Connecting soil health and water quality

August 22, 2022
A photo of a farm with a red barn growing soy beans along the Patuxent River in Maryland; photo by the USDA.
Photo of a farm along the Patuxent River in Maryland by the USDA.

In agricultural landscapes, small-scale soil properties lead to watershed-scale effects. Water quality researcher Marcelle Lewandowski and SWAC faculty member Dr. Anna Cates describe this relationship—and the current disconnect experienced by land and water resource managers. They see measuring and elucidating connections between processes working at different temporal and spatial scales as a fundamental challenge, and they suggest that more research on soil-water dynamics can close the gap. Read the recent publication in the Journal of Environmental Quality