Linking soil health and ecological resilience to achieve agricultural sustainability

Healthy soil is critical for global food security and other essential ecosystem services but is threatened by processes of soil degradation, with at least 33% of global croplands estimated to be moderately or highly degraded. Current soil health assessments provide insight into soil functional performance but often lack diagnostic criteria that assess management effects on soil function over time. We propose integrating soil health assessments with ecological resilience theory, which includes attributes of latitude, resistance, and precariousness, to provide a conceptual framework for understanding management impacts on soil function and agricultural sustainability. Here we explore this conceptual framework using the Palouse River watershed of the US Pacific Northwest as a working example, as the soil degradation problems of erosion, organic matter loss, and acidification experienced in this region have worldwide relevance. We demonstrate how increasing agroecological management options, or adaptive capacity, can help reverse soil degradation and minimize the effects of climate change.