Session: Special Session Symposium--Can We Converge on a Minimum Dataset for Soil Health Evaluation?

Title: Special Session Symposium--Can We Converge on a Minimum Dataset for Soil Health Evaluation?

Session Description: There is tremendous interest in measuring soil health, ranging from scientists, government agencies, consultants, and farmers. However, efforts to identify the most essential measures of soil health have created much debate. For example, the Soil Health Institute has identified Tier 1 indicators, which differ from other existing frameworks, such as the Cornell Soil Health Assessment. But which indicators are considered essential, which are most promising and indispensable when it comes to soil health assessment? This answer depends on economic, methodological and geographic constraints as well as grower and researcher perspectives. This symposium will stimulate conversations regarding which measurements are most complementary and therefore represent a minimum data set soil health evaluation. Our goal is to assemble talks that outline diverse perspectives on this topic. Ample time will be allocated for discussion following each presentation, as well as a final panel discussion to conclude the symposium.