Management that enhances living plant cover, minimizes disturbance, and increases biodiversity is increasingly viewed as critical to improving soil health. These changes measured with soil health indicators should also result in measurable changes in soil functions. This session will explore the mechanisms of change under practices that shift the health and related function of the soil, implications for the productivity of working lands, and impacts on elemental budgets at farm to global spatial scales.

Topics will focus on the response of drivers of soil organic matter dynamics and controls on greenhouse gas production and nitrate leaching in response to management, comparisons of indicators or evaluation of indicators as proxies for functions, impacts of improved management on soil physical and microbial processes, the role of historical land use on soil function, and the use of novel and established methods to assess soil health and functionality across spatial and temporal scales.