4 J.W. Doran, M.R.

Zeiss / Applied Soil Ecology 15 (2000) 3–11

desertification (Oldeman, 1994). Indeed, degradation CO2 to the atmosphere (Houghton et al., 1983). Fur-
and loss of productive agricultural land is one of our ther, the projected doubling of the human population in
most pressing ecological concerns, rivaled only by the next century threatens accelerated degradation of
human caused environmental problems like global soils and other natural resources (Power, 1996). Thus,
climate change, depletion of the protective ozone to preserve agriculture for future generations, we must
layer, and serious declines in biodiversity (Lal, 1998). develop production systems that conserve and enhance
Soil quality has been defined by the Soil Science soil quality.
Society of America Ad Hoc Committee on soil qual- As a small step towards this end, a conference
ity (S-581) as ‘the capacity of a specific kind of soil to entitled ‘Soil Health: Managing the Biological Com-
function, within natural or managed ecosystem bound- ponent of Soil Quality’ was held as part of the
aries, to sustain plant and animal productivity, main- joint annual meeting of the Entomological Society
tain or enhance water and air quality, and support hu- of America (ESA) and the American Phytopathol-
man health and habitation’ (Karlen et al., 1997). In ogy Society (APS) which convened in Las Vegas,
discussion of the ambiguity of environmental terms Nevada in November 1998. The goals of the con-
and the need to standardize their meanings, Johnson ference were to increase awareness within the ESA
et al. (1997) defined soil quality as ‘a measure of the and APS of the utility of soil organisms as indica-
condition of soil relative to the requirements of one or tors of soil quality, and to permit researchers from
more biological species and/or to any human purpose’. diverse disciplines to integrate results from multiple
The term ‘soil health’ is preferred by some (for a taxa of soil organisms. The overarching objective was
discussion see Doran et al., 1996; Doran and Safley, to help ‘translate science into practice’ by providing
1997) because it portrays soil as a living, dynamic a forum for researchers and extension workers to
system whose functions are mediated by a diversity discuss farmer-participatory programs for managing
of living organisms that require management and con- soil quality. The papers published in this issue were
servation. Soil health, biodiversity, and soil resilience presented in abbreviated form during the conference.
are severely limited in extreme environments and are
more sensitive to anthropogenic disturbance (Freck-
man and Virginia, 1997). The terms soil quality and 2. Soil quality: indicator of sustainable land
soil health will be used synonymously throughout this management
paper. However use of the term soil quality will gen-
erally be associated with a soils’ fitness for a specific Developing sustainable land management systems
use and the term soil health used in a broader sense to is complicated by the need to consider their utility
indicate the capacity of soil to function as a vital liv- to humans, their efficiency of resource use, and their
ing system to sustain biological productivity, promote ability to maintain a balance with the environment that
environmental quality, and maintain plant and animal is favorable both to humans and most other species
health. In this sense soil health is synonymous with (Harwood, 1990). In particular, we are challenged to
sustainability. The quality of a soil includes an inher- develop agricultural management systems that bal-
ent component, determined by the soil’s physical and ance the needs for production of food and fiber with
chemical properties within the constraints set by cli- those for maintenance of the environment. More sim-
mate and ecosystem. In addition, soil quality includes ply stated by Tom Franzen, a midwestern farmer in the
a component affected by management and land-use USA, “a sustainable agriculture — sustains the peo-
decisions. Unfortunately, past management of agricul- ple and preserves the land.” Soil quality is conceptu-
ture and other ecosystems has substantially degraded alized as the major linkage between the strategies for
and reduced the quality of many soils throughout the agricultural conservation management practices and
world (Saunders, 1992; Oldeman, 1994). In particular, achievement of the major goals of sustainable agricul-
mechanical cultivation and the continuous production ture (Parr et al., 1992; Acton and Gregorich, 1995). In
of row crops has resulted in physical loss of soil, dis- short, the assessment of soil quality or health, and di-
placement through erosion, and large decreases in soil rection of change with time, is the primary indicator
organic matter content with a concomitant release of of sustainable land management (Karlen et al., 1997).
6 J.W. Doran, M.R. Zeiss / Applied Soil Ecology 15 (2000) 3–11

examples can be found in Appl. Soil Ecol. 9 (1998) are invaluable indicators because they are well cor-
306–428, which is a special issue dedicated to ‘Soil related with multiple soil functions (Anderson, 1988;
Organisms and Soil Resource Management’. Fur- Doran et al., 1996). Nonetheless, if plant productiv-
ther, both Rosemeyer and Abawi (this issue) present ity or health are measured and found to be lower than
management-induced changes in abundance and di- desired, it is not obvious what remedial action is re-
versity of bacteria, fungi, and nematodes. quired. Therefore, indicators are needed that help land
managers understand the chain of cause and effect that
3.2. Well correlated with beneficial soil functions links land management decisions to ultimate produc-
tivity and health of plants and animals. Soil organisms
Soil health is worth quantifying because soils and meet this criterion, because they play a direct role in
their biota provide ecosystems functions that benefit many ecosystem processes including conversion of nu-
humans. These ecosystem services can be of consid- trients into forms available to plants (Anderson, 1988;
erable value (Costanza et al., 1997) and include soil Drinkwater et al., 1996) and suppression of noxious or-
functions of storing and releasing water, decompos- ganisms (Bongers and Bongers, 1998; Oyarzun et al.,
ing plant and animal residues, transforming and recy- 1998). Further, by affecting soil structure, soil organ-
cling nutrients, sequestering and detoxifying organic isms play a critical indirect role in processes such as
toxicants, and promoting plant health by suppressing water infiltration (Anderson, 1995).
plant-pathogenic microbes and phytophagous fauna. It
is often possible and desirable to measure soil function 3.4. Comprehensible and useful to land managers
directly. For example, in participatory research with
US farmers, decomposition rate was directly measured The ultimate determinant of soil quality and health
by periodically examining samples of buried paper is the farm owner or operator, rancher, forester, golf
(Drinkwater and Wander, this issue). In contrast, di- course superintendant, conservationists, etc. who ac-
rect measurements of some soil functions may be too tually manage the land. Thus, the land manager is
expensive (for example, direct measurements of nu- the ultimate judge of which indicators of soil qual-
trient transformations) or require observations across ity are worth measuring. Considerable thought and
too much time (for example, the capacity of a soil to creativity are required to develop measurements of
supply water for plant growth during a drought may soil organisms that are comprehensible and useful to
be observable only during rare drought years). In such land managers. Both in the US (Drinkwater and Wan-
cases, rather than measuring the soil function directly, der, this issue) and Ecuador (Carroll et al., this is-
it may be preferable to measure surrogates or prox- sue), farmer-participatory programs for promoting soil
ies that are well correlated with the soil function. Soil health have successfully included earthworm abun-
organisms meet this criterion, because the abundance dance as an indicator. In addition, measurements of
and diversity of soil organisms often are well corre- the abundance and diversity of nematodes (Bongers
lated with many beneficial soil functions (Pankhurst and Bongers, 1998), mites (Behan-Pelletier, this is-
et al., 1997). However, care is needed in selecting sue) and bacteria (Nelson and van Bruggen, this issue)
which organism or which community parameter to use could provide a wealth of information on soil func-
as a proxy for soil function (Bengtsson, 1998). tions and processes but likely requires too much spe-
cialized training for land managers. It remains an open
3.3. Useful for elucidating ecosystem processes question whether these potentially valuable biological
indicators can be made accessible to land managers.
To aid farmers, ranchers, conservationists, foresters,
and other land managers in selecting appropriate in- 3.5. Easy and inexpensive to measure
terventions, an indicator of soil quality must do more
than merely predicting whether a soil will provide a Because the ultimate determinant of soil quality
beneficial function (Section 3.2). The indicator should and health is the land manager, indicators of soil
also elucidate why the soil will or will not function quality and sustainability should be both accessible
as desired. For example, plant productivity and health to them and economic in terms of both time and
8 J.W. Doran, M.R. Zeiss / Applied Soil Ecology 15 (2000) 3–11

Table 1
Strategies for sustainable agricultural management and proposed indicators of crop performance and soil and environmental healtha
Sustainability strategy Indicators for producers

Conserve soil organic matter through

Maintaining soil C & N levels by reducing tillage Direction/change in organic matter levels with time (visual
Recycling plant and animal manures or remote sensing by color or chemical analysis)
And/or increasing plant diversity, Specific OM potential for climate, soil, and vegetation
where C inputs≥C outputs Soil water storage
Minimize soil erosion through
Conservation tillage Visual (gullies, rills, dust, etc.)
Increased protective cover (residue, Surface soil properties (topsoil depth, organic matter
stable aggregates, cover crops, green fallow) content/texture, water infiltration, runoff, ponding, cover %)
Balance production and environment through
Conservation and integrated management systems Crop characteristics (visual or remote sensing of yield, color,
(optimizing tillage, residue, water, and chemical use) nutrient status, plant vigor, and rooting characteristics) Soil
Synchronizing available N and P levels with crop needs physical condition/compaction
during year Soil and water nitrate levels
Amount and toxicity of pesticides used
Better use of renewable resources through
Relying less on fossil fuels and petrochemicals Input/output ratios of costs, energy, and
More on renewable resources and biodiversity renewable/non-renewable resources
(crop rotations, legumes, manures, IPM, etc.) Leaching losses/soil acidification
Crop characteristics (as listed above)
Soil and water nitrate levels
a Modified from Doran et al. (1996).

impact of agricultural practices on water quality of soil quality”. The authors share the cotton grower’s
(Doran, 1997; Doran et al., 1998). In addition, Carroll belief that the true goal is sustainable management of
et al. (this issue) and Drinkwater and Wander (this agricultural systems. Soil quality indicators in general,
issue) provide other examples of successful, partici- and biological indicators in particular, are merely a
patory programs to quantify and enhance soil quality. means towards that end.
The theme of a recent conference in Australia, ‘Soil
quality is in the hands of the land manager’ (Advances
in Soil Quality: Science, Practice, and Policy, Uni- 5. Resources for future work on soil health
versity of Ballarat, April 1996), should serve as the
watchword for future efforts. A cotton grower at this A partial listing of groups and published resources
conference expressed his frustration with the direc- on soil quality and health as related to sustainable
tion that the soil quality indicators proposed by re- management are included here. Canadian contribu-
searchers were taking: “I need help from scientists tions, which were among the first to be active in this
more with tools for management than with indicators area, are well reflected in the two publications (see

Table 2
Template of proposed indicators for measuring the sustainability of agricultural systems at the farm levela
Farmer/society needs (acceptable) Resource/environmental conservation (adequate/acceptable)
Yields Soil organic matter
Profits Topsoil depth
Risk/stability Soil protective cover (%)
Input/output ratio (energy and costs) Leachable salts (NO3 ) (soil electrical conductivity)
a Taken from Gomez et al. (1996).
10 J.W. Doran, M.R. Zeiss / Applied Soil Ecology 15 (2000) 3–11

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