Rapid Soil Tests for Assessing Soil Health
Source abstract
Abstract
Soil testing has long been used to optimize fertilization and crop production. More recently, soil health testing has emerged to reflect the growing interest in soil multifunctionality and ecosystem services. Soil health encompasses physical, chemical, and biological properties that support ecosystem functions and sustainable agriculture. Despite its relevance to several United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs 1, 2, 3, 6, 12, 13, and 15), comprehensive soil health testing is not widely practiced due to complexity and cost. The aim of the study presented here was to contribute to the further development, implementation, and testing of an integrated procedure for soil health assessment in practice. We developed and tested a rapid, standardized soil health assessment tool that combines near-infrared spectroscopy (NIRS) and multi-nutrient 0.01 M CaCl2 extraction with Inductive Coupled Plasma Mass Spectroscopy analysis. The tool evaluates a wide range of soil characteristics with high accuracy (R2 ≥ 0.88 for most parameters) and has been evaluated across more than 15 countries, including those in Europe, China, New Zealand, and Vietnam. The results are compiled into a soil health indicator report with tailored management advice and a five-level ABCDE score. In a Dutch test set, 6% of soils scored A (optimal), while 2% scored E (degraded). This scalable tool supports land users, agrifood industries, and policymakers in advancing sustainable soil management and evidence-based environmental policy.
Source: crossref · Quality: baseline
Research context
OpenAlex topics: Soil Carbon and Nitrogen Dynamics · Soil Geostatistics and Mapping · Heavy metals in environment
SciVX discovery tags are terminology-based. OpenAlex topics are source-provided classifications.
Affiliations
Eurofins International, Competence Center, Binnenhaven 5, 6709 PD Wageningen, The Netherlands
Wageningen Environmental Research, Wageningen University & Research, P.O. Box 47, 6700 AA Wageningen, The Netherlands
References (100+)
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