Blog Posts
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How Does Soil Health Increase Resilience to Drought and Extreme Rainfall?
Extreme weather events, such as extended drought and heavy precipitation, are out of landowners’ and growers’ control; but through effective soil health management systems they can better manage how they prepare for and react to these circumstances. ...
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Attendees of the Cotton Farmer Showcase Are Reaping Big Benefits
We’re half-way through the eight-part Healthy Soils for Sustainable Cotton Farmer Showcase, featuring cotton producers and soil health specialists across the United States discussing the challenges and successes they have encountered on their journey...
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Mr. David Lamm: Healthy Soils for Sustainable Cotton Program
Today’s consumers want to know their food and fiber products are sustainably grown and the cotton industry is listening. Cotton farmers, manufacturers and retailers are collaborating to deliver cotton in a way that increases soil organic carbon as we...
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Dr. Dianna Bagnall: A New Tool for Farmers to Build Drought Resilience through Soil Health
Farmers know that soil health-promoting practices increase soil organic carbon, drought resilience, and farm profitability. Despite this, equations provided in soil science literature have not shown this relationship. As a result, farmers have not ha...
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Dr. Archie Flanders: Identifying Costs and Benefits of Soil Health Management Systems
Research indicates that soil health management systems (SHMS), which include reduced tillage and incorporating cover crops with production of cash crops, decreases soil erosion, improves water infiltration, increases soil carbon, and reduces inputs t...
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Ms. Katie Harrigan: Federal and State Level Soil Health Legislation
Ms. Katie Harrigan of Tufts University provided an update on both U.S. federal and state soil health legislation during the Policy session of the Soil Health Institute’s 2020 Annual Meeting in her talk “Federal and State Level Soil Health Legislation...
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Dr. Cristine Morgan: North American Project to Evaluate Soil Health Measurements
The Soil Health Institute is leading the North American Project to Evaluate Soil Health Measurements (NAPESHM) with the goal of identifying the most effective indicators of soil health by measuring more than 30 indicators across 124 long-term researc...
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Dr. G. Mac Bean: Effects of Soil Health Practices on Soil Water Characteristics
Soil structure and aggregate stability regulate the capacity of the soil to capture, transmit, store and release water. Damaging these soil properties can result in greater soil water runoff and erosion. Therefore, determining how agricultural manage...
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Dr. Kelsey L. H. Greub: Aggregate Stability as an Indicator of Soil Health for North American Soils
Aggregate stability is defined as the ability of a soil to maintain its physical structure and withstand external forces. Aggregate stability is related to physical, chemical, and biological soil properties, and is sensitive to changes in soil manage...
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Dr. Charlotte Norris: Evaluating a Biological Measurement of Soil Health in Agricultural Ecosystems Across North America
What is the phospholipid fatty acid (PLFA) procedure for soils? What do you want to think about when comparing PLFA lab reports? Dr. Charlotte Norris addressed these questions within an agricultural context. Dr. Norris, Forest Soils Research Scientis...
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Dr. Elizabeth Rieke: Selecting for Microbial Life Strategies in Agricultural Soils Under Soil Health Promoting Practices
Soil microbes are largely responsible for degrading organic materials and cycling nutrients in soil, and are highly sensitive to physical and chemical changes in soil. Biological measurements currently used to assess soil health provide an understand...
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Dr. Shannon Cappellazzi: Flexible Framework to Quantify the Functions of Soil: Examples with Nitrogen Cycling
The Soil Health Institute is working on building a flexible framework to quantify the functions of soil as a means of interpreting soil health measurements. This framework will be meaningful for farmers and ranchers, those interested in ecosystem ser...
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Dr. Daniel Liptzin: Effects of Soil Health Management Practices on Soil Carbon Dynamics
Carbon has long been considered central to soil health because it plays many roles in soil function. Measuring total soil carbon has been possible for decades, but many other soil carbon measurements have been proposed recently to quantify soil healt...
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Dr. Michael Cope: Management Indices that Reflect Foundational Soil Health Practices
Soil health management systems are comprised of many specific management decisions such as crop rotation, tillage and cover cropping practices. Categorical (i.e. text- or label-based) characterizations of soil health management (e.g. “no-till” or “co...
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Dr. Wayne Honeycutt: Comprehensive Strategy for Advancing Soil Health
Dr. Wayne Honeycutt, President and CEO of the Soil Health Institute, discussed a comprehensive strategy for advancing soil health, a strategy that the Soil Health Institute employs to increase adoption of soil health systems in order to achieve on-fa...
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Managing for Soil Organic Carbon is fundamental to Regenerative Agriculture
In a recent webinar, the Soil Health Institute’s President and CEO, Dr. Wayne Honeycutt, provided an introduction on how farmers can manage their soils to increase soil organic carbon. He laid out the facts with four essential questions: What is soil...
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What are the four steps to healthier soils?
The Soil Health Institute (SHI) along with other scientific bodies, advocates four basic soil health principles that apply to all agricultural systems in one way or another. To maximize benefits through accelerated soil health improvements, they nee...
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Soilborne plant pathogen fact sheet
Some soilborne pathogens can have a devastating effect on the economic viability of crops. Thankfully, soil health systems have been shown to help suppress plant pathogens. Below are some facts about soilborne pathogens and how soil conditions affect...