Soil degradation is a huge challenge for farmers around the world. But new research is showing how farmers can balance crop yields with protecting the environment.

There are more microorganisms in a teaspoon of soil than there are humans on Earth – but what are they all up to?

Policymakers want to pay farmers for storing carbon in soil, but there are no uniform rules yet for measuring, reporting or verifying the results. Four scholars offer some ground rules.

Carrion beetles help stabilise the biology of the soil they live in.

Invisible to the eye, the microbial life in the air around us can vary depending on our environment.

Drilling instead of tilling the soil to plant seeds could help the ground store more carbon.

Scientists need to know how much we can rely on the land to offset our emissions.

We may think of plants as passive life forms, but they can cooperate, share resources, send one another warnings, and distance themselves from their communities when survival depends on it.

Using tiny 'soil chips', researchers have observed the forgaging strategies of fungi for the first time.

To avoid global warming on a catastrophic scale, nations need to reduce emissions and find ways to pull carbon from the air. One promising solution: spreading rock dust on farm fields.