Soil Health

Soil health

In order to convey the life in soil a new term ‘soil health’ has been developed In the last 25 years a new term ‘soil health’ has emerged as a way of considering the soil. Soil ‘health’ tries to remind us that because soil is a living entity it will be the same as the rest of life and thus prone to illness, death and also well being and health. .

According to George Eustice, when Secretary for the Environment and trying to implement new environment farm practices, which we’ll find out about later, he said that the only thing both the farmers and NGOs agreed upon was ‘soil health’ (8.9 podcast)

A small proportion of these new subsidies were earmarked for Sustainable Farming Initiative (SFI), and improving soil health as part of that; but this has proved very difficult to measure in order to reward. Every square metre of land is different, and those who had already improved their soil could not be rewarded again. Farmers will be paid for taking certain actions, expected to benefit soil

How do we measure ‘soil health’ There are many ways…some however are old measures of physical and chemical nature. The main soil qualities that are considered as Soil health indicators are nutrient availability, workability, oxygen availability to roots, nutrient retention capacity, toxicity, salinity and rooting conditions. They are inventoried and mapped at global scale in the Harmonized World Soil Database v1.2.[13]

However, I believe that any soil health measure must indicate how much ‘life’ is in the soil’. My favourite and explained on BBC Gardeners World is to catch ground beetles. Although relatively recent soil arrivals -  a mere 66mya - they signals like any predator that there is more life about. They feed on springtails, so a good indicator of the amount of fungi, which we know helps plant roots.

As  explained on the TV programme BBC Gardeners World I showed  the way  is to catch ground beetles by putting jam jars in ground and overnight seeing how many beetles you catch. We saw that they evolved only ‘recently’ - about 50mya and we saw then that they are generalist feeders living off earthworms, slugs, butterfly and moth larvae, woodlice and springtails. They spit on the latter, dissolving them before sucking in the entrails. Their presence is like seeing a hawk in the air, indicating lots of possible prey about. Round here the common ground beetle is Nebria brevicolis, which I remember from my first degree dissertation, when I used to catch them at night, then dissect their brains to see whether their diurnal rhythm was controlled form there. Use this indicator to see how you get on regenerating the soil  in your garden.

Soil health practices have huge benefits with many reinforcing feedback loops.

This highlights another tension. Of the ‘soil health’ bills in the USA those on the coasts pay more attention to ‘climate change’ while those in the mid west are concerned more about the state of the soil.

The term 'Soil Health' is being heard more recently.  

Previously, you may have heard of soil 'quality', which implies a good range of chemicals and soil structures. Soil health reflects that soil is alive, and like all living matter can be healthy or ill.

Interest in soils has shot up recently, mainly due to an interest is seeing whether soils can 'sequestrate' carbon, thereby mitigating global warming (that leads to climate change)

Soil health' describes how well soil performs all of its functions now and how those functions are being preserved for future use. Soil health is not determined by measuring only crop yield, water quality, or any other single outcome. Soil health cannot be measured directly, any more than we can do that for ourselves 

A more detailed explanation of soil health, functions and agriculture  can be found here Soil Health in Agriculture Systems . "Soil health is dependent on the maintenance of four major functions:  carbon transformations;  nutrient cycles; soil structure maintenance; regulation of pests and diseases."  

According to Doran and Zeiss (2000):

"Soil health is the capacity of soil to function as a living system with ecosystem and land use boundaries, to sustain plant and animal productivity, maintain or enhance water and air quality, and promote plant and animal health. "

According to Peter Trutmann, quoted in FAO (2008 (The case for improving soil health), soil health emphasises, a unique property of biological systems, since inert components cannot be sick or healthy; this emphasises the important role soil life and soil biology play in the maintenance of soil health.

Management of soil health thus becomes synonymous with management of the living portion of the soil to maintain essential functions of soil to sustain plant and animal productivity, maintain or enhance water and air quality, and promote plant and animal health.

Aims

Bring soil to life
(cf classic 'dead')

Explore ‘soil health’
(meaning - further impact)

Investigate role in Climate Change - (holistic)

INTRODUCTION