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Status of the World's Soil Resources Report, Intergovernmental Technical Panel on Soils
Citation:
Compton, J. Status of the World's Soil Resources Report, Intergovernmental Technical Panel on Soils. Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), Rome, Italy, 2015.
Impact/Purpose:
Human society as a whole depends more than ever before on products from the soil as well as on the more intangible services it provides for maintenance of the biosphere. This report is a product of the Intergovernmental Technical Panel on Soils, and will be published by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations. The goal of this report is to make clear these essential connections between human well-being and the soil, and to provide a benchmark against which our collective progress to conserve this essential resource can be measured. The scope of main objectives of the report are: (a) to provide a global scientific assessment of current and projected soil conditions built on regional data analysis and expertise (b) to explore the implications of these soil conditions for food security, climate change, water quality and quantity, biodiversity, and human health and wellbeing (c) to conclude with a series of recommendations for action by policymakers and other stakeholders. In this report, EPA Scientist Jana Compton contributed to Chapter 7.5 on the role of soils in water quality and ecosystem services, by writing section 7.5.1 Nitrogen and Phosphorous retention and transformation
Description:
The scope of main objectives of the report are: (a) to provide a global scientific assessment of current and projected soil conditions built on regional data analysis and expertise (b) to explore the implications of these soil conditions for food security, climate change, water quality and quantity, biodiversity, and human health and wellbeing (c) to conclude with a series of recommendations for action by policymakers and other stakeholders. In this report, EPA Scientist Jana Compton contributed to Chapter 7.5 on the role of soils in water quality and ecosystem services, by writing section 7.5.1 Nitrogen and Phosphorous retention and transformations. Chapter 7 undertakes an assessment of the ways in which soil change is likely to impact soil functions and the likely consequences for ecosystem service delivery. Each subsection in this chapter outlines key soil processes involved with the delivery of goods and services and how these are changing, then the manner in which this change impacts soil function and contributes to ecosystem service delivery is discussed. The general reporting categories of the Millennium Ecosystem Assessment including provisioning, supporting, regulating and cultural services are followed.
