Spectroscopic solutions for generating new global soil information

Authors

Yi Peng, Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, ItalyFollow
Eyal Ben-Dor, Tel Aviv University, Israel
Asim Biswas, University of Guelph, Germany
Sabine Charbrillat, Helmholtz Centre for Geosciences Research and Leibniz University Hannover, Germany
José A.M. Demattê, University of São Paulo, Brazil
Yufeng Ge, University of Nebraska-Lincoln
Asa Gholizadeh, Czech University of Life Sciences, Prague
Cécile Gomez, University of Montpellier, France
Cesar Guerrero, University Miguel Hernandez of Elche, Spain
Jeffrey E. Herrick, USDA-ARS, Range Management Research Unit
Jonathan J. Maynard, USDA-NRCS, National Soil Survey Center
Abdul Mounem. Mouazen, Ghent University, Belgium
Yuxin Ma, New South Wales Department of Climate Change, Australia
Alex B. McBratney, University of Sydney, Australia
Budiman Minasny, University of Sydney, Australia
Leonardo Ramirez-Lopez, BUCHI Labortechnik, Switzerland and Imperial College, London
A.H. Jean. Robertson, The James Hutton Institute, Scotland
Raphael A. Viscarra Rossel, Curtin University, Australia
Zhou Shi, Zhejiang University, China
Bo Stenberg, Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences
Alexandre M.J.-C. Wadoux, University of Montpellier, France
Leigh Ann. Winowiecki, Institute of Soil Science Chinese Academy of Sciences, China
Ganlin Zhang, Institute of Soil Science Chinese Academy of Sciences and Nanjing Institute of Geography and Limnology and University of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, China

Document Type

Article

Date of this Version

2025

Citation

The Innovation (2025) 6(5): 100839

doi: 10.1016/j.xinn.2025.100839

Comments

Open access

License: CC BY-NC-ND 4.0

Abstract

While global efforts to operationalize soil spectroscopy are progressing, cooperation is needed to fully leverage its potential for generating digital soil information to support sustainable soil management worldwide. The Global Soil Laboratory Network’s soil spectroscopy initiative (GLOSOLAN-Spec), led by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) through its Global Soil Partnership (GSP), is dedicated to the further development and adoption of soil spectroscopy by fostering international collaboration via a scientific community of practice to produce accurate and reliable soil information for sustainable soil management and decision-making. To support this effort, we, a global consortium of soil scientists under the auspices of the International Union of Soil Sciences (IUSS) and GLOSOLAN-Spec, aim to address seven key challenges hindering the adoption of soil spectroscopy worldwide. Here, we offer perspectives on what is needed to advance soil spectroscopy as a routine soil analysis method, emphasizing its potential to generate new and reliable spatial and temporal soil data.