Black soils feed the world yet remain undervalued in food and climate governance frameworks. A policy package, including global monitoring as public infrastructure, co-designed and place-based solutions based on tailored tools, planning that fits land and people, mobilizing alliance with finance and force, and mainstreaming black soils in global pacts, can contribute to improving land quality and stabilize yields where it matters most.
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Acknowledgements
The study was financially supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (42225707) and the Strategic Priority Research Program of the Chinese Academy of Sciences (No. XDA28130000). We also thank Dr. Yifeng Cui for his contributions to part of the data collection.
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Conceptualization: X.L.; Writing—original draft: X.L., Y. L., J. D. Q. Y.; Writing—review & editing: X.L., Y. L., J. W., J. D., Q. Y., J. L., R. H., Z. L., Y. Z., X. J., G. L.; Funding acquisition: X.L.
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Liao, X., Li, Y., Wang, J. et al. Governing black soils for food and climate security. Nat Commun (2026). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-026-69018-7
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-026-69018-7
