Identification of sensitive indicators to assess the interrelationship between soil quality, management practices and human health

Abstract

Abstract. Soil quality (SQ) assessment has been a challenging issue since soils present high variability in properties and functions. This paper aims to increase understanding of SQ through review of SQ assessments in different scenarios providing evidence about the interrelationship between SQ, land use and human health. There is a general consensus that there is a need to develop methods to assess and monitor SQ for assuring sustainable land use with no prejudicial effects on human health. This review points out the importance of adopting indicators of different nature (physical, chemical and biological) to achieve a holistic image of SQ. Most authors use single indicators to assess SQ and its relationship with land uses, being the most used indicators soil organic carbon and pH. The use of nitrogen and nutrients content has resulted sensitive for agricultural and forest systems, together with physical properties such as texture, bulk density, available water and aggregate stability. These physical indicators have also been widely used to assess SQ after land use changes. The use of biological indicators is less generalized, being microbial biomass and enzyme activities the most selected indicators. Although most authors assess SQ using independent indicators, it is preferable to combine some of them into models to create a soil quality index (SQI), since it provides integrated information about soil processes and functioning. The majority of revised articles used the same methodology to establish a SQI, based on scoring and weighting of different soil indicators, selected by multivariate analyses. The use of multiple linear regressions has been successfully used under forest land use. Urban soil quality has been poorly assessed, with lack of adoption of SQIs. In addition, SQ assessments were human health indicators or exposure pathways are incorporated are practically inexistent. Thus, new efforts should be carried out to establish new methodologies not only to assess soil quality in terms of sustainability, productivity and ecosystems quality, but also human health. Additionally, new challenges arise with the use and integration into SQIs of stable isotopic, genomic, proteomic and spectroscopy data.

Effects of pumice mining on soil quality

“…The selection of some properties to assess soil quality is an effective way. Some authors have used independent indicators, while others preferred their combinations into models or expressions in which various properties are involved; these expressions are called indices (Graham and Haynes, 2004;Hussain et al, 2008;Wick et al, 2014;Zornoza et al, 2015). The establishment of multiparametric indices has been used as an adequate tool for integrating greater information of soil quality.…”

“…Catalase has a great effect on changing soil redox, chemical properties of soil solution, and accelerating transformation of organic matter (Wang et al, 2012). The metabolic quotient estimates the activity and efficiency of decomposition (or C use) by soil microbes (Anderson and Domsch, 1990) and is a suitable indicator to provide evidence of soil perturbation (Zornoza et al, 2015).…”

Microbiological-Indicators with Potential for Evaluating Soil Quality

“…The selection depends on the sensitivity of these properties to soil management or changes in climate, as well as the accessibility and usefulness to producers, scientists, conservationists and policy makers (Rezaei et al, 2006, Zornoza et al, 2015. Indicators should be limited and manageable in number by different types of users, simple and easy to measure, cover the largest possible situations (Doran and Parkin, 2000) including soil types and seasonal variation and be highly sensitive to environmental changes and soil management (Dick, 2000).…”

“…Soil quality (SQ) assessment has long been a challenging issue, since soils present high variability in properties and functions (Zornoza et al, 2015). Soil quality indicators are physical, chemical and biological properties or processes that can be measured to monitor changes in the soil and their effects on processes ecosystem (Brady and Weil, 2008), and the capacity to support crop production (Arshad and Martin, 2002).…”

Grasslands and Croplands Have Different Microbial Biomass Carbon Levels per Unit of Soil Organic Carbon

“…A soil property employed effectively as an indicator of soil health should allow for prediction in advance of that production or service. SOC is considered a valuable indicator of soil health in agricultural soils [9]. MBC has been suggested as another possible indicator [10].…”