Desertification has been described as "the greatest environmental challenge of our time" and climate change is making it worse. While the term may bring to mind the windswept sand dunes of the Sahara or the vast salt pans of the Kalahari, it's an issue that reaches far beyond those living in and around the world's deserts, threatening the food security and livelihoods of more than two billion people. The combined impact of climate change, land mismanagement and unsustainable freshwater use has seen the world's water-scarce regions increasingly degraded. This leaves their soils less able to...

Our soil is often overlooked-it's teeming with billions of microscopic organisms that comprise the most biodiverse environment on Earth. Like all living things, they're affected by climate change, too. There's a fact that frequently gets mentioned when people talk about soil: There are more microorganisms in a teaspoon of healthy soil than there are people on Earth. The matrix of living creatures that recycle plant and animal life is incredibly complex, with bacteria, protozoa, fungi, actinomycetes, nematodes and others interacting in countless, largely-unmapped ways. And so, how might...