ABSTRACT
The Agricultural Lands Resource Group of the Environmental Monitoring and Assessment Program examined soil quality of agroecosystems in the Southeast, Midwest, and mid-Atlantic using field-scale physical and chemical measurements. This chapter addresses: the feasibility of using microbial biomass carbon as a biotic indicator for evaluating soil quality at a field-scale and the sensitivity of microbial biomass carbon and selected soil quality indicators to various management systems. Total carbon and microbial biomass carbon tended to lower the overall soil quality index for each site but did not affect the relative ranking of the soil quality indices by management. The addition of microbial biomass carbon and total carbon levels to the soil quality index calculation lowered the soil quality index for all sites but did not affect relative ranking of soil quality index by management. The sites represented some of the major crop rotations and tillage practices of the Piedmont province.
