Sustaining Soil Health – a Canadian Perspective.

Most managed lands in Canada were converted from their indigenous state within about the last century. From the outset, scientists recognized the importance of preserving soil productivity and, with farmers and other land managers, sought ways of measuring, maintaining and restoring soil health. This effort continues today, its urgency intensified by coming changes that may exert new pressures on our soils. In this presentation, we address the question ‘How do we foster the ongoing health of our managed soils?’. By ‘soil health’ we mean the capacity of a soil to support the continuing ecological and societal functions expected of an ecosystem. Defining soil health this way brings to the fore at least three perspectives. First is the perspective of ‘place’: Because each ecosystem has unique functions and properties, there can be no universal criteria for soil health – they depend on the specific land in question. Second is the perspective of ‘time’: We measure soil health not only to know its current status, but to see if it is changing. Is it improving or declining? This implies that soil health be measured repeatedly over long durations often exceeding the tenure of a single observer. Third is the ‘human’ perspective. Now, in the Anthropocene, soil health depends heavily on how well humans use and manage the land (or choose not to manage it). This suggests that measures of soil health should consider human aspirations within ecosystems, and be described in ways that are meaningful and compelling to people whose choices affect the status of these lands. Through these and other perspectives, we explore ways of measuring, sustaining, and promoting soil health, focusing especially on Canadian agricultural ecosystems.