title: Soil quality in relation to soil pollution.
abstract: In comparison with the environmental compartments air and water, soil is an extremely complicated system, because properties of the soil and chemical, physical and biological characteristics vary greatly between different soil systems. This makes the development of general rules for quantitative evaluation of soil quality impossible. The large variation between the buffering capacities of various soils for different compounds also complicates the question. In The Netherlands, a system of reference values for various compounds has been developed, these reference values reflect situations in which there is a low degree of contamination. For heavy metals, these reference values consist of sliding scales incorporating the influence of a soil's clay and organic matter content. Examples for derivation of effect-based soil quality standards are briefly described.
authors.affiliation: Department of Soil Science and Plant Nutrition, Wageningen Agricultural University, The Netherlands.
authors.forename: F A
authors.initials: FA
authors.lastname: de Haan
mesh_terms: D001682:Biological Availability; D008670:Metals / Q000032:analysis; D011786:Quality Control; D012016:Reference Values; D012987:Soil / Q000592:standards*; D012989:Soil Pollutants / Q000032:analysis*
chemical_list: D008670:Metals; D012987:Soil; D012989:Soil Pollutants