Contributing pedological expertise towards achieving the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals

The seventeen United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) present a major challenge to soil scientists that have, so far, not been involved with defining SDG targets and indicators. Soil functioning contributes to ecosystem services (ES) that, in turn, are important to achieve land-related SDGs, including: (1) biomass production (SDG2); (2) improving ground- and surface water quality (SDG6):(3) carbon capture for climate mitigation (SDG13); (4) limiting greenhouse gas emissions (SDG13) and (5) biodiversity protection and enhancement (SDG15). Pedological expertise, based on the study of soils in their natural environment, is valuable when defining the role of soils in inter- and transdisciplinary programs aimed at assessing ESs that, in turn, define SDGs by providing: (i) data from soil types, considering soil profile characteristics, such as occurrence of macropores and particular soil horizons, as no soil is homogeneous nor isotropic. This should include effects of management as expressed by phenoforms, and (ii) a developing storyline for a particular soil type based on successive determinations of ESs, obtained at different locations. Storylines are important for communication purposes addressing stakeholders, the public at large and the policy arena. Current empirical soil survey interpretations are inadequate to assess ES but modeling of the soil-water-atmosphere-plant system can provide relevant ES data, also by exploring future effects of climate change as is illustrated in three case studies.