Physical soil quality indicators for monitoring British soils

Abstract

Abstract. Soil condition or quality determines its ability to deliver a range of functions that support ecosystem services, human health and wellbeing. The increasing policy imperative to implement successful soil monitoring programmes has resulted in the demand for reliable soil quality indicators (SQIs) for physical, biological and chemical soil properties. The selection of these indicators needs to ensure that they are sensitive and responsive to pressure and change, e.g. they change across space and time in relation to natural perturbations and land management practices. Using a logical sieve approach based on key policy-related soil functions, this research assessed whether physical soil properties can be used to indicate the quality of British soils in terms of their capacity to deliver ecosystem goods and services. The resultant prioritised list of physical SQIs was tested for robustness, spatial and temporal variability, and expected rate of change using statistical analysis and modelling. Seven SQIs were prioritised: soil packing density, soil water retention characteristics, aggregate stability, rate of soil erosion, depth of soil, soil structure (assessed by visual soil evaluation) and soil sealing. These all have direct relevance to current and likely future soil and environmental policy and are appropriate for implementation in soil monitoring programmes.

Soil health cluster analysis based on national monitoring of soil indicators

“…Other indicators have been proposed, such as bulk density, soil carbon and C:N ratio, but often there is limited evidence and/or consistency across ecosystems in the impact of these (Bhogal et al, 2008). Bulk density, together with clay content, has been proposed as a soil quality indicator for British soils in relation to trends over time, rather than passing a pre-identified threshold (Corstanje et al, 2017). We have limited sites at the higher levels of bulk density, which makes it difficult to evaluate the threshold value, and overall there was little correlation between bulk density and soil biological indicators such as total mesofauna (George et al, 2017).…”

“…Soil carbon, pH, water content and bulk density are the most commonly proposed indicators for soil function due to their impacts on a wide range of soil functions (Bünemann et al, 2018). Bulk density, soil texture and associated water‐related properties have been considered to be key indicators for monitoring of physical soil health (Corstanje et al, 2017). Soil carbon and nitrogen are key determinants of various soil functions, including greenhouse gas emissions, biomass production and influencing biological communities, but their exact impacts are often hard to evaluate (Gärdenäs et al, 2011).…”

Assessment of Effects of Land Degradation on Productivity of Arable Crop Farmers in Selected Local Government Areas of Ogun State, Nigeria

“…To measure the effect of bush burning on land degradation, four indicators as used by different researchers (Schwaab et al 2017;Corstanje et al 2017) were used by constructing the following formula viz:…”

Exploring the case for a national‐scale soil conservation and soil condition framework for evaluating and reporting on environmental and land use policies

“…Others have considered the use of soil physical indicators such as bulk density with largely inconclusive results (e.g. Corstanje et al ., ) and even operational measures such as the trafficability (i.e. accessibility) of land for cultivation (Bouma & Wӧsten, ).…”