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Soil Science in the Next Twenty-Five Years: Does Biotechnology Play a Role?¹

ABSTRACT

There is ample opportunity for biotechnology applications in future soil science research. In principle, all organisms are amenable to genetic engineering, including soil organisms and plants. Obviously, the researcher needs to have molecular biology and genetics skills to tackle genetic improvement of organisms. But for the geneticist to succeed in this endeavor, the input by soil and plant scientists is crucial, because geneticists usually do not have the basic understanding of the issues in soil science that are involved, nor do they know how to assess the relative merits of the genetically engineered organism in its specific environment. Notwithstanding the complex legal aspects of releasing genetically engineered organisms, biotechnology opens exciting new possibilities in soil science. Close cooperation between geneticists on the one side and soil scientists and plant scientists on the other must be fostered if biotechnology is to be utilized for the benefit of maintaining the quality of our natural, agricultural, and urban environments.

¹ Contribution from the Dep. of Land, Air and Water Resources, Univ. of California, Davis. Presented at the SSSA Plenary Session no. 2, New Orleans, 4 Dec. 1986.

² Professor and Chair, Dep. of Land, Air and Water Resources, Univ. of California, Davis.

Received for publication June 5, 1987.