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L.2 - Soil - ecological capacity for development

Kibblewhite Mark (4)*

(4) National Soil Resources Institute, Cranfield University, Silsoe, Bedfordshire MK45 4DT, United Kingdom

* m.kibblewhite@cranfield.ac.uk

Soil is essential to quality of life (social and economic) and for biodiversity conservation. It provides services to meet human needs (metaphysical as well as physical) and it sustains natural systems. These regulation, production, habitat, cognitive and platform ecosystem services (De Groot et al 2002) deliver environmental regulation and environmental maintenance (e.g. waste management), food and fibre production, above and below ground habitat maintenance as support for biodiversity, protection of cultural services and provide a platform for the built environment. Each service soil is represented by a suite of component services that reflect intrinsic soil characteristics and past and current soil management. For example, environmental regulation components control the movement of water, air and materials to and from the atmosphere and surface and ground waters. Human modification of soil changes its functional capacity and so its ability to deliver different services. This, together with changed demand arising from land use, alters the mix and levels of services that can be and are being delivered. In this lecture, I will present new ideas about assessing, valuing and managing soil-based ecological capacity and explain how soil is an under-valued living resource which is critical to social and economic development in both rural and urban environments.

Short CV: Professor Mark Kibblewhite is Director of the National Soil Resources Institute (NSRI) at Cranfield University. NSRI is a leading European soil institute with some 60 post-doctoral scientists and engineers and 50 research students working in soil research. Mark graduated in chemistry from the University of York and studied soil science at Aberdeen University where he obtained his PhD. In addition, he has an MBA from the Cranfield School of Management. Mark is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Chemistry and of the Institution of Agricultural Engineers. He has worked as an environmental scientist for government, private firms and in universities - on air and water as well as land quality. Since 1998, he has focused on sustainable land and soil management. His current research interests are: soil-based ecosystem services; management and the assessment of soil quality; soil carbon dynamics; urban soils; and soil policy. He is the current chairman of the European Soil Bureau Network of the European Commission's Joint Research Centre.

The following is the established format for referencing this article: Kibblewhite (2006). Soil - ecological capacity for development. In Ecologia. Atti del XV Congresso Nazionale della Società Italiana di Ecologia (Torino, 12-14 settembre 2005) a cura di Claudio Comoglio, Elena Comino, e Francesca Bona [online] URL: http://www.xvcongresso.societaitalianaecologia.org/articles/Kibblewhite.pdf

consulta l' Indice analitico (alfabetico per autore) sfoglia l' Indice delle sessioni del Congresso a cura di Comoglio, Comino, e Bona