Soils play a key role for the functioning of terrestrial ecosystems. Thus, soils are essential for
human society not only because they form the basis for the production of food. This has …

The central importance of soil for the functioning of terrestrial systems is increasingly
recognized. Critically relevant for water quality, climate control, nutrient cycling and …

Desertification involves the loss of soil productive potential, but a means of assessing and
monitoring the progress of desertification on the soil has been elusive. Soil is so varied and …

Soil biodiversity and habitat provisioning is one of the soil functions that agricultural land
provides to society. This paper describes assessment of the soil biodiversity function (SB …

The development and survival or disappearance of civilizations has been based on the
performance of soils to provide food, fibre, and further essential goods for humans. Amongst …

There is an urgent need to analyse the term soil quality in more detail. Most frequently, it is
used to describe soil attributes. The term should be used for this purpose only when related …

Cycling of nutrients, including nitrogen and phosphorus, is one of the ecosystem services we
expect agricultural soils to deliver. Nutrient cycling incorporates the reuse of agricultural …

This study focuses on soil physical aspects of soil quality and health with the objective to
define procedures with worldwide rather than only regional applicability, reflecting modern …

The maintenance of soil quality is critical to environmental sustainability. Although, several
papers have been published on this subject, progress in soil quality monitoring has been …

Although soil quality can be simply defined as a soil's “fitness for use”, it is in reality a
complex concept and significantly more challenging in its assessent than air or water quality …