Agricultural Practices Can Harm Soil Resilience Through Changing Feedback Loops

NewsArticle: "The World’s Food Supply Is at Risk: Modern Agriculture Is Destroying the Soil Beneath Our Feet" (2025) https://www.nature.com/articles/s44264-025-00098-6 :

> According to the study, published in NPJ Sustainable Agriculture, the most severe danger to soil resilience is erosion driven by over-plowing, overgrazing, and deforestation. This process can strip away fertile layers that take centuries to develop. Other significant threats include the build-up of salts in irrigated soils (salinization), pollution from pesticides and plastic residues, and soil compaction caused by intensive livestock operations.

ScholarlyArticle: "Agricultural practices can threaten soil resilience through changing feedback loops" (2025) https://www.nature.com/articles/s44264-025-00098-6 :

> Abstract: Soil has supported terrestrial food production for millennia; however, agricultural intensification may affect its resilience. Using a systems-thinking approach, we reviewed the impacts of conventional-agriculture practices on soil resilience and identified alternative practices that could mitigate these effects. We found that many practices only affect soil resilience with their long-term repeated use. Lastly, we ranked the impacts that pose the greatest threats to soil resilience and, consequently, food and feed security.

> [...] Resilience theory describes a spectrum of system responses to drivers or perturbations from gradual, near-linear and reversible, to abrupt, non-linear and strongly hysteretic