S13 - Session O1 - Keynote: Moving towards sustainable horticulture by nurturing soil ecosystem services

Authors: Kate Congreves

Multiple crises are converging—climate change, food insecurity, health inequities, and covid—creating unprecedented urgency for sustainable, healthy, and accessible food. Addressing these challenges is complex because the solutions must simultaneously support several aspects: human health, food security, and environmental sustainability. Interestingly, the functioning of soil ecosystem services in horticultural systems is a common thread that connects these disparate factors. Ecosystem services provided by healthy soils support the very survival and quality of all life, for example: by provisioning food, by regulating the climate, by supporting primary production and nutrient cycling, and by imparting cultural importance. Better understanding how horticultural practices influence the functioning of soil ecosystem services is therefore necessary. In this keynote talk, I will present several lines of research where the functioning of soil ecosystem services can be harnessed to i) improve nutrient use efficiency of crops, ii) aid in soil health testing, and iii) mitigate greenhouse gas emissions. This body of research (together with others) demonstrates how the functioning of soil ecosystem services can be applied to the development of sustainable agroecosystems.