# Rapid Soil Tests for Assessing Soil Health
## 3 Results
### Step 3: Soil Health Indicator Report  
The soil health indicator report is based on the results of the aforementioned two broad-spectrum soil tests (NIRS, and multi-nutrient 0.01 M CaCl\({}_{2}\) extraction with ICP-MS analysis) and consists of seven sections (Figure 2). Section A reports on soil physical characteristics including soil texture (contents of clay, silt, sand), carbonates, SOM, pH-CaCl\({}_{2}\) and pH-water, soil structure, soil bulk density, salt indices, water holding capacity and CEC. The CEC with exchangeable cations is used to indicate the potential risk of dispersion (the separation of soil into single particles) and flocculation [81; 82] The water-holding capacity is based on a pedotransfer function [83; 84]. The salt indices comprise so-called plant-available Na (Na-0.01 M CaCl\({}_{2}\)), sodium at the CEC in kg per area unit, exchangeable sodium percentage (ESP), sodium adsorption ratio (SAR) [85; 86], and the EC [87; 88; 89]. Risks on soil shaking, wind erosion, and soil structural degradation have been derived from calculations using soil texture and SOM [90]. Soil bulk density is derived from a pedotransfer function [50; 52]. Section B reports on soil carbon characteristics, including SOC, SIC, SOM, and several ratios like C/N, S/C, and SOC/clay. The SOC/SOM ratio has been presented as carbon percentage (SOC/SOM-ratio \(\times\) 100). The indicators are meant for monitoring purposes, but they also have been incorporated in the soil organic carbon balance to provide insight into how much carbon is needed to maintain or improve the soil carbon content. For carbon sequestration monitoring purposes, SOC, SIC, and TC are also given in tons of CO\({}_{2}\) per land unit (e.g., hectare or acre) using the soil bulk density and the soil layer as input for the calculations. Section C presents the soil biological characteristics based on PLGA-reference methods [91; 92; 93; 94] including total mass of bacteria, fungi, protozoa, total microbial biomass, and some ratios (like fungi/bacteria ratio). Section D presents the essential main nutrients, following the soil intensity, soil buffering, and soil quantity approach [95; 42; 96]. Most essential micronutrients and three beneficial nutrients (Si, Co, Se) have been included. Section E presents the potential contamination of the soil by heavy metals. The report presents target and threshold values, indicating the risk of toxicity, based on the literature data [97; 98; 99; 100; 101]. Section F presents recommendations for soil and crop management, based on the results of the soil tests. For establishing the recommendations, the following input data need to be known: land use (agriculture, forest/nature, urban/industrial), crop type and variety, desired units (e.g., hectare, acre, feddan), expected yields, and the length of the growing season or climate zone. Recommendations for all essential nutrients, soil organic carbon and soil structure management, and for (minimizing the risk of) heavy metal pollution have been included. The final section G reports on the ABCDE score, an integrated assessment, following a recent proposal of the European Union [51]. Part A of the proposed soil monitoring law includes the following four indicators: (A1) salinization (EC), (A2) soil erosion, (A3) loss of soil organic carbon (SOC:clay ratio for mineral soils) and A4) subsoil compaction. Part B includes 3 indicators as follows: (B1) Excess nutrient content in soil (P-Olsen), (B2) soil contamination (heavy metals), and (B3) reduction of soil capacity to retain water. Part C includes the following 5 indicators: (C1) excess nutrient content in soil (N-total). (C2) soil acidity (pH), (C3) bulk density, (C4) loss of soil biodiversity, and (C5) soil basal respiration. The ABCDE score is derived from a combination of parameters A1, A3, B1, B2, C2, and C4 (Table 4, Figure 5), with the final score calculated as the arithmetic mean of these individual values. Figure 4: The ABCDE score (Table 4) for cadmium depends on the pH-CaCl\({}_{2}\) status.