New approaches for evaluation of soil health, sensitivity and resistance to degradation

Abstract

Assessment of soil health requires complex evaluation of properties and functions responsible for a broad range of ecosystem services. Numerous soil quality indices (SQI) have been suggested for the evaluation of specific groups of soil functions, but comparison of various SQI is impossible because they are based on a combination of specific soil properties. To avoid this problem, we suggest an SQI-area approach based on the comparison of the areas on a radar diagram of a combination of chemical, biological and physical properties. The new approach is independent of the SQI principle and allows rapid and simple comparison of parameter groups and soils. Another approach analyzing the resistance and sensitivity of properties to degradation is suggested for a detailed evaluation of soil health. The resistance and sensitivity of soil properties are determined through comparison with the decrease of soil organic carbon (SOC) as a universal parameter responsible for many functions. The SQI-area and resistance/sensitivity approaches were tested based on the recovery of Phaeozems and Chernozems chronosequences after the abandonment of agricultural soils. Both the SQI-area and the resistance/sensitivity approaches are useful for basic and applied research, and for decision-makers to evaluate land-use practices and measure the degree of soil degradation.

Keywords

ecosystem stability / land quality / land degradation / soil health / soil management / soil organic matter

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Acknowledgements

We are most grateful for the state assignment АААА-А18-118013190177-9 and the Russian Foundation for Basic Research (18-04-00773 and 19-29-05260).Compliance with ethics guidelinesƒYakov Kuzyakov, Anna Gunina, Kazem Zamanian, Jing Tian, Yu Luo, Xingliang Xu, Anna Yudina, Humberto Aponte, Hattan Alharbi, Lilit Ovsepyan, Irina Kurganova, Tida Ge, and Thomas Guillaume declare that they have no conflicts of interest or financial conflicts to disclose.ƒThis article does not contain any studies with human or animal subjects performed by any of the authors.

RIGHTS & PERMISSIONS

The Author(s) 2020. Published by Higher Education Press. This is an open access article under the CC BY license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0)