An approach for assessing soil health: a practical guide for optimal ecological management

How to integrate environmental geographic information and biodiversity data combined with management measures to effectively assess soil health is still an unresolved problem. This paper suggests an approach for systematically estimating soil quality and guiding ecological management. First, canonical correspondence analysis is used to predict the distributions of plant species or microorganism communities, principle pollutants and environmental variables from which spatial and environmental data are extracted by the geographic information system (GIS). Secondly, geostatistical methodologies are then used to estimate and quantify the spatial distribution characteristic of the species and pollutants and to create maps of spatial uncertainty and hazard assessment through ArcGis technology. Finally, redundancy analysis provides a suggestion about better management strategy and environmental factor for improving soil health and biodiversity. The combination of these methods with “3S” techniques as an assessment approach effectively meets the challenges for estimation and management in different soil environments.