The sand land soil system placement (taxonomy) and society

Abstract

Arid soils of the world require different strategies for optimum land utilization due to the delicate balance between annual climatic cycles and general trends toward desertification. Arid lands are an irreplaceable natural resource covering one-third of the global land surface and harbor within them the potential to elevate the standards of living of more than two billion people. The soils of the arid areas are underutilized due to inadequate public knowledge of the soil system. In a modern age of precise measurements and categorization, it is time to use the available tools to greatly enhance the productivity and use of the soil system in general and arid soils in particular. Quantification of multifunctional and dynamic ecosystems within arid regions can provide opportunities for land users to diversify agroecological systems and for food security based upon well-defined representative soil units in each region. Thus, the soil scientists by considering soil as a system and correlating its taxonomic units would have the ability to extrapolate results of studies and by keeping “balance” between “inputs” and “outputs” in “soil system” would promote national productivity and regional economy. In this study, selected soils in various arid environmental and ecological regions of countries such as Ghana, Jordan, and Iran that have already been investigated (USDA soil taxonomy) to the level of soil series/farmland units on applicable scales will be compared to the soils of the Abu Dhabi Emirate.