Managing Fragile Soils in Australia in a Changing World: Challenges and Perspectives

Australia’s soils are globally unique: ancient, highly weathered, and inherently low in fertility, with many landscapes characterized by fragile soil systems that are highly susceptible to degradation. Their sustainable management is central to national agricultural productivity, biodiversity conservation, and climate change mitigation. This review synthesizes current knowledge on Australian soil resources, key degradation processes, and management responses. Major soil constraints include erosion, salinity, acidification, sodicity, compaction, nutrient depletion, and the limited buffering capacity of fragile sandy and duplex soils. Management approaches have evolved from erosion control and conservation tillage to more integrated strategies encompassing soil fertility, structure, water-use efficiency, and carbon dynamics. For fragile soils, practices such as residue retention, controlled traffic farming, precision nutrient management, perennial and deep-rooted systems, and landscape-scale planning are critical to minimizing disturbance and nutrient losses. Policy frameworks, including the National Soil Strategy, alongside incentive-based mechanisms such as carbon farming initiatives, are shaping national priorities. However, widespread soil degradation persists, exacerbated by climate variability and barriers to the adoption of best management practices. This review highlights the growing role of emerging technologies (digital agriculture, soil microbiome research), ecosystem-service-based policy innovations, and Indigenous land management practices—such as low-disturbance land use, fire stewardship, and holistic landscape care—in enhancing soil resilience. Key research gaps remain in understanding subsoil constraints, long-term soil carbon permanence, socio-economic drivers of adoption, and effective integration of Indigenous knowledge systems. Addressing these gaps is crucial to ensuring the long-term productivity, resilience, and stewardship of Australia’s fragile soil landscapes.