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Dr Sarah Buckingham is a Senior Consultant with SAC Consulting, part of Scotland’s Rural College (SRUC). She recently started working on a ClimateXChange research project in collaboration with the James Hutton Institute, which aims to develop a route map for soil health in Scotland, working directly with Scottish Government policy teams.

In a recent podcast interview, we chatted about her new role and how soils are relevant to climate change. This blog post presents a summary of some of that discussion.

What does soil health mean in relation to climate change?

People might have heard of the carbon cycle. In simple terms, carbon enters the soil system through photosynthesis, when the vegetation takes carbon dioxide from the atmosphere and uses it to make glucose and food for growth.

Then, when the vegetation dies, the vegetation and the root material start to decompose within the soil. Some of that carbon is lost back to the atmosphere as respired carbon dioxide. Some of the carbon will be lost from the soil via leeching, when the carbon is moved out of the soil by water.

The amount of carbon that is retained in the soil at a given point in time will depend on a range of factors like the soil characteristics, for example the soil type, its texture and how well it retains water.

There are also climatic conditions to consider: how wet or dry it is, and the type of vegetation material. For example, more leafy material decomposes more readily than woody material.

When the amount of carbon entering the system exceeds the carbon that’s lost, you end up with a net gain or net retention, which is called carbon sequestration. However, soils can also be a net source of carbon dioxide if the quantity of carbon lost from soils outweighs the amount coming in.

It’s important to remember that the carbon cycle is a natural process. Soils are in constant exchange with the atmosphere and we need to consider the net balance of carbon within the soil systems.

In terms of climate change, soil health is really important, particularly for how resilient our landscapes may be to buffer the effects of climate change and also for how well we may be able to adapt. Soil health is important for its ability to hold water in times of flooding or droughts, as well as being resilient to weather effects, to maintain fertility and productivity.

You recently started working on a 6-month ClimateXChange post-doctoral research project called ‘Securing Scotland’s soils in a changing climate’. What attracted you to this role?

I think what initially attracted me was the holistic nature of the project. Most research projects I’ve worked on previously have been a lot more narrowly focused, where you’re investigating a specific hypothesis or one particular area of soil systems.

This project looks at the wide pressures and threats to all soils across Scotland, and the varied land uses that we have. It looks at soils within agriculture, forestry and the built environment. It takes a step back to look at soils at the landscape scale, where we have many integrated systems.

We are looking at the current portfolio of policies that are in place and how these can support the protection of soils in the future, directly or indirectly. We’ll be trying to identify opportunities to both strengthen those approaches to soil management and explore potential new strategies or pathways for protecting Scottish soils going forward.

Has anything surprised you about the policy context for soils health since you started?

Before I started this project, I was aware that we have the 2009 Scottish Soil Framework, which is a really great document. But there isn’t a specific policy relating directly to soils, despite soils being so important for agricultural productivity, biodiversity, forestry and wider environmental services like flood resilience.

I probably underestimated just how complex the policy platform is and how difficult policymaking can be. Particularly for a subject like soils, which is so diverse and crosses over so many land use types and policy working groups.

In theory, it’s quite straightforward to lay out a research plan for the project with clear phases we’re working through to identify risks to soils and future opportunities, highlighting links between different policies and suggesting plans for the future to protect soils in Scotland.

But I think the most challenging aspect will be how these plans and strategies can actually be implemented to lead to change.

What’s it like as a researcher moving from an academic institution to working directly within the Scottish Government?

I have to say that the climate adaptation team that I’m working with have been really welcoming, and those involved in the Soil Policy Working Group have been really supportive of the project, which is great.

Being integrated within a Scottish Government team has offered me valuable insight into understanding the operational differences between research and policy, and some of the challenges of translating research into policy. Working within government is an opportunity to see up close how to navigate a variety of factors, from budgets and internal capacity to stakeholder buy-in, all of which play a role in shaping policy development.

As a researcher, dissemination through journals is not always conducive to policymaking, and how those key messages are being translated. I’m quite keen within this project to try and understand more about the types of information that people need and what the policy levers are to get plans and strategies into action.

And I think I’ve still got a lot to learn.

ClimateXChange podcast

This is an amended extract from episode 3 of our podcast: Evidence for climate policy in Scotland

Update

The final report from this project was published on 15 May 2025: A soil route map for Scotland