University of California San Diego Launches Soil Health Center

The University of California San Diego established a new Soil Health Center at Scripps Institution of Oceanography. The cross-disciplinary center for soil health research aims to mitigate climate change, strengthen food security, and improve societal resilience to a warming planet. “The Soil Health Center is a new initiative at UC San Diego where we’re bringing together microbiologists, chemists, physicists, people with expertise in hydrology, public health, economics, and public policy, who are working on soil health across disciplines,” said Sarah Allard, executive director of the Soil Health Center. One of the team’s major projects is developing a natural soil probiotic designed to improve plant growth while increasing the amount of carbon stored in the soil. Researchers are working with local farms to test and refine soil health innovations in the field.