What Term Is Used To Describe Soil Health?

Soil health refers to the continued capacity of soil to function as a vital living ecosystem that sustains plants, animals, and humans. It is a crucial aspect of agricultural and soil science, connecting crop and soil management systems to the overall health of the land. Healthy soil provides clean air and water, and it is essential for maintaining climate change, communities, water quality, wildlife, and pollinators.

Soil degradation, or the decline in soil quality, is the decline of the soil’s physical, biological, and chemical properties. Soil health is a state where a soil meets its range of ecosystem functions as appropriate to its environment. It is a condition or status of the soil at a certain place and in a specific environment compared to a certain reference or benchmark condition.

Soil health has gained popularity over the past several years, especially since the early 1990s. It involves balancing the soil’s minerals to provide microbes with a balanced diet, just as we feed ourselves a balanced diet. By understanding how soil processes support plant growth and regulate environmental quality, it is possible to design crop and soil management systems that promote soil health.

In summary, soil health is crucial for the continued functioning of soil as a vital ecosystem that supports plants, animals, and humans. Understanding and managing soil health can help producers work with the land to reduce erosion and maximize benefits.

How farmers assess soil health and quality?

Soil health can be assessed in both the field and lab. Qualitative assessments include assessing the color, smell, root length, nodulation of legumes, presence of earthworms, and visual examination of growing crops for disease and nutrient deficiencies. The most basic diagnostic is to poke the soil with your finger, as hard or crusty soil may indicate poor soil or poorly managed soil. The soil’s color can also indicate its condition, with poorly drained soil appearing grayish instead of brown, black, or red.

Common constraints of soil health include modern agricultural practices such as failure to return organic residues, intensive tillage, overgrazing, limited crop rotation, and excessive application of fertilizers and pesticides. These practices can deplete soil organic matter and cause the buildup of pests, pathogens, heavy metals, or salinity over time. Farmers should consider managing these practices for their effect on soil health.

Soil type also influences the ability of a soil to store organic matter. Sandy soils contain less organic matter than fine-textured silts and clays due to larger pore sizes that can store more oxygen, increasing the decomposition rate of organic matter. Strong chemical bonds between clay and silt particles and organic matter can slow down decomposition rates. Florida’s subtropical environment contributes to depleting organic matter, as soil organisms break down organic matter for longer periods of the year at faster rates than in more temperate regions.

Soil compaction and poor aggregation affect root growth, erosion, and water storage capacity. Applying organic amendments and limiting tillage can mitigate compaction and poor aggregation. Transitioning to limited or no till will help retain organic matter and alleviate compaction and poor aggregation in the long term, but it will not immediately solve compaction issues.

What is between soil quality and soil health?

In The Nature and Properties of Soils (Brady and Weil) Fourteenth Edition, soil health and soil quality are two distinct concepts. Soil health refers to self-regulation, stability, resilience, and lack of stress symptoms in a soil as an ecosystem, while soil quality refers to the physical attributes of soil, such as color, organic matter, nutrient amounts, and structure. These attributes can be influenced by management practices and can enhance or diminish soil health.

Soil quality is often more discussed than soil health because practitioners can visually observe and physically affect this soil property. Dr. Kurt Steinke, Michigan State University Extension soil scientist, describes soil quality as the physical and chemical properties of a soil as indicated by factors of soil formation that support plant growth. Soil health is a description of the condition or status of a soil and may comprise multiple factors, including soil quality characteristics that create a hospitable environment for soil life.

Both soil health and soil quality play an important role in agriculture, and MSU Extension educators will be working on projects and demonstrations to help farmers understand these concepts. The MSU Extension website will have meeting announcements and related articles about soil health.

What is it called when soil is good?

Soil health is crucial for productive farming practices, as it provides essential nutrients to plants and allows water and air to infiltrate. Soil quality refers to the capacity of a specific type of soil to function effectively, sustain plant and animal productivity, maintain or enhance water and air quality, and support human health and habitation. Soil fertility is the ability of a soil to provide the necessary nutrients for crop growth, including nitrogen, phosphorus, potassium, calcium, and magnesium.

Supplementing soil nutrients with fertilizer, manure, or compost is often necessary for good crop growth. Secondary nutrients are usually present in the soil, so there is no need to add more. Soil pH is another important aspect of soil fertility, measuring the acidity of the soil. Most crops grow best when the soil pH falls between 6. 2 and 6. 8, as this range allows plant roots to absorb most nutrients from the soil.

What is the health of the soil?

Soil health is the capacity of soil to function as a vital ecosystem, sustaining plants, animals, and humans. It goes beyond reducing erosion and offers benefits beyond crop production. The USDA Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS) has identified five principles for improving soil health and sustainability: using plant diversity, managing soils more by reducing disturbance, keeping plants growing throughout the year, keeping soil covered, and integrating livestock to recycle nutrients and increase plant diversity.

How to measure soil health?

Soil health indicators are often studied through the stability of soil aggregates, which are clusters of sand, silt, and clay particles bound by plant and microbial compounds. A healthier soil generally has good aggregate stability and a more active microbial community. A wet aggregate stability test is used to test the stability of these aggregates. The soil samples are placed in a handmade sieve with a mesh size of 0. 05 mm, and the dry soil is submerged in water for 10 minutes.

If the aggregates are stable, most of them are kept in the colander, allowing only particles smaller than the mesh to pass through. If a significant amount of soil is lost through the mesh, it indicates a higher risk of erosion. An example of soil aggregate stability test is shown in a video comparing bare soil and soil planted with Brachiaria humidicola.

What is called as soil management?

Soil management is a crucial aspect of land management, focusing on the availability of land for soil use and differences in soil types and characteristics. It involves specific interventions aimed at sustaining and enhancing soil quality. ScienceDirect uses cookies and cookies are used by the site, and all rights are reserved for text and data mining, AI training, and similar technologies. Open access content is licensed under Creative Commons terms.

What is the scientific name for soil?

The Earth’s pedosphere, or Earth’s soil, is a complex system that interacts with the lithosphere, hydrosphere, atmosphere, and biosphere. Soil plays a crucial role in plant growth, water storage, purification, atmosphere modification, and organism habitat. Its properties are influenced by these functions. Soil science has two main branches: edaphology, which studies the impact of soils on living things, and pedology, which focuses on the formation, description, and classification of soils in their natural environment. Soil is part of the broader concept of regolith, which includes loose material above the bedrock, found on celestial objects.

What are the 3 things to improve soil health?

To enhance soil health, it is recommended to restrict tillage, optimize chemical input, rotate livestock, minimize disturbance, maximize soil cover, and implement cover crops in both grazing and cropland operations. The reduction of disturbance events across operational areas is an effective method for promoting soil health. It is recommended that soil coverage be ensured whenever possible, and that cover crops be incorporated into both grazing and cropland operations.

What is soil improvement called?

Soil stabilisation is a method of improving soil properties through the use of chemical and biological additives. This process can be performed using biotechnology to stabilize weak soils. The use of cookies on this site is governed by copyright © 2024 Elsevier B. V., its licensors, and contributors. All rights are reserved, including those for text and data mining, AI training, and similar technologies.

What is the quality of soil called?

Soil quality refers to the physical, chemical, and biological properties of soil, which are essential for sustaining the productivity, diversity, and environmental services of terrestrial ecosystems. It is defined as the ability of the soil to sustain these services. This information is from Nano-Enabled Sustainable and Precision Agriculture, 2023, and is protected by copyright © 2024 Elsevier B. V., its licensors, and contributors.

What is a word for soil health?

The term “soil health” is used to describe the overall quality and productivity of soil. This encompasses a range of factors, including soil vitality, quality, and productivity.