Field assessment of soil structural quality - a development of the Peerlkamp test
Abstract
Abstract Increased awareness of the role of soil structure in defining the physical fertility or quality of soil has led to the need for a simple assessment relevant to the environmental and economic sustainability of soil productivity. A test is required that is usable by farmer, consultant and researcher alike. Here an assessment of soil structure quality (Sq) is described which is based on a visual key linked to criteria chosen to be as objective as possible. The influences of operator, tillage and crop type on Sq value were tested. The test takes 5–15 min per location and enough replicates were obtained for statistical comparison of data sets. The assessments of individual operators were influenced to an extent by differences between fields, making the use of multiple operators desirable. Differences in soil management were revealed by the test and related to differences in soil physical properties (bulk density, penetration resistance and porosity) and crop growth. Indicative thresholds of soil management are suggested. The assessment should be viewed as complementary to conventional laboratory assessments of soil structure. Visual soil structure assessment can indicate to the soil scientist where to sample and what soil measurements are likely to be worthwhile.
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The Peerlkamp method has recently been improved by simplification of the scoring scheme and inclusion of a visual key to further support its use by non-experts of soil science.
“has recently been improved by simpli fi cation of the scoring scheme and inclusion of a visual key (Ball et al., 2007; Guimaraes et al., 2011) to further support the use of the method by non-experts of soil science.”
From Soil quality – A critical review (2018) · cites this paper as Ball et al., 2007
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- Authors
- Ball, B. C., Batey, T., & Munkholm, L. J.
- Affiliations
- Scottish Agricultural Science Agency (GB)
- University of Aberdeen (GB)
- Aarhus University (DK)
- Corresponding author
- Ball, B. C.
- Venue
- Soil Use and Management
- Publisher
- Wiley
- Published
- 2007-09-04
- Volume
- 23
- Issue
- 4
- Pages
- 329-337
- ISSN
- 0266-0032 (ISSN-L)
- 1475-2743
- OpenAlex
- W2154861936
- Cited by
- 288
- References
- 15
- Citations by year
- 2026: 15 · 2025: 19 · 2024: 25 · 2023: 22 · 2022: 37 · 2021: 22 · 2020: 13 · 2019: 17 · 2018: 15 · 2017: 13 · 2016: 18 · 2015: 9 · 2014: 20 · 2013: 11 · 2012: 12
- FWCI
- 5.95
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- closed
- Locations
- Soil Use and Management (publishedVersion)
- Topics
- Life Sciences › Agricultural and Biological Sciences › Soil Science › Soil Management and Crop Yield
- Life Sciences › Agricultural and Biological Sciences › Soil Science › Soil Science and Environmental Management
- Physical Sciences › Engineering › Civil and Structural Engineering › Soil and Unsaturated Flow
- Keywords
- visual soil assessment, field evaluation, soil physical properties, bulk density, penetration resistance, soil porosity, tillage effects, crop types, operator variability, soil physical fertility
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Confidence bands are shown only for fields calibrated on our annotated test set. None is calibrated yet, so no band is shown.
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