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Soil Health
The term 'soil health' began appearing in the scientific literature in the late 20th century and has increased exponentially since then (See fig 1 in Janzen et al. 2021). Below are some papers on soil health that helped me to understand this complex concept, it's limitations, and the on-going scientific debate about the use of the term (Janzen et al. 2021, Baveye, 2021, Powlson, 2020, 2021, Lehmann et al, 2020). I made the graphic above based on the thoughtful paper by Janzen et al. (see link below) who eloquently highlighted that 'soil health' is just a metaphor of a concept that is difficult to 'pin down'. Metaphors are powerful tools in science communication and thinking because they can help us understand abstract concepts, and do so using words that we can easily relate to (i.e., health, greenhouse effect, tree of life, carbon footprint, etc.). When you think about soil health I encourage you to think about context and the expectations of the land (i.e., healthy for what or who? vegetable crops, native plants or wild flowers?).
Soil quality versus Soil Health: The term 'soil quality' became popular in the 1970s, and is sometimes used interchangeably with 'soil health', but has also been criticized (For example see below Sojka et al. 1999, 2003).
Here's a link to the USDA-NRCS resources on soil health.
Selected Soil Health & Soil Quality Papers
-Janzen H.H., D.W. Janzen, E.G. Gregorich. 2021. The ‘soil health’ metaphor: Illuminating or illusory? Soil Biology and Biochemistry 159:108167.
-Baveye P.C. 2021. Soil health at a crossroad. Soil Use and Management 37:215-219.
-Powlson D.S. 2021. Is ‘soil health’ meaningful as a scientific concept or as terminology? Soil Use and Management 37:403-405.
-Powlson D.S. 2020. Soil health—useful terminology for communication or meaningless concept? Or both? Frontiers in Agriculture, Science and Engineering 7:246-250.
-Lehmann J., D.A. Bossio, I. Kögel-Knabner, M.C. Rillig. 2020. The concept and future prospects of soil health. Nature Reviews Earth & Environment 1:544-553.
-Bunemann et al. 2018. Soil quality - A critical review. Soil Biology & Biochemistry 120:105-125.
-Romig D.E., M.J. Garlynd, R.F. Harris, K. McSweeney. 1995. How farmers assess soil health and quality. Journal of Soil and Water Conservation 50:229-236.
-Karlen D.L., N.J. Goeser, K.S. Veum, M.A. Yost. 2017. On-farm soil health evaluations: Challenges and opportunities. Journal of Soil and Water Conservation 72:26A-31A.
-Stewart R.D., J. Jian, A.J. Gyawali, W.E. Thomason, B.D. Badgley, M.S. Reiter, M.S. Strickland. 2018. What We Talk about When We Talk about Soil Health. Agricultural & Environmental Letters 3:180033.
-Sojka R.E., D.R. Upchurch, N.E. Borlaug. 2003. Quality soil management or soil quality management : performance versus semantics, Advances in Agronomy, Academic Press. 79:1-68.
-Karlen D.L., C.A. Ditzler, S.S. Andrews. 2003. Soil quality: why and how? Geoderma 114:145-156.
-Sojka R.E., D.R. Upchurch. 1999. Reservations Regarding the Soil Quality Concept. Soil Science Society of America Journal 63:1039-1054.
Examples of a papers showing underwhelming results from using soil health measurements to differentiate agronomic management differences.
Roper W.R., D.L. Osmond, J.L. Heitman, M.G. Wagger, S.C. Reberg-Horton. 2017. Soil Health Indicators Do Not Differentiate among Agronomic Management Systems in North Carolina Soils. Soil Science Society of America Journal 81:828-843.
Roper W.R., D.L. Osmond, J.L. Heitman. 2019. A Response to “Reanalysis Validates Soil Health Indicator Sensitivity and Correlation with Long-term Crop Yields”. Soil Science Society of America Journal 83:1842-1845. doi:
-Caudle C., D. Osmond, J. Heitman, M. Ricker, G. Miller, S. Wills. 2020. Comparison of soil health metrics for a Cecil soil in the North Carolina Piedmont. Soil Science Society of America Journal 84:978-993.
Singh S., S. Singh, S. Machado, S. Lukas, F. Calderon, S.B. Cappellazzi. 2024. Evaluating common soil health tests for dryland wheat systems of inland Pacific Northwest. Journal of Soils and Sediments 24:1059-1070.
