article · Communications in Soil Science and Plant Analysis
Soil functions as a critical reservoir of biological and natural resources essential for life and ecosystem services, directly influencing crop yields. Historically, agronomic evaluations of soil health relied predominantly on chemical indicators, overlooking the ecophysiological functions of microorganisms. Soil microbial communities are vital for soil formation, nutrient cycling, and transforming organic matter into forms plants can utilise. This review examines how various environmental mechanisms, particularly those linked to climate change, alter soil properties and affect microbial composition. By analysing agronomic studies regarding physical soil characteristics, ecological functions, and services, the review evaluates how microbial processes can inform innovative best management practices to protect and enhance overall soil health.
Sustaining productive agriculture requires healthy soil, yet climate change and standard farming methods frequently disrupt fragile underground ecosystems. Moving beyond simple chemical testing to understand how beneficial soil microbes function allows land managers to protect soil biodiversity, improve nutrient cycling, and secure food production against changing climatic conditions.
This work represents early-stage conceptual research that synthesises literature rather than testing a specific product. It could inform agronomists, agricultural extension services, and farm managers working to design and implement improved soil management practices, but the abstract does not indicate a direct commercial application pathway or product readiness level.
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Soil is an important reservoir of innumerable natural and biological resources fundamental to the sustainability of life and the earth's functionality. The soil is complex due to changing biodiversity, physicochemical characteristics, disturbances, and pedogenesis, which are constituent indices required for the measurement of its healthiness. Hence, there is a need to concertedly protect the soil by consciously promoting practices and behaviors that optimize its priority functions in delivering ecosystem services. It is further significant for crop yield, hence the need to pay more attention to its health. Soil healthiness is also a reflection of its capacity to support biogeochemical processes, abiotic communities, and plant and animal productions. However, agronomic studies, until recently, focused more on the use of chemical indicators in determining soil health, despite the versatile ecophysiological role of microorganisms in soil formation, resource cycling, and management. These biological phenomena expressed by soil microbial communities form the basis for the conversion of diverse organic matters into bioutilizable resources for plants' healthy development. This review, therefore, explored the underlining mechanisms, particularly climate change-related, that caused divergent soil properties and how this impacted the microbial composition of healthy soil. Likewise, several pieces of agronomic literature on the physical characteristics, ecological services, and functions of a healthy soil were compared toward innovative best management practices for improving soil health.
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DOI: 10.1080/00103624.2024.2367246
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