Common soil health tests (Table 3.3) include in‐field assessments with scorecards or portable soil test kits that can be used to evaluate soils visually and interactively. A more involved type of in‐field assessment can be achieved through the installation of various analytical instruments including edge‐of‐field or end‐of‐drainage‐tile samplers for quantifying soil health impacts on water quality. Assessments can also be made by sending soil samples to a commercial testing laboratory, or by participating in research projects such as the National Corn Grower sponsored Soil Health Partnership, the Soil Health Institute’s national soil health evaluation, or one of many state or national NRCS soil health programs. A third category of soil health tests emerging through technological advances is the use of remote sensing which has the benefit of enabling more frequent assessments of several soil functions, but the challenge of amassing high volumes of data which require more sophisticated storage and interpretation algorithms (Mulder et al., 2011; Shoshany et al., 2013).
Table 3.3 Categories of soil health tests, each with unique characteristics but a common goal.
| Type of test | Characteristics | Common Goal |
|---|---|---|
| On‐farm or in‐field | Portable, generally quite simple, qualitative, interactive, provide general contrasts | Successfully identify if soil properties change |
| Commercial laboratory | Rapid and high throughput, primarily focused on chemical indicators, with a few physical and biological measurements, generally group responses in categories | |
| Research projects | More precise but often very slow turn‐around, capable of identifying fine‐scale differences, difficult to generalize, specific methods may vary |
The three categories of soil health tests listed in Table 3.3 thus serve different purposes. On‐farm or in‐field qualitative tests are generally used to build an awareness of what soil is, how it forms, and the types of functions (sustaining productivity, filtering and buffering, controlling water entry, retention and release). Commercial or research‐based laboratory tests generally require collection of numerous samples and sending them to a separate location for analysis. Also, since the farmer/landowner/interested individual is often not the one collecting or analyzing the samples, there can be disconnects or even lack of communication between the person providing analytical data and the one who will ultimately use the information to modify decisions and/or change soil and crop management practices. Regardless of the specific type of test, a very important cultural change associated with development of soil health concepts has been the act of bringing people together, often in the field, to evaluate the soil and thus better understand benefits that often cannot be easily seen through printouts of laboratory data. For example, an area prone to erosion can often be documented more easily by evaluating the slope, amount of groundcover, and presence of ephemeral or permanent gullies than looking at data showing soil texture, SOM, or fertility changes.
Another difference among the three categories of soil health tests (Table 3.3) is that they are generally applied at different scales. For laboratory tests extensive pre‐processing, such as sieving, grinding or sub‐sampling, will often be required as samples are prepared for analysis using various analytical instruments. In contrast, on‐farm or in‐field tests can often help producers recognize impacts of past and current soil management decisions within a field or landscape more easily than viewing multiple pages of laboratory data. Furthermore, if the small amount of soil submitted for laboratory analysis is not accompanied by an appropriate amount of metadata (i.e., data about the samples, site, and analytical methods) it may be impossible to fully capture what can be seen within‐field by the naked eye. Another visual assessment technique that has become more common since the emergence of soil health conferences and field days is the increased use and familiarity of soil pits to show producers how their crop production practices are influencing plant root systems and soil structure. Rainfall simulators are also used in soil health field days to demonstrate the benefits of keeping soil covered and slake tests are used to show the importance of stable soil aggregates and SOM as compared to cloddy, compacted soils.
Figure 3.4 Potential scales at which soil health indicators can be assessed.
(Photo credit: Gary Radke, USDA ARS).
Two important realities of soil health assessment, regardless of the specific test being used, are the recognition and improved understanding of soil function. Having that knowledge enables NRCS and other consultants to help producers evaluate several soil‐related natural resource concerns (Table 3.4) and to recognize that although any of the three types of soil health tests could be used, some may be more useful for determining if a specific concern is present and subsequently how to address it. Therefore, it is important to recognize that the assignments we list in Table 3.4 simply represent common measurements and that other tests could easily be used.
Table 3.4 Potential soil health tests for evaluating various natural resource concerns.
| Natural resource concern | Most common type of soil health assessment | ||
|---|---|---|---|
| In‐field | Commercial lab | Research lab | |
| Erosion | ✓ | ||
| SOM depletion | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
| Elevated salts | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
| Excess water | ✓ | ||
| Insufficient water | ✓ | ||
| Pesticide transport | ✓ | ✓ | |
| Excess pathogens | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
| Heavy metals | ✓ | ✓ | |
| Sediment in surface waters | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |