Upon their degradation, soils gradually lose their capacity to support ecosystem functions, many of which are related to the beneficial effects of soil organic matter (SOM). Depleted SOM stocks can be restored to some degree through judicious, sustainable land management. However, reported potentials for sequestration of carbon in soils of agricultural lands are overly optimistic because they assume that all degraded cropland and grassland can be subjected to best management practices. 

ISRIC WDC-Soils, regular member of the ICSU-World Data System, aims to serve the user with a selection of standardised soil data through WoSIS (World Soil Information Service). The development of this service has been made possible thanks to the contributions and shared knowledge of a steadily growing number of data providers and experts. We gratefully acknowledge their contributions!

The CIRCASA  team would like to invite you to fill in this questionnaire. The overall objective of the EU H2020 CIRCASA project is to strengthen synergies among researchers and promote the transfer of knowledge on carbon sequestration in agricultural soils.

ISRIC – World Soil Information has played an important role in developing the World Reference Base for Soil Resources (WRB) since its inception in 1994. This role was greatly reduced after the retirement of our former colleague Dr Otto Spaargaren† in 2009.

We are pleased to announce that Stephan Mantel has been elected Vice-Chair of the IUSS WRB Working Group during the recent World Congress of Soil Science in Rio de Janeiro. Thereby, ISRIC will resume its historic role in further developing WRB.

Countries require up to date soil organic carbon (SOC) inventories to support carbon monitoring for REDD+ under the UNCCD as well as reporting on greenhouse gas emissions under the UNFCCC.

ISRIC produced soil organic carbon maps for Tanzania in collaboration with Tanzania Forest Services, Sokoine University of Agriculture, the African Soil Information Service (AfSIS) and the FAO.

The nomination process for the Glinka World Soil Prize 2018 is open and organizations and individuals are invited to propose appropriate candidates. Supported by the Russian Federation, the Glinka Prize is awarded annually under the auspices of the Global Soil Partnership on World Soil Day, consisting of the Glinka Medal and an award of USD 15,000.

The award is for dynamic change-makers dedicated to solving one of our world’s most pressing environmental issue: Soil Degradation.

Nominations must be submitted by 30th September 2018

Thursday 6 september 2018, 16:00 - 18:00 (Aula, Wageningen)

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Dr Marcos Angelini has won the ‘Best Paper in Pedometrics 2017’ award for his work on the use of structural equation modelling for digital soil mapping (World Congress of Soil Science, Rio, (12-17 August 2018)).

A very nice and well-deserved recognition for the work Marcos did for his PhD in Wageningen, while a guest researcher at ISRIC - World Soil Information. 

SQAPP (Soil Quality Mobile App), is an easy-to-use tool that brings global soil data into the decision-making sphere of land users and other interested end users. It returns available soil quality information for any location in the world, simply picked by the user from a world map. Soil properties for that specific location are then shown and possibilities are offered to assess these values and to adapt them if necessary.

ISRIC – World Soil Information, within in the framework of project led by CIAT (International Center for Tropical Agriculture, Nairobi), provided expertise for an assessment of soil organic carbon (SOC) stock baselines for the Otjozondjupa region in Namibia. This was done in support of Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) Target 15.3 the aims of which is to achieve global land degradation neutrality (LDN) by 2030. Different sampling densities and digital soil mapping methods were compared and evaluated in terms of complexity, cost, and map accuracy.