Usable Science: Soil Health

On the Ground
- Healthy soils are fundamental to sustainable rangelands, but soils function in obscurity. This is reflected in the belowground “black-box” mentality often attributed to soils.
- Transformational changes get the attention of land managers and the public- for example, soil erosion associated with the Dust Bowl of the 1930s. This provides benchmarks for the context of importance in maintaining healthy soils for the productive capacity of rangelands.
- Benefits of soil health include enhanced soil water-holding capacity and appropriate nutrient cycling, which increases rangelands' resilience to weather variability and predicted climate change.
- Future directions of usable science for soil health include: 1) characterization of soil health indicators for sensitivity levels that affect transitions/thresholds of state-and-transition models, 2) influences of management practices, predicted climate change, and extreme events, and 3) impact of prescribed fire and wildfires on soil health.