Soils underpin the functioning of terrestrial ecosystems, and both directly and indirectly contribute to the provision of multiple ecosystem services, including the production of food and fibre, water quality, carbon capture, and biodiversity (Smith et al., 2021). For decades, the value of soils for humanity has been known and has led to well-known popularist works and statements, including the famous phrase by Franklin D. Roosevelt in 1937 that ‘a nation that destroys its soil destroys itself’. Yet, many ecosystems and the soils on which they depend are still being degraded at an alarming rate, which threatens the ability to feed growing populations and mitigate the effects of global climate and environmental change. With this degradation comes the opportunity to restore land back either to productive, sustainable agriculture or to provide other valuable ecosystem services.