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Soil Quality Indicators: Measures of Soil Functional State

Scientists use soil quality indicatorsA soil quality indicator is a chemical, physical or biological property of soil that is sensitive to disturbance and represents performance of ecosystem function in the soil of interest. Indicators are dynamic soil properties. to evaluate how well soil functions since soil function often cannot be directly measured. Measuring soil quality is an exercise in identifying soil properties that are responsive to management, affect or correlate with environmental outcomes, and are capable of being precisely measured within certain technical and economic constraints. Soil quality indicators may be qualitative (e.g. drainage is fast) or quantitative (infiltration= 2.5 in/hr).

Ideal indicators should:

Doran and Parkin, 1996

There are three main categories of soil indicators: chemical, physical and biological. Typical soil tests only look at chemical indicators. Soil quality attempts to integrate all three types of indicators. The categories do not neatly align with the various soil functions, so integration is necessary. The table below shows the relationship between indicator type and soil function.

Indicator category Related soil function
Chemical Nutrient Cycling, Water Relations, Buffering
Physical Physical Stability and Support, Water Relations, Habitat
Biological Biodiversity, Nutrient Cycling, Filtering

Organic matter, or more specifically soil carbon, transcends all three indicator categories and has the most widely recognized influence on soil quality. Organic matter is tied to all soil functions. It affects other indicators, such as aggregate stability (physical), nutrient retention and availability (chemical), and nutrient cycling (biological); and is itself an indicator of soil quality.

Some indicators are descriptive and can be used in the field as part of a health card. Others must be measured using laboratory analyses. Some examples of indicators that fall into the three broad categories of chemical, physical and biological, are provided below.

Indicator Categories

Chemical indicators can give you information about the equilibrium between soil solution (soil water and nutrients) and exchange sites (clay particles, organic matter); plant health; the nutritional requirements of plant and soil animal communities; and levels of soil contaminants and their availability for uptake by animals and plants. Indicators include measures of:

Physical indicators provide information about soil hydrologic characteristics, such as water entry and retention, that influences availability to plants. Some indicators are related to nutrient availability by their influence on rooting volume and aeration status. Other measures tells us about erosional status. Indicators include measures of:

Biological indicators can tell us about the organisms that form the soil food web that are responsible for decomposition of organic matter and nutrient cycling. Information about the numbers of organisms, both individuals and species, that perform similar jobs or niches, can indicate a soil's ability to function or bounce back after disturbance (resistance and resilience). Indicators include measures of:

 

Doran, J.W. and T.B. Parkin. 1996. Quantitative indicators of soil quality: a minimum data set. In J.W. Doran and A.J. Jones, eds. Methods for Assessing Soil Quality. SSSA, Inc., Madison, Wisconsin, USA.