Evaluation of commercial soil health tests using a medium-term cover crop experiment in a humid, temperate climate

Various tests have been developed for quantifying soil health, such as Haney soil health test (HSHT), Solvita, and Solvita labile amino N (SLAN). Although commercially available, their applicability in temperate agroecosystems are largely unknown. Therefore, these tests were evaluated using a medium-term cover crop (CC) experiment established in 2007 (repeated 2008). Treatments of four different summer-planted CCs and a no CC control (no-CC), with a split-plot of cereal straw removal were used to assess soil health treatment differences and correlations with crop yield, soil organic C (SOC), and 2 day cumulative C mineralization (Cmin(2d)). Average crop yield with CC was 7.9 to 22% greater than no-CC depending on the year. Similarly, compared to no-CC, plots with CC had 8.4 to 9.3% greater average SOC concentrations and 5.6 to 6.5% greater Cmin(2d), suggesting the suitability of this trial to evaluate soil health tests. Inconsistencies between years with HSHT, Solvita and SLAN in (i) detecting CC treatment differences and (ii) correlations with crop yield or soil indicators (SOC, Cmin(2d)) suggests limited the applicability of these soil health tests. This research furthers our understanding of CC systems on soil quality, C storage and by extension agroecosystem sustainability.