Interpreting the Soil Conditioning Index: A Tool for Measuring Soil Organic Matter Trends. Soil Quality-Agronomy Technical Note No. 16

摘要

The USDANatural Resources Conservation Service (formerly Soil Conservation Service) focused through much of its history on combating erosion on agricultural and other private lands. Conservation efforts were supported by predictive tools, such as the Universal Soil Loss Equation (USLE) and the Wind Erosion Equation (WEQ). As the mission of the agency broadened to include other resourcessoil, water, air, plants, and animalsnew planning tools were needed for multi-resource concerns. One important resource concern is the degradation of soil quality as influenced by land management. Of the numerous components of soil quality, soil organic matter deserves special attention because it impacts several critical soil functions and is strongly affected by management practices. Enhancing soil organic matter can improve a soils capacity for productivity, nutrient cycling, filtering and buffering of potential pollutants, and partitioning water. Organic matter can improve the soil's resistance to compaction and erosion.