Tuesday, November 6, 2007
211-4
Soil Management Assessment Framework: Developing Indicator Scoring Curves for Soil Enzymes.
Today our soils are expected to produce not only food, fiber, and feed, but now also fuel. Soil quality for a specific site depends on many factors including management, crops, climate, and soil type. We need assessment tools to evaluate the impact of management systems on critical soil functions. Such tools need to be flexible with regard to the selections of soil functions to be assessed and indicators to be measured to insure that the assessments are suitable for the management goals of interest. To meet this need, the Soil Management Assessment Framework (SMAF) is being developed to provide site-specific interpretations for soil quality indicator results and a beta version is now available. The SMAF uses measured soil indicator data (physical, chemical, and biological) to assess management affects on soil function using a three step process that includes indicator selection, indicator interpretation, and integration into an index. Currently the SMAF has about a dozen indicators with interpretation scoring curves, mostly chemical and physical soil characteristics. To increase the flexibility of the SMAF, other indicator scoring curves can be developed. Scoring curve development is a multi-step process of identifying an indicator, determining the nature of the relationship of the indicator to a soil function, programming the curve describing that relationship, and validating the scoring curve. To date, soil biochemical factors, such as soil enzymatic activity, have not been included in the SMAF. This paper will present SMAF indicator scoring curves for β-glucosidase and phosphatase enzyme activities.
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