Microbial Underpinnings of Soil Health.

Soil health, by its very name, implies that soil is alive or at least full of life. There are multiple ways in which attributes of a healthy soil interact with its soil microbial communities, some very directly like soil respiration, and others more indirectly like soil structure. A review of the multiple ways in which soil communities engage in soil health is provided. We discuss how management practices may be impacted by the realization that soil is alive--that it is responsive, evolving, reacting and complex--rather than a more static set of properties. New directions in efforts to try to decode the complexities of an extraordinarily diverse soil microbial community and put this information to use are discussed.