The importance of soils to society has gained increasing recognition over the past decade, with the potential to contribute to most of the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). With unprecedented and growing demands for food, water and energy, there is an urgent need for a global effort to address the challenges of climate change and land degradation, whilst protecting soil as a natural resource. In this paper, we identify the contribution of soil science over the past decade to addressing gaps in our knowledge regarding major environmental challenges: climate change, food security, water security, urban development, and ecosystem functioning and biodiversity. Continuing to address knowledge gaps in soil science is essential for the achievement of the SDGs. However, with limited time and budget, it is also pertinent to identify effective methods of working that ensure the research carried out leads to real-world impact. Here, we suggest three strategies for the next decade of soil science, comprising a greater implementation of research into policy, interdisciplinary partnerships to evaluate function trade-offs and synergies between soils and other environmental domains, and integrating monitoring and modelling methods to ensure soil-based policies can withstand the uncertainties of the future.

中文翻译：

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未来十年的可持续未来植根于土壤科学

在过去十年中，土壤对社会的重要性得到了越来越多的认可，并有可能为大多数联合国可持续发展目标 (SDG) 做出贡献。随着对粮食、水和能源的需求空前增长，迫切需要全球努力应对气候变化和土地退化的挑战，同时保护作为自然资源的土壤。在本文中，我们确定了过去十年土壤科学在解决我们对主要环境挑战（气候变化、粮食安全、水安全、城市发展、生态系统功能和生物多样性）的知识空白方面的贡献。继续解决土壤科学方面的知识差距对于实现可持续发展目标至关重要。然而，由于时间和预算有限，确定有效的工作方法也很重要，以确保所进行的研究能够对现实世界产生影响。在这里，我们提出了未来十年土壤科学的三项战略，包括更多地实施政策研究、跨学科合作评估土壤与其他环境领域之间的功能权衡和协同作用，以及整合监测和建模方法以确保土壤-基于政策的政策可以承受未来的不确定性。