Soils are the basis of life and while humanity is building extensive genomic libraries there is no comprehensive library of the soils upon which much of life on Earth relies.

That gap in human knowledge is being filled this week with the launch of a global system of universal standards to measure and classify soils across the planet.

The University of Sydney is one of just two universities worldwide that are founding members of the initiative, which is led by the UN’s Food and Agriculture Organization. The initiative will develop global capacity to use world-best spectroscopy to analyse and classify soils, which will provide an invaluable resource for agricultural and environmental scientists everywhere.

“This soil library will provide enormous benefit for the future of human societies as we develop capability to feed the 10 billion people we expect by 2050.” The Soil Spectral Calibration Library and Estimation Service will provide a freely available and easy-to-use soil estimation service. The initiative will support countries and laboratories to harmonise and build capacity in soil spectroscopy methods (including soil sample selection, soil preparation, spectral measurement and quality assurance of data analysis), including through developing standards and protocols.

The library and service are under the Global Soil Partnership and implemented by the Global Soil Laboratory Network.

The foundation members of the global alliance are the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations; World Agroforestry (ICRAF); ; Woods Hole Research Centre; the United States Department of Agriculture Natural Resources Conservation Service; Innovative Solutions for Decision Agriculture; International Soil Reference and Information Centre; University of Nebraska, Lincoln; and the University of Sydney Institute of Agriculture.