ABSTRACT
The renewed interest in understanding and improving soil health has placed greater emphasis on the ways soil health can be measured. has been a wealth of research on developing better lab analytical techniques, in-situ and remote sensing technologies to achieve these goals. This collection reviews these developments and their implications for better monitoring and management of farm soils. This volume begins with a review of advances in measuring soil biological activity. Chapters cover developments in molecular techniques such as next-generation sequencing as well as improvements in measuring fauna such as earthworms, microbial and fungal communities Part 2 surveys developments in measuring soil physical properties. The book discusses advances in visual, imaging and geophysical techniques as well as ways of assessing key properties such as erodibiity. Part 3 summarises advances in measuring soil chemical properties using spectral and other techniques. The collection concludes by reviewing soil health indicators and decision support systems for improving soil management.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
part 1|68 pages
Measuring soil biological activity
chapter Chapter 3|28 pages
Characterisation of fungal communities and functions in agricultural soils
part 2|218 pages
Measuring soil physical and chemical properties
chapter Chapter 5|28 pages
Imaging soil structure to measure soil functions and soil health with X-ray computed micro-tomography
chapter Chapter 8|26 pages
Advances in measuring mechanical properties of soil in relation to soil health
part 3|68 pages
From measurement to management