Soil health in China from an ecological civilization perspective: Value implications, current dilemmas, and implementation path

Promoting ecological civilization construction is an inevitable measure to achieve the modernization of harmonious coexistence between humans and nature and also serves as a value orientation and long-term guarantee of soil health. Soil, as a supporting element of the ecosystem, not only possesses multiple ecological functions, such as carrying biodiversity, sequestering carbon, and conserving water sources, but also serves as a foundational support for ensuring food security, guaranteeing the quality of living environments and building a solid ecological safety barrier. Soil health is related to the sustainability of agricultural production, stability of the ecological environment, and human health. From an ecological civilization perspective, soil health encompasses ecological production and living dimensions, with its core characteristics reflecting greenness, systemicity, holisticness, and practicality. It has contemporary value for implementing the Beautiful China strategy, promoting ecological civilization construction, building a solid ecological safety barrier, and maintaining the operation of ecosystems. Currently, soil governance faces a series of problems, such as outdated concepts compared with those of the requirements for green development, a lack of cyclical target planning in the cultivation process, regional shortcomings in restoration technologies, and the need for improved collaborative mechanisms in policy support. An urgent need exists to establish an ecological value-oriented soil development philosophy, construct a healthy nurturing system with cyclical planning for soil, strengthen technological support for regional adaptability in soil use, improve collaborative governance mechanisms to ensure soil health, and provide practical support to enhance soil health.