Ask not what the Soil can do for you...

Soil is a biophysical substance, the management of which is highly complex in the Anthropocene. ‘Soil Security’, a global frame created to encourage systematic and interdisciplinary approaches to soil research, is a suggested approach for addressing such complex needs. ‘Soil stewardship’, that is looking after something to hand it on, is a related, though broader, framing that can also address complexity. While both frames are valuable for highlighting the benefits and responsibilities of soil-human relationships, I suggest that stewardship-based approaches are more likely to encourage inter, and even transdisciplinary soil research and management. Soil Security focuses on what soils can do and who can protect them, while stewardship looks to the future of the soil/ human interface. And while Soil Security requires articulation of the actions to be undertaken to ‘secure’ soil, a stewardship frame enables emergence of new ways for humans to interact with each other for multiple benefits, including those for the soil itself. These slightly varying emphases highlight some differences between securing and nurturing, and foreground discussions about who has permission to ask questions about, and speak for, soil. In this presentation three examples from Australia’s Soil CRC will be discussed in detail to illustrate how undertaking research through the frame of soil stewardship encourages integrating. The first closely aligns with Soil Security, as it is about exploring how human societies value soils with the aim to inform practice and policy. The second demonstrates how we are seeking to understand soil stewards, including managers and their advisers, in all their complexity. The third example highlights emergent ways to ask questions about soil and its management, including via farmer group-led research. Together these exemplify how a goal of stewardship can bring people and soils together for the ultimate good of both.