UK Centre for Ecology and Hydrology, Environment Centre Wales, Deiniol Road, Bangor, Gwynedd LL57 2UW, UK.
UK Centre for Ecology and Hydrology, Environment Centre Wales, Deiniol Road, Bangor, Gwynedd LL57 2UW, UK.
Sci Total Environ. 2023 Aug 15;886:163973. doi: 10.1016/j.scitotenv.2023.163973. Epub 2023 May 8.
Efforts to improve soil health require that target values of key soil properties are established. No agreed targets exist but providing population data as benchmarks is a useful step to standardise soil health comparison between landscapes. We exploited nationally representative topsoil (0-15 cm) measurements to derive soil health benchmarks for managed and semi-natural environments across Great Britain. In total, 4587 soil organic matter (SOM), 3860 pH, 2908 bulk density (BD), and 465 earthworm abundance (EA) datapoints were used. As soil properties are sensitive to site-specific characteristics, data were stratified by habitat, soil type, and mean annual precipitation, with benchmarks defined as the middle 80 % of values in each distribution - yielding 135 benchmarks. BD and pH decreased with land management intensity (agriculture > semi-natural grasslands > woodlands > heathlands > wetlands), and vice versa for SOM and EA. Normalising benchmark ranges by medians revealed soil health indicator benchmark widths increased in the order: pH < BD < SOM < EA, while width increased with decreasing land management intensity. Arable and horticulture and improved grassland exhibited narrow benchmarks for SOM, pH and BD, yet the widest EA benchmark, suggesting additional drivers impact EA patterns. Upland wetlands had the widest BD benchmarks, important when determining carbon stocks. East Anglia currently possesses the largest proportions of atypical soils, including below typical SOM (19.2 %), above typical BD (17.4 %) and pH (39.1 %), and the smallest proportions of above typical SOM (2.4 %), and below typical BD (5.8 %) and pH (2.3 %). This is found even after land use, soil type and rainfall have been considered, underscoring how urgently soil health should be addressed here. Our benchmarking framework allows landowners to compare where their measured soil health indicators fall within expected ranges and is applicable to other biomes, national and multinational contexts.
改善土壤健康需要确定关键土壤特性的目标值。虽然目前尚未达成一致的目标，但提供人口数据作为基准是标准化景观间土壤健康比较的有用步骤。我们利用全国代表性的表土（0-15 厘米）测量值，为英国各地的管理和半自然环境推导土壤健康基准。总共有 4587 个土壤有机质 (SOM)、3860 个 pH 值、2908 个容重 (BD) 和 465 个蚯蚓丰度 (EA) 数据点。由于土壤特性对特定地点的特征敏感，因此数据按栖息地、土壤类型和年平均降水量进行分层，基准定义为每个分布中值的中间 80% - 产生 135 个基准。BD 和 pH 值随土地管理强度（农业>半自然草地>林地>石南荒地>湿地）的增加而降低，而 SOM 和 EA 则相反。通过中位数归一化基准范围，发现土壤健康指标基准宽度按以下顺序增加：pH<BD<SOM<EA，而宽度随土地管理强度的降低而增加。耕地和园艺以及改良草地的 SOM、pH 和 BD 基准狭窄，但 EA 基准最宽，表明其他因素会影响 EA 模式。旱地湿地的 BD 基准最宽，这对于确定碳储量很重要。东安格利亚目前拥有最大比例的非典型土壤，包括低于典型 SOM（19.2%）、高于典型 BD（17.4%）和 pH（39.1%），以及最小比例的高于典型 SOM（2.4%）、低于典型 BD（5.8%）和 pH（2.3%）。即使考虑了土地利用、土壤类型和降雨，这一情况仍然存在，突显出这里急需解决土壤健康问题。我们的基准框架允许土地所有者比较他们测量的土壤健康指标在预期范围内的位置，并且适用于其他生物群落、国家和跨国背景。
