Managing Phosphorus for Soil Health and Water Quality.

Soil health has emerged as tool for balancing long term production and conservation objectives. Increasingly, soil health has been inserted into the water quality arena, including in watersheds where phosphorus management is the principle concern. At a minimum, these settngs represent a challenge for soil health based strategies, particularly when dissolved phosphorus management is a priority. At the core of theses challenges is the need to balance multiple objectives through a management perspective that focuses on one medium, soii. Even so, opportunities exist to expand soil health considerations, such as by prioritizing evaluation of vertical stratification of nutrients and pathways of flow that bypass native processes that filter water.