is lost.
Why Shallow Engagement Is a Risk
The timing of this decline is particularly concerning. We are asking soils to deliver climate mitigation and adaptation, food security, biodiversity recovery, water regulation and infrastructure resilience — often simultaneously. Yet weakening the educational and research foundations of soil science risks leaving these ambitions unsupported.
Just as managing soils based only on surface properties can lead to poor outcomes, relying on superficial engagement with soil science limits our ability to respond effectively. Indicators may proliferate, but understanding declines. Ambition grows, while capacity erodes.
Going Deeper, Together
There are, however, positive developments. Alongside traditional degree programmes, new training and apprenticeship pathways are emerging that combine academic understanding with applied, work-based learning. These routes help develop technical competence, professional confidence and long-term engagement with soils, particularly among those working directly with land, and are not replacements for degree programmes but important complements within a broader educational ecosystem.
The growing interest in soils offers an opportunity. But it will only lead to meaningful change if we resist the temptation to stay at the surface. Soils cannot be managed well without attention to what lies beneath, and soil science cannot thrive without sustained investment in depth — in education, research and people.
If soils are to help us meet the challenges ahead, we must be willing to dig deeper.
