We use soils to provide 98.8% of our food, but we must ensure that the pressure we place on soils to provide this food in the short-term does not inadvertently push the Earth into a less hospitable state in the long-term. Using the planetary boundaries framework, we show that soils are a master variable for regulating critical Earth-system processes. Indeed, of the seven Earth-systems that have been quantified, soils play a critical and substantial role in changing the Earth-systems in at least two, either directly or indirectly, as well as smaller contributions for a further three. For the biogeochemical flows Earth-system process, soils contribute 66% of the total anthropogenic change for nitrogen and 38% for phosphorus, whilst for the land-system change Earth-system process, soils indirectly contribute 80% of global anthropogenic change. Furthermore, perturbations of soils contribute directly to 21% of climate change, 25% to ocean acidification, and 25% to stratospheric ozone depletion. We argue that urgent interventions are required to greatly improve soil management, especially for those Earth-system processes where the planetary boundary has already been exceeded and where soils make an important contribution, with this being for biogeochemical flows (both nitrogen and phosphorus), for climate change, and for land-system change. Of particular importance, it is noted that the highly inefficient use of N fertilizers results in release of excess N into the broader environment, contributes to climate change, and results in release of ozone-depleting substances. Furthermore, the use of soils for agricultural production results not only in land-system change, but also in the loss (mineralization) of organic matter with a concomitant release of CO₂ contributing to both climate change and ocean acidification. Thus, there is a need to markedly improve the efficiency of fertilizer applications and to intensify usage of our most fertile soils in order to allow the restoration of degraded soils and limit further areal expansion of agriculture. Understanding, and acting upon, the role of soils is critical in ensuring that planetary boundaries are not transgressed, with no other single variable playing such a strategic role across all of the planetary boundaries.

我们使用土壤来提供我们食物的98.8％，但我们必须确保在短期内提供食物的土壤上所承受的压力不会在无意间长期将地球推向一个不太好客的状态。使用行星边界框架，我们表明土壤是调节关键地球系统过程的主要变量。确实，在已量化的七个地球系统中，土壤在至少两个直接或间接改变地球系统中起着至关重要的实质性作用，另外三者的贡献也较小。对于生物地球化学流的地球系统过程，土壤贡献了66％的人为总氮，而磷占38％，而对于土地系统变化的地球系统过程，土壤间接贡献了80％的全球人为变化。此外，土壤的扰动直接导致了21％的气候变化，25％的海洋酸化和25％的平流层臭氧消耗。我们认为需要采取紧急干预措施来大大改善土壤管理，特别是对于那些已经超出了行星边界并且土壤做出了重要贡献的地球系统过程，这对于生物地球化学流（氮和磷）而言，对于气候变化，以及土地系统变化。特别值得注意的是，氮肥的低效使用导致过量的氮释放到更广泛的环境中，助长了气候变化，并导致消耗臭氧层物质的释放。此外，将土壤用于农业生产不仅导致土地系统的变化，₂促进气候变化和海洋酸化。因此，需要显着提高肥料施用效率，并加强对我们最肥沃的土壤的利用，以使退化的土壤得以恢复并限制农业的进一步扩展。了解土壤并发挥作用，对于确保行星边界不被超越，其他任何变量都不能在所有行星边界中扮演这样的战略性角色至关重要。