This paper reviews the literature on soil and nature's contributions to people (NCP) around learning and inspiration, physical and psychological experiences, and supporting identities, revealing a range of relationships to imagining, understanding and experiencing soil. Often labelled elsewhere as ‘cultural ecosystem services’, these NCP provide a range of benefits that are mostly non-material, non-consumptive and intangible. The review finds that NCP framings help to highlight how soils have contributed to inspiring learning and creative works, like art; to mental and physical health benefits, such as through recreation and gardening; and to cultural identities and practices, including religious practices and efforts for social justice. Overall, soils have played a large role in human creative endeavours, are the root of significant relationships to the environment and can be conceptualized through key metaphors, ideas and theory as a bridge linking culture and nature together. Yet despite the wide-ranging contributions of soils to these NCP, the literature remains uneven and much more remains to be understood, including how relational values of care and stewardship with soils can be fostered and how attention to the co-produced ‘biosocial’ nature of soil can help improve practices for soil health.

This article is part of the theme issue ‘The role of soils in delivering Nature's Contributions to People’.

本文回顾了关于土壤和自然对人类 (NCP) 贡献的文献，围绕学习和灵感、身体和心理体验以及支持身份，揭示了想象、理解和体验土壤的一系列关系。这些 NCP 通常在其他地方被称为“文化生态系统服务”，它们提供了一系列大部分非物质、非消耗性和无形的好处。审查发现，NCP 框架有助于突出土壤如何促进激发学习和创造性作品，如艺术；对身心健康有益，例如通过娱乐和园艺；以及文化认同和习俗，包括宗教习俗和社会正义的努力。总的来说，土壤在人类的创造性努力中发挥了重要作用，是与环境的重要关系的根源，可以通过关键的隐喻、思想和理论将其概念化为将文化与自然联系在一起的桥梁。然而，尽管土壤对这些 NCP 做出了广泛的贡献，但文献仍然参差不齐，还有更多需要了解，包括如何培养与土壤有关的关爱和管理价值，以及如何关注共同产生的“生物社会”性质土壤可以帮助改善土壤健康的做法。

这篇文章是主题“土壤在自然对人类的贡献中的作用”的一部分。