Soil Health for Victoria's Agriculture - Context, Terminology and Concepts
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This report has been prepared to provide a baseline for soil health work in DPI with respect to the use of terminology, a general understanding of soil health within agro-ecosystems and some frameworks that can be used in future work. Soil health is an essential aspect of environmental health as it supports a range of ecosystem services. This is a complex topic and there is a wealth of literature on soil health and soil quality but terminology and definitions sometimes differ and therefore waylay the unwary reader. The focus is particularly soil health for agriculture, but the implications of soil health for environmental health and for provision of ecosystem services are also discussed. The international context for soil health has been summarised with key references provided. Priorities for soil health are presented through a general framework that is used in landscape research and decision making. Appendices comprise a case study in extension for soil health in NE Victoria, a review of the use of remote sensing in soil health assessment, and a review of the biological aspects of soil health and research needed for soil biology.
This report should be used as the primary reference for terminology and frameworks for soil health in the DPI Healthy Soils project (MIS 03250).
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© The State of Victoria, 1996 - 2008.
This document was last reviewed on 04/09/2008