Making soil biodiversity matter for agriculture - Microbial Ecology in Sustainable Agroecosystems - page 263

chapter 10
Making soil biodiversity
matter for agriculture
Ecosystem services and challenges
Diana H. Wall
Colorado State University
Contents
10.1 Introduction ........................................................................................................................ 267
10.2 Global challenges and international agreements.......................................................... 268
10.2.1 The Montreal Protocol........................................................................................... 269
10.2.2 The U.N. Convention to Combat Desertiication............................................... 270
10.2.3 The Convention on Biodiversity .......................................................................... 270
10.2.4 The Millennium Ecosystem Assessment ........................................................... 271
10.2.5 The U.N. Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity
and Ecosystem Services ........................................................................................ 271
10.2.6 The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change ........................................... 272
10.3 Incorporating soil biodiversity and ecosystem services .............................................. 272
10.4 Management of soil biodiversity for disease regulation and crop yield ................... 275
10.5 Concluding comments ...................................................................................................... 278
Acknowledgments ...................................................................................................................... 279
References..................................................................................................................................... 279
10.1 Introduction
Throughout the 1960s and 1970s, during modernization and implementation of the “green
revolution” in agriculture, soil and its biodiversity were largely invisible and considered
almost external to the system. The continued focus in agriculture worldwide on the use
of insecticides, nematicides, and herbicides for control of soil pathogens and pests rather
than on biocontrol of pathogens, herbivore-resistant crop varieties, or other management
strategies has furthered the impression that soil biodiversity is of little relevance to agri-
cultural production. However, a suite of sustainability issues over the past half century
combined with new scientific knowledge and economic factors has steadily altered this
perception. Soil biodiversity, here defined as the myriad soil invertebrates and microbes, is
increasingly known by ecologists as the basis for provision of ecosystem services such as
improving soil fertility, regulating disease, remediating pollution, storing carbon, improv-
ing water quality, and reducing erosion and nutrient leaching (Millennium Ecosystem
267