This book provides an overview about the essence and exploration of soils and their role for nature and humanity. We explain the tasks and challenges of the global international community of soil scientists in order to maintain and further develop soil science as a scientific discipline. We inform about recent work about most challenging topics as interactions of soils with the landscape and the climate system. Key questions and methods of soil field diagnostic, classification and mapping are identified. We inform about emerging topics of exploring soil biodiversity and the soil´s  microbiome. We provide a critical review about greenhouse gas emissions from soils and soil carbon sequestration potentials in different biomes and landscapes. Novel measurement technologies and technical options to manage soil health and soil carbon are shown. The importance  of soil functioning in peatlands and  wetlands for understanding and managing landscape and global processes is demonstrated. Case studies about measurement and forecasting soil functional performance in different landscape of Northern Eurasia complete the picture.