Soil Quality Indicators

Turbidity n/a Tt3 Turbidity, a measure of water cloudiness, is used to indicate water quality and filtration effectiveness (e.g., whether disease-causing organisms are present). Higher turbidity is associated with higher levels of microorganisms such as viruses, parasites and some bacteria. These organisms can cause symptoms such as nausea, cramps, diarrhea, and associated headaches. Soil runoff... 

Hot water-extractable C accounts for 1-5% of soil organic C (Leinweber et al. 1995 Sparling et al. 1998 Chan and Heenan 1999) and about 50% of this is thought to be present as carbohydrate (Haynes 2005). Because it is usually extracted from air-dried soils much of the pool originates from desiccated microbial cells but it also includes exocellular polysaccharides, root exudates, lysates and humic material (Redl et al. 1990 Leinweber et al. 1995 Sparling et al. 1998). Both hot water extractable C (Sparling et al. 1998 Chan and Heenan 1999) and hot water-extractable carbohydrate (Ball et al. 1996 Haynes and Beare 1997 Debrosz et al. 2002) have been used as indices of soil quality. 

As noted earlier, total soil organic matter content can be considered as a coarse indicator of soil quality. However, changes in the content of organic C and total N occur only slowly and do not provide an adequate indicator... 

Bolinder MA, Angers DA, Gregorich EG, Carter MR (1999) The response of soil quality indicators to conservation management. Can J Soil Sci 79 37-45... 

Haynes RJ, Tregurtha R (1999) Effects of increasing periods under intensive arable vegetable production on biological, chemical and physical indices of soil quality. Biol Fertil Soils 28 259-266... 

Blair JM, Bohlen PJ, Freckman DW (1996) Soil Invertebrates as Indicators of Soil Quality. SSSA Special Pub 49 273-292... 

Fliessbach A, Oberholzer H, Gunst L, Mader P (2007) Soil organic matter and biological soil quality indicators after 21 years of organic and conventional farming. Agric Ecosyst Environ 118 273-284... 

Miralles-Mellado I, Canton Y, Sole-Benet A. Two-dimensional porosity of crusted silty soils indicators of soil quality in semiarid rangelands Soil Sci. Soc. Am. J. 2011 75 1330-1342. 

In order to address agri-environmental issues, the OECD (1997) developed soil quality indicators within their framework of environmental indicators. These foeus on the following factors of soil damage ... 

The former process is reversible whereas the latter may lead to an irreversible deterioration of soil structure. Hence the determination of sodium in soil extracts is an important indicator of soil quality. A convenient method for the determination of sodium in soil extracts and other aqueous... 

Fig. 2.11. Comparison of PCDDs/DFs levels in Korean environments with environmental quality criteria proposed worldwide. Range indicates minimum (min), maximum (max), median (med), and arithmetic mean (avg). Dotted lines indicate environmental quality criteria 0.6pg TEQ m i for ambient air (EQC-a), 1 pg TEQ L-1 for ambient water (EQC-wl) and lOpg TEQ I. (EQC-w2) for wastewater, 5 (EQC-sl) and 40 (EQC-s2) pg TEQ g-1 dw for soil, and 0.85 (EQC-fs) and 21.5 (EQC-ss) pg TEQ g-1 dw for sediment. Japanese data is based on WHO-TEQs including PCDDs/DFs and coPCBs (JMOE, 2002).

Soil Quality Standards are developed for different purposes (e.g., different land uses and different protection goals) since soils are variable by nature and have various uses and functions that may influence the protection goals. Nevertheless, a minimum level of protection or a base level is needed to guarantee resilience of the soil ecosystem, and this should be incorporated into all approaches to soil standards. Standards can be derived that indicate the presence or absence of certain data. 

M.C. Lobo and J. J. Ibanez (Eds.), Preserving Soil Quality and Soil Biodiversity. The Role of Surrogate Indicators. IMIA/CCM—CSIC, Madrid, 2003. 

Knoepp, J. D., Coleman, D. C., Crossley, Jr., D. A., Clark, J. 2000. Biological indices of soil quality an ecosystem case study of their use. Forest Ecol. Managm. 138 357-368. 

A series of ecological field observations were carried out. Many different types of analyses were performed because the aim of this pilot study was to focus extra attention on this leg of the Triad. The selection of tests was based on the biological indicator for soil quality (BiSQ Schouten et al., 2000), comprising several microbial parameters (biomass, leucine and thymidine incorporation rate, potential carbon and nitrogen utilisation, microbial community structure), nematode community structure and species abundances, enchytraeid community structure... 

TABLE 1.9. Indices for Soil Quality and Their Relationship to Soil Functions ... 

Garten CT, Ash wood TL, and Dale VH, Effect of military training on indicators of soil quality at Fort Benning, GA, Ecol. Indicators, 3, 171, 2003. 

Wick, B., Kilhne, R.F., Vielhauer, K. and VIek, P.L.G. (2002) Temporal variability of selected soil microbiological and biochemical indicators under different soil quality conditions in southwestern Nigeria. Biology and Fertility of Soils35, 155-167. 

Potential Water and Soil Quality Indicators for Assessing Nutrient Impacts in Wetlands... 

Dick, R. R 1994. Soil enzyme activities as indicators of soil quality. In J. W. Doran, D. C. Coleman, D. F. Bezdick, and B. A. Stewart (eds.) Defining Soil Quality for a Sustainable Environment. SSSA Book Series No. 35. Soil Science Society of America, Madison, WI. pp. 107-124. 

The soil quality indicators refer mainly to risks of wind and water erosion. Both risks are not very relevant in the Netherlands. In general, soils on conventional farms may have a slightly lower organic matter content than those on organic farms, but there is no indication that this has an impact on either type of erosion. 

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