Soil Use Efficiency (SUE) is the use of individual and inter-related factors (inherent and dynamic) related to soil quality,

soil nutrient Soil, also commonly referred to as earth or dirt, is a mixture of organic matter, minerals, gases, liquids, and organisms that together support life. Some scientific definitions distinguish ''dirt'' from ''soil'' by restricting the former t ...

availability and nutrient uptake potential as effective reference points for improvement of

crop productivity Agricultural productivity is measured as the ratio of agricultural outputs to inputs. While individual products are usually measured by weight, which is known as crop yield, varying products make measuring overall agricultural output difficu ...

in individual and varying soil types. Assessing SUE involves a site evaluation of the land and pit excavation to examine the soil profile. Site characterization identifies impairments to

biomass productivity In ecology, the term productivity refers to the rate of generation of biomass in an ecosystem, usually expressed in units of mass per volume (unit surface) per unit of time, such as grams per square metre per day (g m−2 d−1). The unit of mass ...

and the provisioning of

ecological services Ecosystem services are the many and varied benefits to humans provided by the natural environment and healthy ecosystems. Such ecosystems include, for example, agroecosystems, forest ecosystem, grassland ecosystems, and aquatic ecosystems. Th ...

. Inherent impairments are from limits inherent to the land and soil such as

steep slope A ''Steilhang'' (pl: ''Steilhänge'') is a geoscientific term for a steep mountainside or hillside (or a part thereof), the average slope of which is greater than 1:2 or 30°. Leser defines a ''steilhang'' as a mountainside with an incline of bet ...

, and

subsoil Subsoil is the layer of soil under the topsoil on the surface of the ground. Like topsoil, it is composed of a variable mixture of small particles such as sand, silt and clay, but with a much lower percentage of organic matter and humus, and it ...

claypan. Dynamic impairments are the result of land degradation, such as soil acidification, loss of

soil carbon Soil carbon is the solid carbon stored in global soils. This includes both soil organic matter and inorganic carbon as carbonate minerals. Soil carbon is a carbon sink in regard to the global carbon cycle, playing a role in biogeochemistry, clima ...

, water erosion, and

wind erosion Aeolian processes, also spelled eolian, pertain to wind activity in the study of geology and weather and specifically to the wind's ability to shape the surface of the Earth (or other planets). Winds may erode, transport, and deposit materials ...

. Understanding these relationships informs

land management Land management is the process of managing the use and development (in both urban and rural settings, but it is mostly managed in Urban places.) of land resources. Land resources are used for a variety of purposes which may include organic agricul ...

decisions needed to restore land productivity. The determination of

water-use efficiency Water-use efficiency (WUE) refers to the ratio of water used in plant metabolism to water lost by the plant through transpiration. Two types of water-use efficiency are referred to most frequently: * photosynthetic water-use efficiency (also cal ...

(WUE) and

Nutrient A nutrient is a substance used by an organism to survive, grow, and reproduce. The requirement for dietary nutrient intake applies to animals, plants, fungi, and protists. Nutrients can be incorporated into cells for metabolic purposes or excret ...

Use Efficiency (NUE) in agricultural production systems is governed primarily by the

boundary conditions In mathematics, in the field of differential equations, a boundary value problem is a differential equation together with a set of additional constraints, called the boundary conditions. A solution to a boundary value problem is a solution to th ...

of Soil Use Efficiency (SUE).

References

{{soil science topics Soil

See also

References