The productive potential for land is set by soil conditions, along with energy coming from the sun and climate. Soils sustain life as the medium in which the plants that feed and shelter humans and animals grow. Beyond that, they store water and carbon and recycle and purify water, air, and nutrients. Healthy soils are key to healthy forest ecosystems that promote water filtration, reduce wind and water erosion, enhance plant and soil biodiversity, reduce the incidence of insects and diseases, and contribute to clean and abundant water supplies.

Recognizing soils as the foundation of forest and grassland productivity, the Forest Service studies long-term soil productivity at a number of sites across the country. Scientists identify and track the soil properties most vital to forest and grassland growth and develop tools to monitor soil productivity to understand the impact of management actions. Agency researchers look at ways to limit the effects of management actions on soils and explore opportunities to restore degraded soils.

The Forest Service engages in this work because:

• Forest soils and vegetation have evolved as coupled ecosystems over a long time. Understanding of the effects of management actions on soils is critically needed to inform policies and management practices to optimize ecosystem health on a broad scale.

• Environmental changes including climate change, invasive species, and increasing wildfire severity and frequency are affecting soil health in complex ways that are only partially understood. The long-term monitoring of soil condition and productivity undertaken by the Forest Service helps define the impacts of these changing conditions.

• Developing new tools can help land managers improve their awareness of the existing condition of soils, the importance of the biophysical processes, the role of soils in supporting vegetation, and in assessing the impacts of potential actions.

Featured Work

The Forest Service Soil Monitoring Toolkit provides resources to support soil management and soil disturbance monitoring.

The Forest Service has led the development of the Long-Term Soil Productivity Network to examine the long-term consequences of soil disturbance on fundamental forest productivity.

Forest and Rangeland Soils of the United States under Changing Conditions: A Comprehensive Science Synthesis explores the current understanding of soils and science around soil carbon, hydrology, biogeochemistry, and biological diversity, and discusses the effects of natural and human-caused disturbances.