Aggregate stability (AS) is a very sensitive soil physical health indicator. The complexity of its determination discourages frequent monitoring. We hypothesized that a reduction of steps to determine AS would yield good AS indicators. We evaluated 196 samples from a range of Mollisols from sandy-to clay-loam surface texture from the southeastern Buenos Aires province, Argentina. Six AS indicators were evaluated: aggregate mean weight diameter (MWD) after capillary wetting (CW) (MWD CW ), MWD after sudden immersion in water (VW) (MWD VW ), change of MWD (ΔMWD), remnant mass of macroaggregates ( MAm) after CW (MAm CW ), MAm after VW (MAm VW ), and change of MAm between VW and CW (ΔMAm VW-CW ). Determining ΔMWD requires six sievings, MWD requires three, ΔMAm VW-CW requires two, and MAm requires only one. Indicators after CW (MWD CW and MAm CW ) were not good AS indicators. Likewise, those determined as a difference between CW and VW (ΔMWD and ΔMAm VW-CW ) failed to distinguish contrasting AS situations making them unfeasible as universal AS indicators. However, MAm VW explained 99% of MWD VW variability and adequately distinguished among AS situations. With only one sieving, a good indicator of AS could be obtained, and this would encourage the adoption by soil testing laboratories and frequent soil physical health monitoring by farmers.

Soil quality (SQ) assessment is an important tool for monitoring the sustainability of production systems. The National Institute of Agricultural Technology (INTA) selected a minimum dataset of indicators (MDS) with the objective of generating a tool for diagnosis and monitoring of soils subject to land use changes. The MDS is composed of: total organic carbon, particulate organic carbon, total nitrogen, pH, bulk density and the wind erodible fraction. The objective of this work was to use the MDS and the Soil Quality Index (SQI) derived from it to describe the state of the soils intended for Cucurbit production in Chaco. The MDS was sufficiently sensitive to describe the state of the soils. The low and moderate SQ highlighted the need to incorporate soil conservation practices, given the low levels of organic matter and physical degradation. These practices would also contribute to the control of wind erosion, a process that is poorly managed in the area.<strong></strong>