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AESA soil quality benchmark sites
The development of a province-wide network of benchmark sampling was initiated in the spring and summer of 1998 by the Conservation and Development Branch of Alberta Agriculture, Food and Rural Development (AAFRD). Monitoring of these benchmark sites is part of the AESA (Alberta Environmentally Sustainable Agriculture) Soil Quality Monitoring Initiative.
Initially, 2 goals were identified for this program. The first to determine the state of soil quality across Alberta and the second to determine the risk of change in soil quality with various management practices. A third goal to determine how soil quality integrates into environmental sustainability was added to the soil quality program strategy in 2001.
The main objectives of the fall benchmark sampling across Alberta are to:
- provide baseline soil information
- evaluate landscape effects on soil quality and soil quality risk assessment
- provide a data set to test and validate simulation models (crop growth, wind and water erosion)
- monitor changes in soil quality over time on a field landscape basis
Monitoring
AESA reports
1992-2002 Soil quality study
In the late 1980s, questions concerning trends in soil quality and means of measuring those trends, if detectable, arose in response to the issue of sustainable agriculture. To address this, Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada established the Soil Quality Benchmark Site Study as part of the 1990 Soil Quality Evaluation Program.
By 1992, a network of 23 benchmark-monitoring sites across Canada were established, including 4 in Alberta, and various land, soil and air characteristics were monitored in Alberta for at least 10 years. Funding for the study ended following the 10-year resampling of the sites in 2002-2003.
Current Status of Soil Quality Study
Upon completion of data transfer agreements authorized in 2022 custodianship of the samples and soil property data was moved to the University of Alberta, Department of Renewable Resources, Environmental Soil Science.
Benchmark reports
View benchmark documentation for Alberta sites:
Comparative reports
The following comparative reports include the results of re-sampling 5 and 10 years following site establishment:
A 5-year comparison – Poster presentation to Canadian Soil Science Society Annual Meeting (2002), Banff, Alberta:
A 10-year comparison – Oral presentation to Canadian Soil Science Society Annual Meeting (2005), Halifax, Nova Scotia: