By RICK A. RICHARDS
Indiana Correspondent

WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. — When the International Union of Soil Scientists (IUSS) met in Hungary in 2009, it decided it was time its members began communicating their research in a common language.

At the conclusion of that meeting, the scientists issued a statement: “Currently when we look at soil classification around the world, we have what might be called an ‘adobe tower of Babel.’ The international politics that hampered global collaboration in soil science in the last century has slowly mellowed towards a movement for more harmony and to develop an internationally acceptable nomenclature and methodology.”

That conclusion was music to Phillip Owens’ ears. The Purdue University agronomist has been involved with the IUSS in trying to achieve that goal for years. What made it extra special is that the first IUSS meeting since that declaration in Hungary was hosted by Purdue at its West Lafayette campus. Eighteen scientists from around the world took part in the meeting, May 6-10.
Owens – along with the IUSS, the USDA, the Gates Foundation, Goldbal SoilMap.net and other organizations – think it’s vital to create a unified soil classification system that can be understood by agronomists around the world.
Joining Owens in signing that 2009 statement were IUSS members Erika Micheli of the Szent Istvan Egyetem University in Hungary; Alex McBratney of the University of Sydney in Australia; Luca Montanarella of Italy, with the Institute for Environment & Sustainability of the European Commission; Peter Shad of Technische Universitaet Meuchen in Freising, Germany; and Ganlin Zhang of the Chinese Academy of Science in Nanjing, China.

Their statement from Hungary also said: “Soil science, unlike many other scientific disciplines, does not have a universally accepted classification system. Many countries have developed systems to classify their soils, but the results often do not translate well between taxonomic systems …
“We believe the time is right to form a working group under the auspices of the International Union of Soil Sciences to explore the development of a Universal Soil Classification system. Consideration for this new system should be to adopt the most modern systems that have been inherited, with a conceptual diagnostic approach, established terminology and existing structural elements.”
The basic problem was summed up by Owens: “Each nation has its own system. We can’t communicate with each other.”

In other words, he said, research in the United States isn’t easily applicable in countries in Europe or South America or Asia, because the description of a fertile loam soil here would be classified and described as something else there.
At Purdue, the scientists had a chance to discuss soil classification issues. That included a road trip from Purdue up through northwestern Indiana, with stops in LaPorte, Porter and other counties.

“The group discussed developing a Universal Soil Classification System,” said Owns. “The goal is to develop global soil maps with great detail about soil properties, that will allow the exchange of research and future planning for agriculture and other resource development.

“The global population continues to grow in the contest of an uncertain climate. Water resources and energy are reaching critical thresholds. All of these issues can be linked to soils and how soils are used.”

Owens said there are three major soil classification methods in use, although many countries use derivatives of those systems. They are the U.S. Soil Taxonomy, used primarily in North America; the World Soil Reference Base, used primarily in Europe; and the Food and Agricultural Organization’s system set up via the United Nations, which is used in other parts of the world.
He explained the target is to create a universal soil classification system in four years, with an absolute goal of 2018. He said the fact that representatives from around the world met to discuss the issue was a huge accomplishment.
“No one wants to change the way they operate, but once we started explaining why we wanted to standardize terminology, laboratory methods and soil classifications, everyone started to understand,” said Owens.
Since he first dug into the earth as a member of his high school FFA soil judging team back in Havana, Ark., he’s been enamored by the study of soil.
“I was able to translate what I was looking at. I was good at it. It was the easiest thing I’d ever done.”

Owens joined the faculty at Purdue six years ago, after spending two years at Mississippi State University, and has been focused on this project.
“It’s been discussed for decades. I want it to happen,” he said. “By bringing everyone to Purdue, it was an opportunity to build relationships.
“That effort was a success. On our trip around the state, they were incredibly impressed with Indiana’s soil resources and the efficiency of our farms and the diversity of our soils.”

As the agronomists made stops in Tippecanoe County and elsewhere, they were able to examine no-till, prairie, sand dunes and other soil types. And as they did, Owens said each described what they were seeing in their own classification language.

It was a really eye-opening experience. “We were all describing the same thing, but we wouldn’t be able to tell it from what we wrote down,” he said.
That experience helped drive home the need for a universal soil classification language, he said. “We use more descriptive terms here in the U.S. We like to translate our data, but we’ve got to know what we’re dealing with,” said Owens.

In other countries, soil classification is more clinical.
“We weren’t describing it the same. We weren’t communicating the same thing,” said Owens. “I’d be a fool to think this is going to be easy, but when we broke up, we all agreed this is needed and that it’s doable.”