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Title:   Author  item
                                            Lehman, R

                                                         - *Michael*item
                                            Acosta-Martinez, Veronicaitem
                                            Buyer, Jeffreyitem
                                            Cambardella, Cynthiaitem
                                            Collins, Harolditem
                                            Ducey, Thomasitem
                                            Halvorson, Jonathanitem
                                            Jin, Virginiaitem
                                            Johnson, Janeitem
                                            Kremer, Robertitem
                                            Lundgren, Jonathanitem
                                            Manter, Danielitem
                                            Maul, Judeitem
                                            Smith, Jeffreyitem
                                            Stott, Diane
  Submitted to: Journal of Soil and Water Conservation
                                    Publication Type: Other
                                    Publication Acceptance Date: 12/9/2014
                                    Publication  Date: 1/6/2015
                                    Citation: Lehman, R.M., Acosta Martinez, V., Buyer, J.S., Cambardella, C.A., Collins, H.P., Ducey, T.F., Halvorson, J.J., Jin, V.L., Johnson, J.M., Kremer, R.E., Lundgren, J.G., Manter, D.K., Maul, J.E., Smith, J.L., Stott, D.E. 2015. Soil biology for resilient, healthy soil. Journal of Soil and Water Conservation. 70(1):12A-18A; doi:10.2489/jswc.70.1.12A.Interpretive Summary: The living component of soil or soil biota represents a small fraction (< 0.05% dry weight), but it is essential to many soil functions and overall soil quality.  Some of these key functions or services for production agriculture are: 1) providing and cycling nutrients; 2) pest and pathogen protection; 3) production of growth factors; 4) water availability; and 5) formation of stable aggregates to reduce the risks of soil erosion and increase water infiltration.  Soil resources and their inherent biological communities are the foundation for agricultural production systems that sustain the human population. The rapidly increasing human population is expanding the demand for food, fiber, feed, and fuel, which is stretching the capacity of the soil resource and contributing to soil degradation.  Soil degradation decreases a soil’s production capacity to directly supply human demands and decreases a soil’s functional capacity to perform numerous critical services, which are valued in trillions of U.S. dollars.  The ability to reverse degradation of soil resources and improve soil services is intimately related to the ability to promote the biological functioning or health of the soil.  Emerging tools and technologies have become available to dramatically advance our understanding of microscopic soil biota and provide the foundation to manage soil organisms to enhance primary productivity, provide multiple ecological services, rejuvenate soil resilience and sustain long-term soil resource quality.
                                Technical Abstract: What is a resilient healthy soil?  A resilient soil is capable of recovering or adapting to stress; the health of the living/biological component of the soil is crucial for soil resiliency.  Soil health is tightly coupled to the concept of soil quality (Text Box 1) and the terms are frequently used interchangeably.  The living component of soil or soil biota represents a small fraction (< 0.05% dry weight), but it is essential to many soil functions and overall soil quality.  Some of these key functions or services for production agriculture are: 1) providing and cycling nutrients; 2) pest and pathogen protection; 3) production of growth factors; 4) water availability; and 5) formation of stable aggregates to reduce the risks of soil erosion and increase water infiltration (Table 1).  Soil resources and their inherent biological communities are the foundation for agricultural production systems that sustain the human population.
The rapidly increasing human population is expanding the demand for food, fiber, feed, and fuel, which is stretching the capacity of the soil resource and contributing to soil degradation.  Soil degradation decreases a soil’s production capacity to directly supply human demands and decreases a soil’s functional capacity to perform numerous critical services, which are valued in trillions of U.S. dollars (Pimental et al. 1997).  The ability to reverse degradation of soil resources and improve soil services is intimately related to the ability to promote the biological functioning or health of the soil.  Although this report primarily considers soil microorganisms, we fully acknowledge the importance of higher soil organisms to the maintenance of soil health and provision of soil services, but leave those phyla to future discourse. Emerging tools and technologies have become available to dramatically advance our understanding of microscopic soil biota and provide the foundation to manage soil organisms to enhance primary productivity, provide multiple ecological services, rejuvenate soil resilience and sustain long-term soil resource quality.


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