Earth Rover Program Seeks to Revolutionize Soil Health Monitoring through Seismology
The Earth Rover Program, conceived by Monbiot and Iain Tolhurst, aims to revolutionize soil health monitoring by applying seismology to achieve high agricultural yields with reduced environmental harm. Tolhurst, who practices farming without fertiliser, animal manure, or pesticides, argues that soil microbes can be managed to mineralise nutrients when crops need them and immobilise nutrients when they do not.
Soil, described as a complex and poorly understood ecosystem, is traditionally studied by digging and extrapolating key properties, a method that introduces uncertainty and results in wasted inputs such as fertiliser and water. The Earth Rover Program addresses this challenge by mapping global agricultural soils at high resolution and developing a new field called 'soilsmology'. They are building open-source hardware and software and aspire to create a self-improving global soil database, likened to a Human Genome Project for soil.
Oxford geophysicist Tarje Nissen-Meyer leads the adaptation of seismology techniques to soil. The collaboration with Simon Jeffery and Katie Bradford began after meetings in 2022 at Wolfson College. Initial funding of $4 million was provided by the Bezos Earth Fund, with pro bono support from Hogan Lovells and subsequent funding from the UBS Optimus Foundation. Costs for sensors have been dramatically reduced from about $10,000 to approximately $100, with plans for even cheaper sensors and the potential use of smartphone accelerometers.
An early field test on a peat bog resulted in a roughly 20% revision in depth estimates within 45 minutes, demonstrating potential improvements in carbon-stock estimation and soil profiling. The project has established hubs on three continents with a large international team. Its goal is to provide farmers with near-instant soil readouts to inform management decisions and support European Union soil-monitoring efforts while complementing traditional soil science methods.
