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Globally increased cropland soil exposure to climate extremes in recent decades

Feng, Luwei ; Wang, Yumiao ; Fensholt, Rasmus ; Tong, Xiaoye ; Tagesson, Torbern LU ; Zhang, Xiaoxin LU ; Ardö, Jonas LU orcid ; Zhou, Jie ; Shao, Wenxuan and Dou, Yujie , et al. (2025) In Nature Communications 16(1).
Abstract

Soil quality is fundamental to nutrient-rich food production and the sustainability of terrestrial ecosystems. However, inappropriate agricultural practices often lead to persistent soil exposure to air and sunlight, which increases soil organic matter losses and erosion risks, particularly under climate extremes. Here, we provide a satellite-based mapping of daily soil exposure occurrence across global croplands from 2001 to 2022 and evaluate the associated degradation risks caused by extreme climate events. We find that while 57% of global croplands experienced a reduction in soil exposure duration in the past two decades, 86% are increasingly subjected to climate extremes. The areas exposed to increasing climate extremes tend to have... (More)

Soil quality is fundamental to nutrient-rich food production and the sustainability of terrestrial ecosystems. However, inappropriate agricultural practices often lead to persistent soil exposure to air and sunlight, which increases soil organic matter losses and erosion risks, particularly under climate extremes. Here, we provide a satellite-based mapping of daily soil exposure occurrence across global croplands from 2001 to 2022 and evaluate the associated degradation risks caused by extreme climate events. We find that while 57% of global croplands experienced a reduction in soil exposure duration in the past two decades, 86% are increasingly subjected to climate extremes. The areas exposed to increasing climate extremes tend to have higher soil organic carbon levels, indicating an intensified degradation risk of global nutrient-rich cropland soils. Our study offers spatio-temporally explicit insights into global cropland soil exposure and its vulnerability to climate extremes, providing evidence to support improvements in sustainable agriculture practices.

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organization
publishing date
type
Contribution to journal
publication status
published
subject
in
Nature Communications
volume
16
issue
1
article number
4354
publisher
Nature Publishing Group
external identifiers
  • scopus:105004682623
  • pmid:40348795
ISSN
2041-1723
DOI
10.1038/s41467-025-59544-1
language
English
LU publication?
yes
id
58409c96-0160-42c2-8496-1a62aa198517
date added to LUP
2025-07-14 10:06:21
date last changed
2025-07-15 03:00:02
@article{58409c96-0160-42c2-8496-1a62aa198517,
  abstract     = {{<p>Soil quality is fundamental to nutrient-rich food production and the sustainability of terrestrial ecosystems. However, inappropriate agricultural practices often lead to persistent soil exposure to air and sunlight, which increases soil organic matter losses and erosion risks, particularly under climate extremes. Here, we provide a satellite-based mapping of daily soil exposure occurrence across global croplands from 2001 to 2022 and evaluate the associated degradation risks caused by extreme climate events. We find that while 57% of global croplands experienced a reduction in soil exposure duration in the past two decades, 86% are increasingly subjected to climate extremes. The areas exposed to increasing climate extremes tend to have higher soil organic carbon levels, indicating an intensified degradation risk of global nutrient-rich cropland soils. Our study offers spatio-temporally explicit insights into global cropland soil exposure and its vulnerability to climate extremes, providing evidence to support improvements in sustainable agriculture practices.</p>}},
  author       = {{Feng, Luwei and Wang, Yumiao and Fensholt, Rasmus and Tong, Xiaoye and Tagesson, Torbern and Zhang, Xiaoxin and Ardö, Jonas and Zhou, Jie and Shao, Wenxuan and Dou, Yujie and Sang, Yirong and Tian, Feng}},
  issn         = {{2041-1723}},
  language     = {{eng}},
  number       = {{1}},
  publisher    = {{Nature Publishing Group}},
  series       = {{Nature Communications}},
  title        = {{Globally increased cropland soil exposure to climate extremes in recent decades}},
  url          = {{http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/s41467-025-59544-1}},
  doi          = {{10.1038/s41467-025-59544-1}},
  volume       = {{16}},
  year         = {{2025}},
}