How to adequately represent biological processes in modeling multifunctionality of arable soils

Abstract

Essential soil functions such as plant productivity, C storage, nutrient cycling and the storage and purification of water all depend on soil biological processes. Given this insight, it is remarkable that in modeling of these soil functions, the various biological actors usually do not play an explicit role. In this review and perspective paper we analyze the state of the art in modeling these soil functions and how biological processes could more adequately be accounted for. We do this for six different biologically driven processes clusters that are key for understanding soil functions, namely i) turnover of soil organic matter, ii) N cycling, iii) P dynamics, iv) biodegradation of contaminants v) plant disease control and vi) soil structure formation. A major conclusion is that the development of models to predict changes in soil functions at the scale of soil profiles (i.e. pedons) should be better rooted in the underlying biological processes that are known to a large extent. This is prerequisite to arrive at the predictive models that we urgently need under current conditions of Global Change.