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Soil knowledge is essential to address modern global challenges. Soil science education began with soil survey and agricultural activities, with a focus on the traditional subdisciplines of soil chemistry, soil physics, pedology, soil mineralogy, and soil biology. Soil education has evolved to address the needs of an increasing variety of fields and increasingly complex issues, as seen through the move to teach soil content in programs such as biological and ecological sciences, environmental science, and geosciences. A wide range of approaches have been used to teach soil topics in the modern classroom, including not only traditional lecture and laboratory techniques but also soil judging, online tools, computer graphics, animations, and game-based learning, mobile apps, industry partners, open-access materials, and flipped classrooms. The modern soil curriculum needs to acknowledge the multifunctionality of soils and provide a suite of conduits that connect its traditional subdisciplines with other cognate areas. One way to accomplish this may be to shift from the traditional subdiscipline-based approach to soil science education to a soil functions approach. Strategies to engage the public include incorporating soil topics into primary and secondary school curricula, engaging the public through museums and citizen science projects, and explaining the significance of soil to humanity. Soil education has many challenges and opportunities in the years ahead.

On 12 Mar. 2020 Dickinson State University moved all classes to distance delivery (DD) in response to COVID-19. Faculty had only a brief opportunity to plan, as the turn-around to DD was very rapid. Meaningful laboratory exercises were needed for SOIL 210--Introduction to Soil Science. The senior author learned about the Science of Agriculture (SoA) website on a discussion board created by the Soil Science Society of America, which provided links to distance education resources. Most of the resources from SoA addressed topics still to be covered in SOIL 210, and four of the semester's final six labs were developed using SoA: Understanding Data and Chemistry, Soil Chemistry, Dryland Soils, and Microbiology and Nitrogen. Materials available on the SoA website include video clips, interactive exercises, and virtual labs. Although the virtual labs, with the exception of Sorption!, are not soil science focused, they cover basic skills that soil scientists use. Each of the four labs utilized four to eight of the activities (video clips, interactive activities, and/or virtual labs) available on SoA, depending on the length of time each activity was expected to take and the number of activities available for the given topic. Students were asked to answer specific questions related to their lab experience with the digital activities. The SoA website provided useful tools to develop meaningful experiences for the SOIL 210 students in lieu of their traditional laboratory exercises.

Climate change is a global problem facing all aspects of the agricultural sector. Heat stress due to increasing atmospheric temperature is one of the most common climate change impacts on agriculture. Heat stress has direct effects on crop production, along with indirect effects through associated problems such as drought, salinity, and pathogenic stresses. Approaches reported to be effective to mitigate heat stress include nano-management. Nano-agrochemicals such as nanofertilizers and nanopesticides are emerging approaches that have shown promise against heat stress, particularly biogenic nano-sources. Nanomaterials are favorable for crop production due to their low toxicity and eco-friendly action. This review focuses on the different stresses associated with heat stress and their impacts on crop production. Nano-management of crops under heat stress, including the application of biogenic nanofertilizers and nanopesticides, are discussed. The potential and limitations of these biogenic nano-agrochemicals are reviewed. Potential nanotoxicity problems need more investigation at the local, national, and global levels, as well as additional studies into biogenic nano-agrochemicals and their effects on soil, plant, and microbial properties and processes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the early 2000s some were concerned that few soil science graduate students were receiving their bachelor's degrees in soil science. However, no studies were conducted to investigate this or how it may have changed over time. Information available on university webpages for faculty in the United States was used to determine the faculty's bachelor's, master's, and doctoral degree disciplines. Faculty rank was used to determine if a change had occurred in the percentage of faculty who received their bachelor's degrees in soil science over time. Only 16% of faculty teaching in programs that prepare graduates to work as soil scientists received their bachelor's degrees in soil science. This percentage increased to 56 and 67% who received their master's and doctoral degrees, respectively, in soil science, but about 26% of faculty who teach in soil science preparatory programs did not have any degrees that could be identified as a "soil science" degree. The degrees that faculty received their training in also differed by their current soil science specialty area. About 13% of assistant professors and 20% of full professors received their bachelor's degrees in soil science, so the percentage of students entering soil science graduate programs with a bachelor's degree in soil science appears to have declined with time. However, a majority of soil science graduate students having bachelor's degrees from other fields also appears to have been common going back at least several decades.

Online homework (OLH) assignments were added to the Introduction to Physical Geology class at Dickinson State University in the fall semester of 2014. Anticipated advantages included timely feedback and opportunities for students to correct mistakes made during homework completion. The same instructor taught all lecture and laboratory sections over the course of the study, and student performance was compared for the 3 years prior to adopting the OLH and the 3 years after. Following adoption of the OLH, the average grade in the class increased by 7.5% and average test scores increased by 6.2%. The OLH did not significantly improve the performance of the top students (those who received an A), but it did improve the performance of the other students. Test grades showed a similar trend. The average test scores for those who received an A in the class were 88.0% before and 88.6% after adopting the OLH, whereas test averages for students who received less than an A were 63.9% before and 71.4% (7.5% improvement) after adopting the OLH. There was no statistical difference in scores in the Introduction to Physical Geology laboratory over the same period. Students are required to take the lecture and laboratory at the same time, so the student populations were virtually identical. The OLH applied to the lecture, where grades improved, but not to the laboratory, where grades remained consistent. Therefore, it was concluded that the OLH improved student performance.

Concern over the status of soil science education in the United States has led to a number of publications in recent years that track trends in student enrollment and offer suggestions for attracting more students to soil science. However, there is little information about changes in the number of degree programs that prepare students for careers as soil scientists, and such changes are obviously an important measure of the status of our field. This study established criteria to identify bachelor's degree programs that prepare students for soil science careers and used websites at land-grant colleges to review the degree offerings of these schools in the United States and its territories to determine if they met the established criteria. Fifty-nine land-grant colleges were identified that offer bachelor's degree programs that prepare students for soil science careers, with a total of 61 degree programs since two of the schools had two separate bachelor's degrees that met the established criteria. This study provides guidelines for conducting similar future studies and a baseline against which they can be compared to allow us to determine whether we are gaining or losing soil science programs at the land-grant colleges over time.

Soil salinity is a serious problem facing many countries globally, especially those with semi-arid and arid climates. Soil salinity can have negative influences on soil microbial activity as well as many chemical and physical soil processes, all of which are crucial for soil health, fertility, and productivity. Soil salinity can negatively affect physiological, biochemical, and genetic attributes of cultivated plants as well. Plants have a wide variety of responses to salinity stress and are classified as sensitive (e.g., carrot and strawberry), moderately sensitive (grapevine), moderately tolerant (wheat) and tolerant (barley and date palm) to soil salinity depending on the salt content required to cause crop production problems. Salinity mitigation represents a critical global agricultural issue. This review highlights the properties and classification of salt-affected soils, plant damage from osmotic stress due to soil salinity, possible approaches for soil salinity mitigation (i.e., applied nutrients, microbial inoculations, organic amendments, physio-chemical approaches, biological approaches, and nano-management), and research gaps that are important for the future of food security. The strong relationship between soil salinity and different soil subdisciplines (mainly, soil biogeochemistry, soil microbiology, soil fertility and plant nutrition) are also discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

IN THE ERA of anthropogenic climate change, soil and other compartments of the agroecosystem suffer from various forms of degradation, meaning there is an urgent need for appropriate soil management. Under arid and semi-arid conditions, the degradation of soil and water are particularly severe globally, causing a decline in agricultural productivity. Soil degradation has led to decreased soil quality, global food insecurity, ecosystem health problems, and non-sustainable development issues. Several human activities have worsened soil degradation, especially under global climate change. With growing interest in nanotechnology, can this science offer solutions/approaches to engineer soil and water amendments to overcome soil degradation and water scarcity? What are the possible nanomaterials and their mechanisms that might be used to protect the environment. This study focuses on soil degradation causes and consequences, as well as different management approaches including traditional, geographic information systems and remote sensing, and nano approaches for the management of soil degradation. Soil degradation that may be experienced after the intensive application of nanomaterials is a major concern that urgently needs to be researched. There is also a need to assess the long-term environmental impacts of nanoparticles, which may have potential for leaching and accumulation in soil from which they enter the food chain, causing many problems for human health. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

ONGOING climate change is leading to more extreme weather, which affects agriculture in various ways. In semi-arid regions of the world, and even some humid areas, drought stress is becoming more frequent. Prolonged drought periods lead to severe damages to cultivated plants, which impacts water and food resources. This review investigates how drought stress impacts plants and how management practices can be utilized to reduce the negative effects. Special attention is given to nano-farming where application of nanomaterials may ameliorate drought stress by increasing enzymatic antioxidants and decreasing generation of reactive oxygen species (ROS). Despite the promising results of nano-farming we conclude that further research is required, particularly to investigate potential negative effects, for example on nano-toxicity where particles can enter groundwater or into the food chain. Finally, drought stress is a complexed problem that affects all living organisms. A quick fix is not possible, but humankind needs to collaborate and work for a better future for all. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

It is well known that rainfall causes soil erosion in sloping German vineyards, but little is known about the effect of age of plantation on soil erosion, which is relevant to understand and design sustainable management systems. In the Ruwer-Mosel valley, young (1- to 4-years) and old (35- to 38-years after the plantation) vineyards were selected to assess soil and water losses by using two-paired Gerlach troughs over three years (2013-2015). In the young vineyard, the overland flow was 107 L m-1 and soil loss 1000 g m-1 in the year of the plantation, and decreased drastically over the two subsequent years (19 L m-1; 428 g m-1). In the old vineyard, soil (from 1081 g m-1 to 1308 g m-1) and water (from 67 L m-1 to 102 L m-1) losses were 1.2 and 1.63 times higher, respectively, than in the young vineyard.

POLLUTION creates world-wide environmental and human health concerns. Biochar (BC) and nanobiochar (NBC) may be used in the production of smart materials that may revolutionize remediation research. BC’s ability to adsorb pollutants makes it an attractive cost-effective soil treatment option. To improve BC properties and composition, it is activated and modified by regulating pyrolysis or with the addition of various compounds such as metal nanoparticles (NPs), magnetite, and nano zero-valent iron. In comparison to BC, NBC has a superior capacity to adsorb contaminants and nutrients, making it a suitable waste management option. Food waste represents one-third of the food produced globally and is a promising potential source of BC. In this review, some trends are identified and assessed, such as production of BC by biomass pyrolysis. Applications in soil and water remediation and their mechanisms are also discussed. The production of BC and NBC from low-cost materials, compared to expensive traditional remediation, provides inexpensive, meaningful treatment options for a range of contaminants in soil and water. We concluded that BC and NBC have high potential to remove contaminants in soil and water due to their distinctive characteristics. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]