Chemistry Reference
In-Depth Information
capital of soils as texture, mineralogy and soil organic matter.
20
A more
comprehensive assessment of soil natural capital defined it as ''the stocks of
matter, energy and organisation within soils''.
21
This classification breaks
down soils into their fundamental components and considers the quality and
quantity of each component where applicable (Table 2). The assessment of
stocks in the natural capital approach is important for soils because flows can
be determined from a change in stock, but stocks must be assessed at least once
to determine how they will change from flows, and sometimes we need to know
stock to determine sustainability. Secondly, soil science has a vast collection of
soil resource data, but most of this is in the form of stock assessment, so in
order
d
n
1
r
2
n
g
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1
to
utilise
this
information
in
ecosystem
service
mapping
it
is
advantageous to consider stock and change.
Dominati et al.
22
were the first to attempt to unify the concepts of ecosystem
services and natural capital for soils. They recognised the importance of
combining both frameworks, and seeing them as mutually compatible in
expressing an ecosystem approach for soils. They provide a comprehensive
overview of progress in both natural capital and ecosystem services for soils.
What the work
22
recognised above all was this need for a unified approach to
develop an operational framework for soils.
In parallel, but not unconnected work, the issue of investing in our
'ecological infrastructure' was raised;
23
it was argued that ''there is also an
ecological infrastructure that maintains the provision of the ecosystem services
that support a wide range of ecological as well as socio-economic benefits.''
This concept is an emerging one, but particularly suited to soils, which do
provide many support roles and intermediate services within ecosystems and
often require investment in the natural capital soil stocks in order to maintain
their full range of function.
Soil natural capital in the matter, energy, organisation classification.
21
Table 2
MEASURABLE OR QUANTIFIABLE SOIL STOCK
1) MATTER
Solid
Inorganic material (I) Mineral stock & (II) Nutrient stock
Organic material (I) OM/Carbon stock & (II) Organisms
Liquid
Soil water content
Gas
Soil air
2) ENERGY
Thermal Energy
Soil temperature
Biomass Energy
Soil biomass
3) ORGANISATION (ENTROPY & INFORMATION)
Physico-chemical
Structure
Soil physico-chemical organisation, soil structure
Biotic Structure
Biological population organisation, food webs and biodiversity
Spatio-temporal
Structure
Connectivity, patches and gradients
