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SYMPOSIUM PAPERS

Introduction

USDA-ARS, Natl. Soil Tilth Lab., 2150 Pammel Dr., Ames, IA 50011

* Corresponding author (andrews{at}nstl.gov)

Received for publication September 4, 2001.

	INTRODUCTION

TOP INTRODUCTION REFERENCES

 
THE CONCEPT OF soil quality is intended as a tool for land managers to adaptively manage the soil resource. Many different avenues for applying this concept are currently being explored. At the 1999 ASA-CSSA-SSSA annual meetings in Salt Lake City, UT, the SSSA Division S-3 working group on soil quality sponsored a symposium entitled, "Soil Quality as an Indicator of Sustainable Land Management: Demonstrated Successes and Continued Needs." The goals of the symposium were to highlight results from research and extension projects where successful applications of soil quality concepts have been made and to elicit suggestions for further work to expand the role of soil quality in increasing the sustainability of agriculture.

The five papers published in this special section of Agronomy Journal represent a broad range of soil quality applications and geographic regions. The works encompass literature review, theory, applied research results, and a report of U.S. government agency efforts. Canadian regions are represented along with the U.S. Midwest, New Mexico, and the Central Valley of California. Agroecosystems studied are temperate row crop agriculture, mediterranean climate vegetable production, and semiarid rangeland. We believe the broad scope of systems and applications presented here demonstrates the versatility and functionality of the soil quality concept.

Wander et al. (p. 23–32) look at the needs of farmers and other agricultural professionals for soil quality information. This paper combines a review of soil quality literature with a report of new results from the Illinois Soil Quality Initiative. This initiative was a interdisciplinary, participatory project to identify important soil quality indicators and information valuable to the end-user. Importantly, the authors suggest that showing the relationships between soil quality and outcomes such as yield and net revenue will make the concept more useful for farmers. They specifically call for a dialog with managers in participatory research frameworks to develop tools that are both used and useful for soil resource management.

Martin Carter's review (p. 38–47) primarily covers soil quality research efforts in Canada. The paper discusses the application of basic organic matter research towards interpretation for management applications. Particular emphasis on the role of soil organic matter and its various fractions is important because soil organic matter has frequently been identified as a key soil quality indicator. Carter outlines steps to apply the soil quality concept for assessing sustainable land management. His discussion of critical levels for indicators outlines what is probably the greatest challenge for the concept: finding ways to interpret the indicators that are meaningful in a variety of contexts.

Herrick et al. (p. 3–11) outline steps for assessing soil quality with respect to the entire ecosystem. This paper discusses the need for assessment within the context of the important ecological functions of ecosystem resistance (the ability of a system to withstand change in the face of disturbance) and resilience (the ability to bounce back or recover function after a disturbance). A conceptual framework for selecting and interpreting soil quality indicators is suggested. While the system discussed in this paper is rangeland, the framework is applicable to production agroecosystems as well.

Andrews et al. (p. 12–23) report the results of on-farm research directed by farmers, extension, and university researchers. They then use these results to tailor a soil quality index to assess the performance of farmer test plots. The index combines many of the concepts discussed in the other symposium papers and, like the Illinois Soil Quality Initiative project, uses multivariate statistics to identify important indicators. Indicators are scored similarly to the discussion of critical levels by Carter and threshold values by Herrick et al. Finally, the results are compared with management goals or outcomes as suggested by Wander et al.

There were many parallels in the assessment approaches described in three of the papers. Carter, Herrick et al., and Andrews et al. address the need for site specificity. Herrick et al. also explicitly address the complex issue of spatial variation, which is not specifically addressed by the other papers. All three describe the use of indicators to assess soil function. They further describe the interpretation of indicators based on soil or ecosystem function (using different terminologies). Whether you call it a threshold, critical level, or scoring function, the concept is the same. Indicator performance should be interpreted contextually according to its ability to indicate ecosystem performance for a particular use.

Ditzler and Tugel (p. 33–38) describe the final step in soil quality tool development: dissemination. They report on the Natural Resource Conservation Service (NRCS) Soil Quality Institute's efforts to create accessible tools for farmers as well as NRCS field personnel. They summarize the development, implementation, and possible outcomes of two products:

These efforts go a long way toward bringing the soil quality concept into general use by outlining methods for using and designing site- and user-specific assessment tools thorough participatory methods, team building, and in-field assessment.

The two papers from the symposium that are not published here can be found elsewhere in the literature. Veldkamp et al. (2001) presented a European perspective at the symposium. Their work focused on using soil quality classification to direct land-use planning based on inherent properties. This perspective differed from the five papers here in its use of inherent soil characteristics to classify the soil. In the North American contributions to the symposium, inherent properties were used to suggest potential ranges for the more dynamic soil properties. Sojka and Upchurch (1999) offered a critique of soil quality efforts, including the thought that soil quality efforts attempt to compare all soils to a single (often midwestern) standard. Their views were substantially challenged by the rest of the papers presented at the meeting.

The symposium papers that follow are examples of successful uses of the soil quality concept. The two dominant themes from the symposium were (i) the need for participatory research that includes both scientists and land managers and (ii) site- and user-specific interpretation of soil quality indicators. These papers embody our shared vision for sustainable resource management where a farmer or advisor can evaluate the consequences of management decisions over time to help couple environmental concerns with economic ones for sustainable decision making.

	REFERENCES

TOP INTRODUCTION REFERENCES

 

• Sojka, R.E., and D.R. Upchurch. 1999. Reservations regarding the soil quality concept. Soil Sci. Soc. Am. J. 63:1039–1054.[Free Full Text]
• Veldkamp, A., K. Kok, G.H.J. de Koning, J.M. Schoorl, M.P.W. Sonneveld, P.H. Verburg. 2001. Multi-scale system approaches in agronomic research at the landscape level. Soil Tillage Res. 58:129–140.

This Article Full Text (PDF) Free Alert me when this article is cited Alert me if a correction is posted Services Similar articles in this journal Similar articles in Web of Science Alert me to new issues of the journal Download to citation manager Citing Articles Citing Articles via Web of Science (5) Citing Articles via Google Scholar Google Scholar Articles by Andrews, S. S. Articles by Moorman, T. B. Search for Related Content PubMed Articles by Andrews, S. S. Articles by Moorman, T. B. Agricola Articles by Andrews, S. S. Articles by Moorman, T. B.