Chapter 9. Actions and Feedback: Consequences for Soil Management

Abstract : This chapter discusses emergence of an eco‐evolutionary understanding of the functioning of soils. Soil organisms have been shaped by eco‐evolutionary dynamics, which are at the origin of the ecological interactions that determine the current functioning of the soil. On the one hand, understanding evolutionary dynamics can give very strong arguments for using ecological interactions. On the other hand, the rapidity of evolutionary dynamics increases the impact of the evolutionary consequences of soil management so that these consequences must be taken into account to develop a fully integrative ecological soil engineering. Soil management involves a regular reassessment of the state of the ecological system being managed, to estimate the consequences of management activities and to adapt the operational objectives to the ecological trajectory taken by the system and according to the evolutionary trajectory taken by the involved organisms. This adaptive management must also integrate the dynamics of the social issues to which the manager must respond.