ABSTRACT
Soils are fundamental to the well-being and productivity of agricultural and natural ecosystems. ¤e concept of soil quality was developed to characterize the usefulness and health of soils as a means of evaluating sustainable soil management practices. ¤e concept has been applied throughout the world for a multitude of purposes (e.g., Lamarca, 1996; Ouedraogo et al., 2001; Shepherd et al., 2001; Tian and Feng, 2008). Recent reviews have emphasized the importance and success of the concept for sustainable agriculture and ecological management (Karlen et al., 2001; Wienhold et al., 2004; Kibblewhite et al., 2008), while others have critiqued the concept as counterproductive to the goals of soil science and the challenges of modern agriculture (Sojka and Upchurch, 1999; Singer and Sojka, 2001; Letey et al., 2003; Sanchez et al., 2003; Sojka et al., 2003). ¤is chapter summarizes recent literature on the soil quality concept and touches upon some of the larger issues raised in the course of its discussion.
