A Guide to the Collection, Analysis, and Interpretation of Soil Indicator Data in the Forest

The Montreal Process was formed in 1994 to develop an internationally agreed upon set of criteria and indicators for the conservation and sustainable management of temperate and boreal forests. In response to this effort, the Forest Inventory and Analysis (FIA) and Forest Health Monitoring (FHM) programs of the USDA Forest Service have implemented a national soil monitoring program to address specific questions related to: (1) the current and future status of soil resources and (2) the contribu-tion of forest soils to the global carbon cycle. As the first and only nationally consistent effort to moni-tor forest soil quality in the United States, this program provides critical baseline information on the current status of the soil resource and the potential effects of natural and human disturbance on forest health and productivity. This report provides documentation on the types of data collected as part of the FIA soil indicator, the field and laboratory methods employed, and the rationale behind these data collection procedures. Particular emphasis is placed upon describing generalized approaches for analyzing and interpreting soil indicator variables and discussing the strengths and limitations of individual soil variables. The analytical techniques detailed in this report are not intended to be exhaustive. Details of specific ana