40@40: Soil Use & Management, A Fortieth Anniversary Retrospective

Soil management represents the practical roots of soil science, aiming to optimise soil use amid a changing land-use environment and society's need for increased food production. Its progression as a scientific discipline stems from the accumulation of knowledge in the natural sciences—chemistry, physics and biology—during the late 19th century. This laid the foundations for a rapid expansion in soil science across specialised branches and arguably led soil science to diverge along two related, but parallel tracks: theoretical and applied. For many years thereafter, soil science journals largely catered to the former, neglecting the latter. In the early 1980's, the British Society of Soil Science recognised the need to reconnect these strands within published research, leading to the creation of Soil Use and Management (SUM). In the inaugural issue (March 1985), the first Editor, Prof. Alan Wild of Reading University, described the Editorial Policy of the journal as ‘a challenge to soil scientists, and others working with soils, to show that their research can be useful’. Today, SUM continues to publish innovative research that provides new insights into the influence of natural and anthropogenic processes, now emphasising not only agricultural productivity but also soil functions, soil health, and the long-term sustainability of managed soil systems.