Securing UK Soil Health

Key points in this POSTnote include:

• Soils filter and store water, support agriculture and other plant and animal communities, and harbour a quarter of the world’s biodiversity.
• Soil is a renewable resource but can be permanently degraded by pressures such as urbanisation or erosion. Degradation of peat soils releases CO2 to the atmosphere.
• Arable soil health can be improved by appropriate cropping and organic matter inputs, but poor management can lead to erosion, degradation of soil fertility and reductions in water-holding capacity.
• The evidence base for soil management has been challenging to develop because soils improve slowly. There is no UK-wide scheme for monitoring soil health.