Determining the Relevant Scale for Soil Measurement and Management Decisions: A Puzzle of Multiple Spatial-Temporal Processes.

Soil development is determined by a combination of factors such as climate, geology, organisms, local topography acting over time as defined by Jenny’s soil forming factors model. However, these factors act over different scales and their interactions and feedback lead to complex soil processes and patterns. The challenge is to understand and more importantly translate the scale-soil process-soil properties relationships and soil functions in predictable and practical patterns. Soil systems approach is used in many soil science related disciplines to describe the complexity of such relationships and each offers a unique perspective on the governing soil processes. The major goal of this work is to demonstrate through examples the inter-connectivity of various soil processes using scales as a common denominator. We discuss the practical implications of defining the relevant scale as it relates to the selection of the appropriate measurements and management decisions.