Bypass and hyperbole in soil science: A perspective from the next generation of soil scientists

Xavier Portell (1) , Ophélie Sauzet (2) , María Balseiro‐romero (3) , Pascal Benard (4) , Rémi Cardinael (5, 6) , Estelle Couradeau (7) , Dieudonné D. Danra (8) , Daniel L. Evans (9) , Ellen Fry (10) , Edith C. Hammer (11) , Danielle Mamba (12) , Luis Merino‐martín (13, 14) , Carsten W. Mueller (15) , Marcos Paradelo , Frédéric Rees (16) , Lorenzo Matteo Walter Rossi (13, 17) , Hannes Schmidt (18) , Laura S. Schnee (19) , Charlotte Védère (16) , Alix Vidal (20)

1 CranfieldUniversity
2 HES-SO - University of Applied Sciences and Arts Northwestern Switzerland
3 USC - Universidade de Santiago de Compostela [Spain]
4 University of Bayreuth
5 UPR AIDA - Agroécologie et Intensification Durables des cultures annuelles
6 Cirad-PERSYST - Département Performances des systèmes de production et de transformation tropicaux
7 Penn State - Pennsylvania State University
8 UN - Université de Ngaoundéré/University of Ngaoundéré [Cameroun]
9 Lancaster University
10 University of Manchester [Manchester]
11 Skane University Hospital [Lund]
12 University of Dschang
13 UMR AMAP - Botanique et Modélisation de l'Architecture des Plantes et des Végétations
14 CEFE - Centre d’Ecologie Fonctionnelle et Evolutive
15 UCPH - University of Copenhagen = Københavns Universitet
16 ECOSYS - Ecologie fonctionnelle et écotoxicologie des agroécosystèmes
17 UNIMI - Università degli Studi di Milano = University of Milan
18 University of Vienna [Vienna]
19 University of Bremen
20 TUM - Technische Universität Munchen - Technical University Munich - Université Technique de Munich

We, the co‐authors of this letter, are an international group of soil scientists at early career stages, from PhD students to postdoctoral researchers, lecturers, and research fellows with permanent positions. Here, we present our collective musings on soil research challenges and opportunities and, in particular, the points raised by Philippe Baveye (Baveye, 2020a, 2020b) and Johan Bouma (Bouma, 2020) on bypass and hyperbole in soil science. Raising awareness about these issues is a first and necessary step. To this end, we would like to thank Philippe Baveye and Johan Bouma for initiating this debate........

Domaines: Science des sols; Systématique, phylogénie et taxonomie; Ecosystèmes; Botanique; Biodiversité et Ecologie

Xavier Portell, Ophélie Sauzet, María Balseiro‐romero, Pascal Benard, Rémi Cardinael, et al.. Bypass and hyperbole in soil science: A perspective from the next generation of soil scientists. European Journal of Soil Science, 2021, 72 (1), pp.31-34. ⟨10.1111/ejss.13064⟩. ⟨hal-03106863⟩