Editorial Humusica 1

The final goal of the ambitious Humusica project was to set up well illustrated and easy to use soil classification keys, so as to provide helpful field-manual-guides to farmers, soil scientists, but also to not (yet) experts interested in soil, for basic soil knowledge and sustainable agriculture, aiming at producing healthy, tasteful food, and to support forestry and green spaces management for maintaining/improving our planet biotopes. This is the reason why the majority of the Humusica-articles resemble to field manuals, very rich in pictures, illustrating, explaining and critically discussing how soil develops thanks to its living components. Humusica is based on and aims at further deepening basic soil knowledge and to generally sensitize our perception towards soil conservation also within the context of future climate scenarios. Covering all related aspects, phi- losophic as well as not strictly scientific reflections cannot be ignored.