Impact of climate change on soil health: A review

Abstract

Soil health has been described as integral to the concept of sustainable agriculture. Climate change has a potential impact on the soil health through physical, chemical and biological properties of soil. The change in the statistical properties of the climate system when considered over long periods of time, regardless of the cause is called as climate change. It is attributed directly or indirectly to human activity that alters the composition of the global atmosphere and which is in addition to natural climatic variability observed over comparable time periods. Soil health is a composite set of measurable physical, chemical and biological attributes related to functional soil processes, which can be used to evaluate soil health status as affected by management practices and climate change. Defining soil health in relation to climate change should consider the impact of range of predicted global change drives such as rising atmospheric carbon dioxide levels, elevated temperature, altered precipitation and atmospheric nitrogen deposition on physical, chemical and biological functions of soil.