Developmental history of soil concepts from a scientific perspective

Various soil concepts have emerged since the beginning of the twentieth century, with some shared similarities. These concepts have contributed to a rise in the awareness of protecting limited soil resources, but not every idea has equally gained widespread attention from scientists. The purpose of this study was to document the developmental history of 10 soil concepts from 1900 to 2018 and investigate their growth/decline. Articles containing words related to the selected soil concepts in titles, abstracts, or publication contents available in the Web of Science were examined. “Soil production” was the oldest concept, found in a paper published in 1910, followed chronologically in the literature by soil care, fertility, conservation, quality, health, protection, security, sustainability, and resilience. Most of the concepts were initially found in non-soil-science journals that predated publications in soil science journals, which implies slowness of the soil science community’s adoption. The statistical publication trend for each concept over time was analyzed and interpreted based on diffusion of innovation theory. The results suggest that all of the soil concepts experienced a statistically positive/upward shift (p < 0.01) over time. In particular, soil concepts cited in soil science journals tended to maintain their momentum and communal value over time in soil science research, except the soil care concept. Applications of soil concept research based on collaboration between scientists of different nationalities, affiliations, and research expertise would further increase the possibility of citation frequency and foster interdisciplinary and transdisciplinary collaboration.