Climate change and agricultural soils: Impacts and adaptation

This article reviews the current state of knowledge on the response of soil s to climate change, and the implications such changes have for agriculture . The article is based on the material reported in the IPCC second assessme nt report (Watson et al., 1996) and updated with more recent information, w here appropriate. The review highlights the importance of understanding the dynamics of soil processes when addressing climate change impacts on agric ulture. Rapid soil responses to climate change (e.g. soil water, organic ca rbon and erodibility) have been widely investigated and reported in the lit erature. However, it is important that longer-term processes (e.g. pedogene sis) are not ignored by the research community because these have potential ly important implications for long-term agricultural land use and are often irreversible. The use of good land management practices, as currently unde rstood, provides the best strategy for adaptation to the impact of climate change on soils. However, it appears likely that farmers will need to caref ully reconsider their management options, and land use change is likely to result from different crop selections that are more appropriate to the chan ging conditions. Perhaps the greatest impact of climate change on soils wil l arise from climate-induced changes in land use and management.