Duration: 10/01/2026 to 09/30/2031

Administrative Advisor(s):

NIFA Reps:

Non-Technical Summary

Healthy soil is the foundation of sustainable environmental practices, and this project brings together soil health experts across the West to make sure we understand how to protect and improve the health of our soils, both now and into the future. As stated by the UC ANR’s Healthy Soils for a Healthy California, “Healthy soils store water, cycle nutrients, support biodiversity, and sequester carbon—contributing to food security, environmental sustainability, and climate change mitigation.” Our Multistate project will connect researchers and students from universities and agencies to develop reliable methods for assessing soil health in the context of the environments and soils encompassed by the western US. We are focused on identifying the most relevant and reliable soil health practices and approaches specifically for western farms, forests, and rangelands. Our team will host virtual and educational events centered on networking, building community, sharing experiences and data, and identifying pathways forward by establishing collaborative research projects and frameworks. 

Statement of Issues and Justification

Statement of Issues:

Soil health is fundamental to sustainable intensification of agricultural and forest productivity that is necessary to meet demands of a growing human population without degrading ecosystem functionality (Struik and Kuyper, 2017).  Soil health can be defined as the ability of soil to sustain plant and animal productivity, maintain or enhance water and air quality, and support human health and well-being (Karlen et al., 1997), and is typically quantified with respect to soil physical, chemical, and biological attributes. Thus, healthy soils support optimal productivity, maintain biodiversity, support climate-resilient agricultural enterprises, sequester atmospheric carbon to mitigate global warming, ultimately providing the foundation for sustainable intensification (Paustian et al., 2016).

 

In order to help maintain sustainable agroecosystems, over the last decade (~ 2010 to 2020), a USDA-sponsored initiative successfully generated a great deal of excitement around soil health. But zeal to implement soil health management practices outpaced identification of sound soil health assessment methods and sometimes led to claims that overreached what could be accomplished in terms of organic matter accumulation, optimal biogeochemical cycling to maintain productivity, or other soil attributes, especially for soils of the arid and semiarid western US. More recently, the NRCS Soil Health Division, the Soil Health Institute (SHI), and university and federal researchers have begun to scientifically develop effective, environment-specific, chemical, physical, and biological assessment methods, or to identify and refine those developed over the last 40 to 50 years (e.g., Norris et al., 2020; Cornell University, 2020; Soil Health Institute, 2020a; USDA-NRCS, 2011; Stott, 2019).

 

As such, soil health assessment is becoming an effective indicator of management system sustainability (e.g., Ippolito et al., 2017; Karlen et al., 2014; Stott et al., 2012) and federal and state agencies are developing inventory and incentive strategies. But the many combinations of soil type, regional climate, management history, economic drivers, time, and variable climate change trajectories do not follow state or other jurisdictional boundaries, meaning that the most effective soil health assessment tools vary from place to place, over time, and cross US state boundaries. Water-constrained systems of the western states, with inherently low organic matter and at times high salinity, require different approaches toward assessment than more humid regions. The multi-state research project proposed here would implement a coordinated strategy to identify best soil health management and assessment approaches for western US production systems. This effort is intended to complement and extend current NRCS and SHI efforts by more broadly including expert land grant university and USDA scientists from across widely varying western and Pacific Island agroecosystems.

 

The W2196 workgroup currently includes scientists and educators from across the western US within and outside the State Agricultural Experiment Station System, many of whom have decades of experience assessing soil health and quality in many western forest, crop production, and livestock production systems. Representation consists of the following land grant institutions:  the University of Arizona, University of Hawaii, the University of California – Davis, the University of California – Riverside, Utah State University, Montana State University, the University of Wyoming, New Mexico State University, the University of Nebraska, and Kansas State University.  We plan to continue partnerships with the USDA-NRCS and USDA Forest Service for western US representation, so our workgroup efforts complement and expand on those of the NRCS and USFS. Members of this multi-state research group propose to continue investigating the soil physical, chemical, and biological attributes necessary to maintain sustainable agricultural intensification and forest productivity in the western US over time.  Collaborative investigations and data sharing will generate needed knowledge, and identify knowledge gaps, to develop and promote healthy western US soils while minimizing the potential for unintended negative consequences (e.g., off-site nutrient, erosional, and yield losses, etc.). 

 

Justification:

Acknowledging the principles and practices that promote improvements in soil physical, chemical, and biological attributes to create sustainable, resilient agroecosystems is the epicenter of soil health.  More importantly, fully understanding the interplay and intricacies among these three soil components within the context of managed agroecosystems, over time, is paramount for feeding, clothing, and fueling an ever-expanding human population, while reducing environmental degradation and the human footprint.

 

Members of the original W1196 group successfully completed the first phase the project. Many have and continue to work collaboratively on research related to soil health issues in the Western US. All members of the committee currently have projects that focus on various aspects of soil health in many western production, rangeland, and agroforestry systems.  Numerous research examples listed below all have a direct soil health focus:

 

• Debankur Sanyal (Assistant Professor and Extension Soil Health Specialist, University of Arizona): 1) Specializes in soil biogeochemistry, while primarily focused on the roles of soil biota, climate, and agronomic management practices in the cycling of nutrients and carbon in the agroecosystems aimed at sustainable crop production systems through climate-smart approaches; 2) Developing a soil health assessment framework for desert soils in the arid and semi-arid regions and developing novel protocols to measure soil biogeochemical properties, especially carbon and nitrogen fractions.
• Rebecca Lybrand (Associate Professor, Pedologist, University of California, Davis): 1) integrating soil health assessments across scales by connecting microscale soil analyses to field- and landscape-level analysis outcomes 2) Evaluating soil health parameters across contrasting bioclimate gradients and landscapes within the western US (Sonoran Desert, AZ; Coastal Redwoods, CA; Perhumid Coastal Temperate Rainforest, AK);
• Jonathan Deenik (University of Hawaii): 1) works across soil mineralogical classes in south Pacific islands; 2) soil organic C alterations in south Pacific islands; 3) soil health assessments on on-farm soil health demonstration trials; linkages of soil health to soil fertility and yields, 4) soil health monitoring in row crop and agroforest systems
• Tai Maaz (University of Hawaii): 1) soil health assessments and scoring approaches in tropical soils and for Pacific islands, 2) development of rapid, low-cost assessments of soil health and farmer-facing tools, 3) linkages of soil health to soil fertility and yields, 4) soil health monitoring in row crop and agroforest systems.
• Matt Yost (Utah State University): 1) 10-16 approaches to water management, optimization; 2) previous experience with the Soil Health Partnership, their indicator database, and soil health tests for data correlation analyses; 3) cover crops and/or interseeding; 4) member of the State of Utah Soil Health Partnership;
• Clain Jones (Montana State University): 1) long-term cropping system by inorganic N fertilizer rate studies; 2) western US soil acidification issues;
• John Idowu (New Mexico State University): 1) numerous cropping systems, management, and land resources areas research, in conjunction with streamlining soil health indicators; 2) tillage management and short-term soil alterations; 3) soil amendments (e.g., pecan waste) and irrigation; 3) cover crop research; 4) weed control; 5) soil health and greenhouse gas emissions in dryland or irrigated systems; 5) halophytes;
• Bijesh Maharjan (University of Nebraska): 1) soil health benchmarking using the concept of Soil Health Gap (Maharjan et al. 2022); 2) a comprehensive soil health assessment using the understanding of Soil Health Cycle (Maharjan et al., 2024)
• Augustine Obour (Kansas State University): 1) grazing cover crops and annual forages impacts on crops and soil health in dryland agroecosystems; 2) tillage or strategic tillage and crop rotations effect on soil properties in dryland crop rotations; 3) On-farm regenerative agriculture research across Kansas
• Pedro Martinez (Assistant Professor of Pedology, University of California, Riverside): 1) landscape scale analysis of soil organic matter dynamics to support soil health assessments; 2) biotic and abiotic controls on soil aggregation relevant to soil health indicators.

 

Utilizing the strength of the above members and dozens of soil health projects, our multi-state research group has and will continue to facilitate a coordinated regional effort to develop and evaluate soil health indicators using a sound, co-designed scientific approach that has resulted in a minimum data set of indicators for several soil-environment-management system scenarios. Meetings of representatives from western Land-Grant universities, state and federal agencies, and others will continue to foster exchange of ideas and approaches, as well as participate in working groups to collaborative sub-regional projects. This proposal renewal builds upon the first phase of our multi-state project and emphasizes the need to expand the soil health outreach and education activities resulting from many of the existing projects of members.

 

Related, Current and Previous Work

Multi-state Research Group Effort Objective 1: Identify best soil health management practices for western US agroecosystems or knowledge gaps that prevent identification.  The premise behind this work is that, collectively, the soil fertility/soil management/soil health community from the western US region possesses data, published and not, from evaluation of most or all production systems in the region.

 

Multi-state Research Group Effort Objective 2: Identify best soil health assessment approaches for western agroecosystems. The premise behind this objective is that, collectively, the soil fertility/soil management/soil health community from the western US region possesses appropriate knowledge, experience, and data to evaluate proposed soil health indices and recommend minimum data set indicators/methods for western agroecosystems.

 

To our knowledge, there are currently no other groups who have combined efforts to monitor changes in soil health over time, at the regional scale, within the US, with respect to objectives 1 and 2.  What makes this multi-state research effort unique is the fact that we are a large, regional group of soil scientists who agree upon the need for a coordinated regional approach for defining and assessing soil health.  Furthermore, team members possess the knowledge and data to continue working together to better address, at a minimum, objectives 1 and 2, including the tasks developed for implementing the second phase of the project. 

 

Currently, the closest research to that currently proposed is from the Soil Health Institute. The Soil Health institute (2020) recently published an introduction to their North American project to quantify soil health (Norris et al., 2020).  The Soil Health Institute approach was to obtain a snapshot in time with respect to soil health at ~120 long-term (>10 years) research locations across North America.  Members of the Soil Health Institute research team have shown that including organic amendments in agroecosystems: significantly increased the active soil C by ~12% on average (Liptzin, 2020); increasing soil organic C tended to increase microbial biomass (Norris, 2020); trended towards increasing total soil N, water-extractable organic N, and nitrogen cycling enzymatic activity, while only utilizing synthetic inputs reduced total soil N (Cappellazzi, 2020); and aggregate stability increased by 6 and 8% when determined by wet sieving or a wet soil stability index method, respectively (Greub, 2020).  However, bulk density, saturated hydraulic conductivity, or available water holding capacity did not change due to organic amendment inputs (Bean, 2020).

 

Smaller-scale projects have studied soil health from long-term research (>50 years), or over watershed-scales, but again only present snapshots in time.  For example, Karlen et al. (2014) evaluated soil health in five watersheds within Iowa, Indiana, Missouri, and Ohio, as affected by manure application.  Soil sampling represented watershed varying in size from ~6,300 to 85,000 ha.  Surface soil (0 to 5 cm) health tended to decrease with manure application due to decreases in water stable aggregates, increases in bulk density, and slight alterations in soil organic C.  Stott et al. (2012) identified soil health alterations following five decades of various agricultural practices in a 340 ha watershed, including continuously cropped or bermudagrass with or without turkey litter additions. The snapshot in time results showed that: bermudagrass + turkey litter amended fields had the greatest physical soil attributes; all management practices showed similar soil chemical attributes; the continuously cropped, continuously cropped + turkey litter, and the bermudagrass + turkey litter treatments had the greatest soil nutrient attributes; and bermudagrass + turkey litter amended fields typically had the greatest soil biological attributes.  Stott et al. (2011) identified differences between well and poorly developed corn (Zea mays L.) canopy within the Iowa River South Fork Watershed (~78,000 ha).  The snapshot in time results showed that the soil health was generally lower under poor canopy development, likely due to lower soil health indicator scores for bulk density, pH, EC, SOC, and microbial biomass carbon.

 

In terms of potential overlap with this proposed multi-state research effort, several active committees mention soil health in project descriptions and objectives, but none focus on developing regionally coordinated assessment and implementation approaches. The most closely related existing committee may be NC1178: Land Use and Management Practice Impacts on Soil Carbon and Associated Agroecosystem Services, but its focus is on evaluating the effects of management practices on soil organic carbon and other impacts in the North Central region. NCERA3: Soil and Landscape Assessment, Function and Interpretation focuses on pedology and coordination with the National Cooperative Soil Survey in the North Central region. In the western region, there may be some membership overlap with WERA103: Nutrient Management and Water Quality, but the focus of that group is on fertilizer management extension education efforts. Interaction and coordination with that group would be beneficial to their objectives and ours. W4170: Beneficial Use of Residuals to Improve Soil Health and Protect Public, and Ecosystem Health may also have some members that would be part of this group, which would benefit both, but the focus of W4170 is on use of industrial wastes or biproducts as soil amendments and is made up mostly of soil chemists.

Objectives

1. Identify best soil health management practices for western US agroecosystems and knowledge gaps that may boost adoption of proven technologies.
   Comments: The premise behind this objective is that, collectively, the soil fertility/soil management/soil health community from the western US region possesses data, published and not, from evaluation of most or all production systems in the region. Specific tasks: i) All multi-state research group members continue to compile data and metadata from studies of soil health across western agroecosystems to facilitate identification of soil health BMPs for western crop/soil/climate scenarios; ii) Implement a coordinated strategy to identify best soil health management and assessment approaches for various western production systems and what restricts/may restrict their adoption by producers in this region through collaboration with the industry and stakeholder groups.
2. Identify best soil health assessment approaches for western agroecosystems using an integrated education and outreach approach.
   Comments: The premise behind this objective is that, collectively, the soil fertility/soil management/soil health community from the western US region possesses appropriate knowledge, experience, and data to evaluate proposed soil health indices and recommend minimum data set indicators/methods for western agroecosystems. Specific tasks: i) Facilitate coordinated regional extension or research projects on soil health by hosting networking and educational events that bring together soil health experts, stakeholders, and students from university, government, and industry partners. The goal of the events will be to form research frameworks and collaborations that collectively assess and identify the soil health indicators and associated lab methods for western systems; and ii) Partner with regional and national soil science and related associations to host virtual education and outreach events on soil health topics relevant to western systems.

Methods

Objective 1: Identify best soil health management practices for western US agroecosystems and knowledge gaps that may boost adoption of proven technologies. The premise behind this objective is that, collectively, the soil fertility/soil management/soil health community from the western US region possesses data, published and not, from evaluation of most or all production systems in the region.

 

1. i) All multi-state research group members agree upon and then compile data and metadata from studies of soil health across western agroecosystems to facilitate identification of soil health BMPs for western crop/soil/climate scenarios; ii) Implement a coordinated strategy to identify best soil health management and assessment approaches for ‘specific’ western production systems and what restricts/may restrict their adoption by producers in this region through collaboration with the industry and stakeholder groups.

 

We are interested in a science-based understanding of best soil health management practices for western US agroecosystems, and identifying soil health knowledge gaps that prevent identification. Our proposed definition of western agroecosystems is: Managed ecosystems (range, forest, and crop lands) of western North America, largely made up of aridic and ustic rainfed and irrigated crop, livestock, and integrated crop-livestock systems of the western Great Plains and intermountain basin ecoregions, but including udic and tropical environments of high-elevation mountain valleys, the Pacific Northwest, Alaska, and Pacific Islands.

 

In order to begin to understand what soil health principles and practices are working, or not, within the context of the western US, we began data collection and analyses. The first phase of this project gathered data from most of the managed ecosystems to identify effective soil health management strategies. For this phase, we will continue data collection and begin partnering with stakeholders to assist the adoption of region-specific soil health technologies. To this end, several multi-state research group members will use the database template developed in the previous phase and continue gathering data and metadata from soil health assessment projects across western agroecosystems. The multi-state research group members will consider what constitutes a good soil health indicator and method [e.g., i) soil health indicator effectiveness, ii) production readiness, iii) measurement repeatability, and iv) interpretable for agricultural management decisions; Stott et al., 2019]. Eventually, the database will be critically reviewed by USDA-NRCS personnel and, hopefully, used by the NRCS.  The current database contains several hundred sets of comprehensive soil health assessments following the Cornell CASH protocol.  With inclusion of more dataset, multitude of queries can be made, with output color coded on a green (i.e., good) to red (i.e., poor) scale, in conjunction with a numbering scheme similar to CASH.  The database currently is an academic tool, but can be modified to include multi-state research group aspirations.  If utilized as a database starting point, additional information would be added to include site management, mineralogy, soil order/sub order, mineralogy class, cropping rotations, on-site management, etc., to allow database users greater options for indicator comparisons. Since a model database has already been developed, we believe that adapting that tool to more broadly include western agroecosystems will require limited additional resources, and we intend to seek grant funding to support the work. However, regardless of grant funding, we believe that the work falls within the scope of current funded projects and the members’ job descriptions.

 

Objective 2: Identify best soil health assessment approaches for western agroecosystems using an integrated education and outreach approach. The premise behind this objective is that, collectively, the soil fertility/soil management/soil health community from the western US region possesses appropriate knowledge, experience, and data to evaluate proposed soil health indices and recommend minimum data set indicators/methods for western agroecosystems.

 

Specific tasks: i) Facilitate coordinated regional extension or research projects on soil health by hosting networking and educational events that bring together soil health experts, stakeholders, and students from university, government, and industry settings. The goal of the events will be to form research frameworks and collaborations that collectively assess and identify the soil health indicators and associated lab methods for western systems; and ii) Partner with regional and national soil science associations to host virtual education and outreach events on soil health topics relevant to western systems.

 

Multi-state research group project leaders will facilitate virtual meetings with the goal to bring together members of the broader soil health community to identify the full list of indicators and associated quantification methods. Through the virtual meetings, we will form subgroups focused on establishing collaborative research projects centered on common interests in soil health assessment approaches for western agroecosystems. The second phase of the project will also expand to include input from experts, stakeholders, and students from regional and national soil science associations. There are multiple regional and national associations who we plan to connect with for hosting virtual education and outreach events on soil health topics in western systems. Examples of possible associations with members who have coinciding research interests in soil health assessments include Soil Science Society of America, Professional Soil Scientists Association of California, Washington Soil Health Initiative, Oregon Society of Soil Scientists, California Forest Soils Council, California’s Healthy Soils Initiative, the Colorado Soil Health Program, the Utah Soil Health Partnership, Utah Department of Agriculture and Food (UDAF) Soil Health Program, and the Utah Association of Conservation Districts (UACD), to name a few.

 

Work on both objectives will begin upon project approval and will be complementary. We envision that combined outcomes will support: 1) a standardized set of indicators and methods for specific crop/forest/soil/climate systems; and 2) the development of an assessment framework tailored to western agroecosystems that will be communicated and discussed with the broader soil health community through virtual outreach and education events. Most of the work utilizes expert knowledge of the group in addition to the time required to organize the working group and virtual events, so the main resource required is the time to contribute to the project objectives and tasks. We intend to seek grant funding to support a focused graduate student or postdoc who could assist with facilitation, and we think that this collaborative multistate effort will be attractive to potential funders, both private and public. Should funding applications fail, however, the work can be accomplished with existing resources of the many member organizations.

Measurement of Progress and Results

Outputs

• We will implement a coordinated strategy to identify best soil health management and assessment approaches for diverse western crop/soil/climate systems by building upon a fully-encompassing soil health database as agreed upon by all group members. The first iteration of the database was completed during the first phase of the project. The revised soil health database will integrate input from the research group and broader community. Comments: (these outputs target producers, NRCS, ag professionals, soil testing laboratories, and state departments of agriculture and forestry in the western region)
• We will facilitate a coordinated regional effort to develop and evaluate soil health indicators using a sound, co-designed scientific approach that results in a minimum data set of indicators for each soil-environment-management system scenario. Knowledge gaps identified will contribute to future objectives for the multi-state research project.
• We envision that the database will also inform producers, soil lab operators, and consulting agronomists by establishing a west-wide overview of BMPs and best soil health assessment approaches for agroecological and agroforestry subregions.
• For the virtual outreach and education events, we will track the number of participants, registration numbers, and other metrics to quantify the impact of our events in promoting the development of soil health collaborations and research frameworks.
• We will provide educational materials and guidance protocols for the establishment of laboratory proficiency testing sample development and processing to ensure uniform evaluation of laboratory performance and soil health measurement uniformity across the industry.

Outcomes or Projected Impacts

• • State-of-knowledge about BMPs for each major crop/soil/climate system in the western region: a. Identification of benchmark soils for cropping, livestock, or forest systems with a rating of certainty and description of additional data needed; b. Description of most effective BMPs for each system with a rating of certainty and description of additional data needed.
• • State-of-knowledge about best soil-health assessment methods for western crop/soil/climate systems: a. Review of long (e.g., as in Gavlak et al., 2005) and relatively short-term established physical, chemical and biological methods/properties (USDA-NRCS, Soil Health Institute, SMAF, CASH) for creation of sub-regional recommended minimum data sets and methods; and b. Create a soil health standardization protocol for assessment and comparison of laboratory performance on soil health measurements. One of the stated blocks to laboratories offering soil health analysis options to clients is the lack of proficiency testing samples and methodological standardization (Cardon et al., 2019). The impact to the soil testing industry of providing guidance on the development of proficiency testing samples coupled with the regional interpretation research under this project, is significant in two major ways: 1) it provides laboratories the base of confidence they need to broaden soil health analysis services and, 2) will ensure such services are more accessible and regionally appropriate to growers.

Milestones

(2027):1. Hold an introductory kick-off meeting to start the second phase of the project and to form subcommittees to address tasks identified for Objectives 1 and 2.

(2027):1. Obj. 1 Subcommittee revisits the latest version of the database produced during the first phase of the project. The subcommittee will develop action items for ongoing compilation of soil health BMPs and assessment approaches (including appropriate indicators and methods) for western agroecosystems. 2. Obj. 2 Subcommittee will work collectively to identify additional partnerships and stakeholders to participate in upcoming virtual networking and education events.

(2027):1. Fall Annual Meeting to discuss results from subcommittees work during Year 1 and to identify research, education, and outreach plan for Year 2 including planning for networking/educational events planned for Year 2.

(2028):1. Organize networking and educational events that bring together soil health experts, stakeholders, and students from university, government, and industry settings. Create a framework for developing collaborative relationships and networks among soil health specialists in western states.

(2028):2. Assess progress and any potential pitfalls (with data compilation, educational and outreach plan); 3. Finalize planning for education and outreach events in Year 3. Identify possible speakers, sessions, and overall plan for hosting the soil health education and outreach events.

(2029):1. Host virtual education and outreach events on soil health topics relevant to western systems through partnerships with regional and national soil science associations

(2029):1. Annual meeting to discuss outcomes from the year and to identify action items and plan for activities coming up in Year 4

(2030):1. Organize working group events for subgroups formed during networking events in Years 2 and 3 to work on BMPs, soil health assessment approaches, reports, and publications.

(2030):1. Annual meeting to finalize products and findings from the project to date including ratings for BMPs and soil health assessment approaches. 2. Confirm for completing publication products, technical reports, and educational products for distribution to partners and scientific community 3. Discuss overall effort, outcomes, new questions, and need for continued multistate research.

(2031):Complete publication products, technical reports, and educational products as part of the wrap up for phase two of the project

(2031):Submit final report.

Projected Participation

View Appendix E: Participation

Outreach Plan

Several group members are involved in soil health initiatives at their respective state levels (e.g., WY, NM, UT, CA, HI, AZ). This multi-state research workgroup will continue partnerships with the USDA-NRCS and the USDA Forest Service while also looking to connect with additional agency scientists and researchers. We will also aim to connect with public/private soil testing facilities that focus on soil health. Through direct participation in conferences, workshops, and webinar opportunities offered by our group and through partners (e.g., those hosted by individual states, the USDA-NRCS), research findings will be reported to industry cooperators and stakeholders. The group will publish collaborative soil health research available to industry and academic partners, publish findings in scientific journals and present at national and international meetings. We will participate in training sessions organized by local soil health programs and agencies to provide their members with relevant information from our workgroup. Regional level outreach activities will be organized during our annual meetings as well as at national/international conferences (e.g., ASA, SSSA, ACS, AGU).

 

Our members who hold extension appointments (representing HI, MT, WY, UT, NM, NE, and AZ) will develop and provide educational programming with help from other members. Outcomes will include extension publications beneficial to educators, regulators, local government decision makers, the concerned public, other scientists, and stakeholders from entities that have a focus on soil health. We will continue to convey the science on the benefits of soil health principles, practices, and cutting-edge research findings in written publications, field demonstrations, workshops, webinars, and direct interaction with stakeholders and clientele.

Organization/Governance

The multi-state research group technical committee will consist of project leaders from the contributing states, the administrative advisor, and NIFA representatives. Voting membership includes all persons with contributing projects; however, only one vote is permitted for each research location.

 

Co-chairpersons and one secretary, all from the western region, will be elected at the first authorized committee meeting after the proposed project has been accepted. The initially established co-chairpersons and secretary will serve multiple years, if so desired by project participants, and will be responsible for meeting arrangements, the annual reports, coordination of research activities, compilation of regional research data, and preparation of the renewal proposal. An Executive Committee, consisting of the co-chairs, the secretary, and the two regional representatives, will serve as a guidance body in matters such as new project participant additions and meeting agendas.  In addition to the official project representatives, other researchers with activities that contribute to the project have been and will continue to be invited to participate on a regular basis.

 

Data privacy and confidentiality procedures. Objective 1 consists of sharing and compiling published and unpublished data on soil health. To ensure that data privacy, ownership, and confidentiality are maintained, the committee will draft and vote on a final agreement between all data contributors. The agreement will be created and amended by a majority vote of the committee membership. The agreement will include provisions related to these key points:

1. All data submitted to a regional depository will be protected in a secure database that will not be available to the public. It will be available to all data contributors to conduct analyses.
2. Data contributors will maintain rights and ownership of their data only.
3. Data will not be published or shared outside the committee until all pertinent individual data owners give written consent (within 30 days of the request) to publish their data.
4. Data owners will receive credit (authorship or acknowledgement as appropriate) when their data is published.
5. Authorship criteria for publications derived from a regional soil health database will be outlined.
6. Terms and criteria for intellectual or other property derived from the soil health database will be outlined.

Literature Cited

 

Andrews, S.S., D.L. Karlen, and C.A. Cambardella. 2004. The Soil Management Assessment Framework: A quantitative soil quality evaluation method. Soil Sci. Soc. Am. J. 68:1945-1962.

Bean, G.M. 2020. Effects of soil health practices on soil water characteristics. Soil Health Institute’s Soil Health: The Foundation for Regenerative Agriculture 5^th Annual Meeting (virtual). July 30-31. Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UAbm1YNSSr0&list=PLdFVkeklZuqx-ZKtDFgRJMel2oAvfDjdF&index=13 (verified January 11, 2021).

Cappellazzi, S. 2020. The Soil Health Institute’s flexible framework to quantify the functions of soil: An example with nitrogen cycling. Soil Health Institute’s Soil Health: The Foundation for Regenerative Agriculture 5^th Annual Meeting (virtual). July 30-31. Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-U27bGcvKHg&list=PLdFVkeklZuqx-ZKtDFgRJMel2oAvfDjdF&index=8 (verified January 11, 2021).

Cardon, G.E., C. Kessel, T.L. Provin, S.M. Chapman. 2019. Challenges facing commercial and public soil testing laboratories to provide soil health-related analyses: A survey of SSSA-NAPT program participants. Soil Science Society of American Annual Meetings. January 8. Available at: file:///C:/Users/ippolito/Downloads/NAPT%202019%20San%20Diego%20Poster.pdf (verified January 11, 2021).

Cornell University. 2017. Comprehensive assessment of soil health – The Cornell Framework. Available at: http://www.css.cornell.edu/extension/soil-health/manual.pdf (verified January 11, 2021).

Cornell University. 2020. Comprehensive assessment of soil health. Available at: https://soilhealth.cals.cornell.edu/ (verified January 11, 2021).

Gavlak R., D. Horneck, and R. Miller. 2005. Soil, plant, and water reference methods for the western region, 3^rd Edition. Western Rural Development Center, Corvallis, OR.

Greub, K.L.H. 2020. Aggregate stability as an indicator of soil health for North American soils. Soil Health Institute’s Soil Health: The Foundation for Regenerative Agriculture 5^th Annual Meeting (virtual). July 30-31. Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RKT1r1mUinU&list=PLdFVkeklZuqx-ZKtDFgRJMel2oAvfDjdF&index=12 (verified January 11, 2021).

Ippolito, J.A., D.L. Bjorneberg, D.E. Stott, and D.L. Karlen. 2017. Soil quality improvement through conversion to sprinkler irrigation. Soil Sci. Soc. Am. J. 81:1505-1516.

Karlen, D.L., M.J. Mausbach, J.W. Doran, R.G. Cline, R.F. Harris, and G.E. Shuman. 1997. Soil quality: A concept, definition, and framework for evaluation (A guest editorial). Soil Sci. Soc. Am. J. 61:4-10.

Karlen, D.L., D.E. Stott, C.A, Cambardella, R.J. Kremer, K.W. King, and G.W. McCarty. 2014. Surface soil quality in five midwestern cropland Conservation Effects Assessment Project watersheds. J. Soil Water Conserv. 69:393-401.

Liptzin, D. 2020. Effects of soil health management practices on soil carbon dynamics.  Soil Health Institute’s Soil Health: The Foundation for Regenerative Agriculture 5^th Annual Meeting (virtual). July 30-31. Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=82YC4gZVQPQ&list=PLdFVkeklZuqx-ZKtDFgRJMel2oAvfDjdF&index=9 (verified January 11, 2021).

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