This book presents the most recent analytical techniques for determining key indicators of soil health, including physical, chemical, and biological parameters. While many current soil analysis manuals focus primarily on basic chemical and physical properties without emphasizing soil health assessment, recent literature shows that indicator parameters such as soil carbon pools, soil aggregation behavior, aggregate-associated carbon content, and biological activity are increasingly being used to monitor changes in soil quality and soil health over time. Analytical protocols for these parameters are available in various research journals.

This book is an essential resource for researchers, postgraduate students, academics, and policymakers in the fields of Soil Science, Agronomy, Natural Resource Management, and Forestry. It compiles the latest procedures for assessing soil health indicator parameters, providing a comprehensive and up-to-date guide for those working in these fields.

Section 1: Common Soil Parameters 1. Collection and Preparation of Soil Sample 2. Determination of Soil Reaction (pH)  3. Determination of Soil Electrical Conductivity (EC) (1:2 Soil-Water suspension) 4. Cation Exchange Capacity (CEC) 5. Exchangeable Sodium (Na+) (Ammonium acetate method) Section 2: Soil Physical Parameters 6. Soil Texture (Bouyoucos Hydrometer Method) 7. Soil Bulk Density (Core method) 8. Soil Aggregate Analysis (Cambardella and Elliott,1993) 9. Soil Aggregate Analysis (Dry sieving) 10. Wet Sieving Procedure for Aggregate Analysis (Using Yoder's apparatus) 11. Mean Weight Diameter and Water Stable Aggregates Section 3: Soil Carbon and Fractions 12. Total Organic Carbon (TOC) (Dry combustion method) 13. Determination of Soil Organic Carbon (Walkley & Black, 1934) 14. Labile Carbon (KMnO4 -Oxidizable soil organic carbon) (Weil et al., 2003) 15. Labile Carbon Fractions (K2 Cr2 O7 Method) (Chan et al., 2001) 16. Particulate Organic Matter - Carbon (POM-C) (Cambardella and Elliott, 1992) 17. Soil Respiration (Anderson, 1982) viii Soil Health Analysis Section 4: Soil Availability of Primary Plant Nutrients 18. Soil Available Nitrogen (N) (Subbiah and Asija, 1956) 19. Soil Available Phosphorus (P) (Olsen et al. 1954) 20. Soil Available Potassium (K) (Hanway and Heidel, 1952) Section 5: Soil Secondary and Micronutrients 21. Available Sulphur (S) in Soil by Turbidimetric Method (Williams and Steinbergs, 1959) 22. Available Boron (B) in Soil by Hot Water Soluble Method (Berger and Truog, 1939) 23. Soil Available Micronutrients (Fe, Mn, Zn and Cu) (Lindsay and Norvell, 1978) 6: Soil Biological Activity 24. Techniques for Analysis of Soil Biological Parameters 25. Enumeration of Soil Microbes by Dilution Plating Technique 26. Dehydrogenase Activity 27. Fluorescein Diacetate (FDA) Hydrolysis 28. Glucosidase assay (Eivazi and Tabatabai, 1988) 29. Phosphatase Activity in Soil 30. Electrophoresis of DNA Molecule 31 Important Terminologies used in Chemical Analysis