Poor infiltration capacity: Degraded soils are not able to soak up rainwater as effectively as healthy soil. This can lead to ...

Plowing, or tilling, is an age-old agricultural practice that readies the soil for planting by turning over the top layer to expose fresh earth. The method—intended to improve water and nutrient ...

Notes: the subfigure shows an example of acidic soil areas defined by the World Reference Base for Soil Resources; the scatterplot shows the salt content of soil samples in five climate regions. A ...

Biochar is a form of charcoal (mostly carbon) produced by heating organic matter in the absence of oxygen, a process called pyrolysis. This avoids the production of carbon dioxide and locks up the ...

La Puna, a high-altitude plateau straddling Argentina, Bolivia, and Chile, is not for the faint of heart. Visitors must endure a 10-hour drive from the closest city, battle altitude sickness at ...

Grassland degradation fundamentally reshapes how biodiversity supports ecosystem multifunctionality, shifting it from being plant-dominated to being mediated by soil microbes, according to a new study ...

Over 80% of Africa’s agricultural land is degraded, limiting productivity gains. Improved crop yields reach only 28% in Africa versus 88% in Asia due to poor soil health. Governments and partners ...

Editor’s note: This story was originally published The Guardian. It appears here as part of the Climate Desk collaboration. Land degradation is expanding worldwide at the rate of 1m sq km every year, ...

Land degradation undermining Earth’s capacity to sustain humanity; Failure to reverse it will pose challenges for generations; 7 of 9 planetary boundaries are negatively impacted by unsustainable land ...