Deficiencies in the soil quality concept and its application

J. Letey; R. E. Sojka; D. R. Upchurch; D. K. Cassel; K. R. Olson; W. A. Payne; S. E. Petrie; G. H. Price; R. J. Reginato; H. D. Scott; P. J. Smethurst; G. B. Triplett

ABSTRACT:

Soil quality is a concept that has deeply divided the soil science community. It has been institutionalized and advocated without full consideration of concept weaknesses and contradictions. Our paper highlights its disfunctional definition, flawed approach to quantification, and failure to integrate simultaneous functions, which often require contradictory soil properties and/or management. While the concept arose from a call to protect the environment and sustain the soil resource, soil quality indexing as implemented may actually impair some soil functions, environmental quality, or other societal priorities. We offer the alternative view that emphasis on known principles of soil management is a better expenditure of limited resources for soil stewardship than developing and deploying subjective indices which fail to integrate across the necessary spectrum of management outcomes. If the soil quality concept is retained, we suggest precisely specifying soil use, not function or capacity, as the criteria for attribute evaluation. Emphasis should be directed toward using available technical information to motivate and educate farmers on management practices that optimize the combined goals of high crop production, low environmental degradation, and a sustained resource.

Footnotes

John Letey is a distinguished professor of soil science in the soil and Water Science Unit and director of the University of California Center for Water Resources at the University of California in Riverside, California. Robert E. Sojka is a soil scientist with the U.S. Department of Agriculture-Agricultural Research Service, Northwest Irrigation and Soils Research Laboratory in Kimberly, Idaho. Dan R. Upchurch is a soil scientist and director of the U.S. Department of Agriculture-Agricultural Research-Service, Cropping Systems Research Laboratory in Lubbock, Texas. D. Keith Cassel is a professor of soil science in the Department of Soil Science at North Carolina, and former president of the Soil Science Society of America. Kenneth R. Olson is a professor of soil science in the Department of Natural Resources and Environmental Science at the University of Illinois in Orbana, Illinois. William A. Payne is an associate professor of crop physiology at the Agricultural Research and Extension Center at Texas A&M University in Bushland, Texas. Steven E. Petrie is superintendent and professor of soil science at the Columbia Basin Agricultural Research Center at Oregon State University in Pendleton, Oregon. Graham H. Price is an agronomist with Incitec Ltd., in Brisbane, QLD, Australia, and is former president of the Australian Society of Soil Science, Inc. Robert J. Reginato is a retired soil scientist and former associated administrator for the U.S. Department of Agriculture-Agricultural Research Service. H. Don Scott is director of the Center for Agribusiness and Environmental Policy at Mt. Olive College in Mt. Olive, North Carolina. Philip J. Smethurst is a forest soils specialist with CSIRO Forestry and Forest Products and Cooperative Research Center for Sustainable Production Foresty in Hobart, TAS, Austrailia. Glover B. Triplett is a professor in the Department of Plant and Soil Science at Mississippi State University in Mississippi State, Mississippi.
Copyright 2003 by the Soil and Water Conservation Society

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