Relationships between field management, soil health, and microbial community composition

More meaningful and useful soil health tests are needed to enable better on-farm soil management. Our objective was to assess the relationship between field management, soil health, and soil microbial abundance and composition (phospholipid fatty acid analysis (PLFA)) in soil collected from two fields (farmer-designated ‘good’ versus ‘poor’) across 34 diverse (livestock, grain or vegetable cropping) farms in Maritime Canada. Soil health was measured using soil texture, surface hardness, available water capacity, water stable aggregates, organic matter, soil protein, soil respiration, active carbon, and standard nutrient analysis. All soils were medium to coarse textured (