“Irrigation, Agriculture, Climate Change: How Are Our Soils Faring?”

Continue the 2025 edition of the Bar des Sciences with the event: “Irrigation, Agriculture, and Climate Change: How Are Our Soils Doing?”

A Science Bar Dedicated to Soil Health

Whether it is loose, dry, sloped, or paved, soil is most often perceived in our daily lives as a simple surface: the ground we walk on, and a valuable asset to own. Upon further reflection, we arrive at the concept of a substrate: it is in the soil that the plants we eat and use every day take root.

Yet soil is not merely a resource; it is an ecosystem, just like water, for example: it has a complex composition that is subject to chemical processes, and it is home to numerous living organisms, ranging from microscopic bacteria to mammals weighing several kilograms. There is a whole world living right beneath our feet. Soil health depends on multiple factors, both internal and external; some are internal, such as its composition, while others are external, such as climate or pressures from human activities.

Pedology, the study of soils, focuses on this environment and examines it as its subject of study. Scientists study the composition of soil layers, irrigation, agriculture, flora and fauna, fungi, and so on, and provide us with a better understanding of this environment, on which all life on our planet absolutely depends.

To discuss this topic, three multidisciplinary experts will answer questions from the audience:

• Alain BRAUMAN: soil ecologist, research director at IRD, and president of the French Association for Soil Studies (AFES). His research focuses on the impact of agricultural practices on soil biofunctioning (soil health) at the Eco&Sols laboratory (Eco&Sols – INRAE, IRD, Institut Agro Montpellier, and CIRAD).
• Mickael HEDDE: ecologist and research director at INRAE. His research focuses on the ecology of soil organisms at the Eco&Sols laboratory (Eco&Sols – INRAE, IRD, Institut Agro Montpellier, and CIRAD).
• Thierry RUF: Research Director Emeritus at the IRD. He is an agronomist and geographer in the “Environmental Knowledge and Societies” (SENS) laboratory (IRD, CIRAD, and Paul-Valéry-Montpellier University). He leads a professional group on the social management of water.