Increasing Soil Fertility to Reduce Climate Change Impacts on Global Crop Yields

Climate warming has been shown to cause global crop yield loss. Soil fertility contributes to crop yields via nutrients supply and water holding capacity. It is unclear whether the performance of soil fertility status can mitigate the negative influence of climate change on crop yields. Quantifying the capacity of different soil fertility components for buffering climate change impacts is critical for understanding the food-soil-climate nexus. We evaluated the climate sensitivity of global maize, wheat, rice and soybean yield, and analyzed the relationship between the climate sensitivity of crop yields and soil fertility components. Yield loss was detected at global scale. The climate sensitivity of yields showed spatial heterogeneity, which was highly correlated with uneven soil fertility. Soils with better fertility status is likely to lessen the negative impacts of climate change on global crop yields and reduces the dependence of the yield on artificial fertilizers. In the vulnerable regions, the crop resilience to climate change and soil organic carbon content can increase via soil fertility management. Our study implies that improving soil fertility can be a win-win strategy for both food security and environment under climate change.