The Evolution of Soil Loss Tolerance and Its Importance to Soil Productivity Protection, including Ecosystem Services

Soil erosion research provided the concept of soil-loss tolerance, which is a value of soil loss that, if exceeded, reduces crop productivity and soil fertility. Much of the modern history of soil science involved research to provide quantitative estimates of the equilibrium involving soil loss and soil formation. With the advent of soil health indicators and their laboratory protocols, new soil knowledge and visions provided additional assessment technologies for producers to maintain or improve their soil’s vitality. However, there exists a need for the establishment of field evaluation guidelines to reveal the landowners’ success in augmenting key soil health indicators. Adopting soil erosion concepts involving the balance of soil loss and soil formation rates and substituting actual and desired soil indicator values will gauge the current soil health status. The application for evaluating ecosystem services is an important land management objective.