| Explanation. Soil health is defined as the capacity of the soil to function as a vital living ecosystem to sustain plants, animals, and humans. Six key soil physical and biological processes were identified that must function well in a healthy soil, and therefore would especially benefit from measurement methods standardization: 1) organic matter dynamics and carbon sequestration, 2) soil structural stability, 3) general microbial activity, 4) C food source, 5) bioavailable N, and 6) microbial community diversity. The chosen methods largely met key important criteria including indicator effectiveness with respect to management sensitivity and process interpretability, ease of use, cost effectiveness, measurement repeatability, and ability to be used for agricultural management decisions.
The use of these methods and development of a national dataset that allows for their soil- and climate-based interpretation can provide a standard starting point against which other or new methods can be compared. The technical note outlines the methods used to monitor the Soil Health Demonstration Trials as part of the new On-Farm Conservation Innovation Trials and will provide the foundation for the use of standardized soil health assessments for use in conservation planning and monitoring.
Distribution. This directive is available on the NRCS Electronic Directives System Web site at https://directives.sc.egov.usda.gov/.
Filing Instructions. The availability of this information is limited to electronic format. If a paper copy is retained, file it sequentially within Title 450, Technology, of the Technical Note binder.
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