Intro -- English Equivalents -- Executive Summary -- Overview and Purpose -- Key Messages -- Key Benefits of Forest and Rangeland Soils -- Carbon and Water -- Biodiversity and Indicators of Soil Health -- Biogeochemistry -- Soil in Wetland and Urban Landscapes -- Degradation of Soil Health -- Management -- Managing, Restoring, and Addressing Soil Needs -- Innovations in Soil Management -- Monitoring Restored Systems -- Assessment, Mapping, and Measuring -- Needs for the Future -- Literature Cited -- Contents -- About the Contributors -- 1: State of Forest and Rangeland Soils Research in the United States -- Overview -- The Forest and Rangeland Soils of the United States -- Soil Variability -- Legacies of Forest Soils Research -- Calhoun Experimental Forest, Sumter National Forest, South Carolina -- Sylvania Wilderness, Ottawa National Forest, Michigan -- Long-Term Soil Productivity Program, United States and Western Canada -- Monitoring to Detect Changes in Soil -- Research Challenges -- Physical and Human Resources for Knowledge Acquisition, Integration, Analysis, and Transfer -- Key Findings -- Key Information Needs -- Literature Cited -- 2: Soil Carbon -- Introduction -- Mechanisms of Mineral Soil Organic Carbon Stability and Vulnerability: An Emerging Paradigm -- Application of the New Paradigm to Assessing Soil Carbon Vulnerability -- Soil Carbon Vulnerability Under Key Disturbances -- Climate Change and Increasing Carbon Dioxide -- Fire -- Harvesting and Thinning -- Livestock Grazing -- Nutrient Additions -- Tree Mortality -- Invasive Species -- Managing for Soil Organic Carbon in Forests and Rangelands -- Links to Institutional Initiatives -- Key Findings -- Key Information Needs -- Literature Cited -- 3: Soils and Water -- Introduction -- Soils and the Water Cycle -- Modeling Soils and the Water Cycle.

Threats to the Important Soil Function of Providing Clean, Abundant Water -- Forest Harvesting -- Grazing of Forests and Rangelands -- Fire and Related Activities -- Soil Water Repellency -- Natural Gas Development -- Development for Recreational Activities -- Soil Pollution -- Priority Information Gaps -- Linked Soil Climate Information -- Expanded Soil Moisture Monitoring -- Continued Support for Hydrologic Monitoring Networks -- Key Findings -- Key Information Needs -- Literature Cited -- 4: Biogeochemical Cycling in Forest and Rangeland Soils of the United States -- Introduction -- Human Impacts on Forest and Rangeland Biogeochemical Cycling in the United States -- Harvest and Grazing -- Change in Species Composition -- Forest Fertilization -- Prescribed Fire -- Environmental Pollutants -- Atmospheric Deposition of Sulfur, Nitrogen, and Mercury -- A Short History of Regulation and Research -- Impacts of Atmospheric Sulfur, Nitrogen, and Mercury Deposition on Forest and Rangeland Biogeochemical Cycling -- Ecosystem Response to Declining Atmospheric Pollutants of Sulfur, Nitrogen, and Mercury -- Critical Loads of Atmospheric Sulfur and Nitrogen -- Toxic and Priority Pollutants -- Contaminants of Emerging Concern -- Climate Change, Climate Variability, and Extreme Weather Events -- Temperature and Precipitation as Major Factors of Biome Distribution -- Temperature and Precipitation as Determinants of Ecosystem Productivity -- Temperature and Precipitation as Drivers of Physical, Chemical, and Biological Reactions -- Extreme Disturbance -- Invasive Species, Insect Pests, and Pathogens -- Invasive Species -- Insect Pests -- Pathogens -- Key Findings -- Key Information Needs -- Literature Cited -- 5: Forest and Rangeland Soil Biodiversity -- Introduction -- Major Groups of Soil Organisms -- Viruses -- Bacteria and Archaea -- Fungi -- Protists.

Microfauna -- Mesofauna -- Macrofauna -- Megafauna -- The Soil Habitat -- Texture and Aggregation -- Soil Chemistry -- The Rhizosphere -- The Impact of Disturbance on Soil Biodiversity -- Compaction -- Postfire Biodiversity -- Invasive Organisms -- Climate Change and Belowground Biodiversity -- Forest Management -- Harvesting -- Fuel Reduction Practices (Burning, Thinning, Mastication) -- New Approaches to Understand Soil Biodiversity -- Conclusions -- Key Findings -- Key Information Needs -- Science -- Management Questions -- Literature Cited -- 6: Wetland and Hydric Soils -- Introduction -- Goods and Services Derived from Wetlands -- Water Storage and Supply -- Water Quality -- Carbon -- Wildlife Habitat -- Commodities -- Objective and Scope -- Wetland Soil Types -- Tidal and Nontidal Wetlands -- Distribution of Wetlands -- Role of Soils in Wetland Ecosystem Functions -- Nontidal Wetlands -- Mineral Soils -- Prairie Potholes -- Forested Mineral Soil Wetlands -- Organic Soils -- Nonforested Peatlands -- Forested Peatlands -- Tidal Wetlands -- Tidal Freshwater Wetlands -- Tidal Marine Wetlands -- Sustainability of Wetland Functions and Ecosystem Services with Changing Conditions -- Long-Term Climate Variability -- Long-Term Shifts in Temperature and Precipitation -- Vegetation Response -- Altered Hydrology -- Thawing of Permafrost Wetlands -- Sea Level Rise -- Extreme Events -- Fire -- Floods Resulting from Increased Incidence of Severe Storms -- Atmospheric Effects -- Elevated CO2 -- Pollutants and Nutrients in Deposition -- Mercury -- Sulfur -- Nitrogen -- Land Use and Land Management -- Urban and Infrastructure Development -- Agriculture -- Sediment, Nutrient, and Chemical Runoff -- Livestock Grazing -- Cropland Drainage -- Forest Management -- Restoration and Mitigation -- Tools -- Key Findings -- Key Information Needs -- Literature Cited.

7: Urban Soils -- Introduction -- What Is an Urban Soil? -- A Range of Soil Conditions -- Habitat for Soil Organisms -- What Is the Role of Soil in Urban Ecosystems? -- Importance of Soil in an Urban Context -- Juxtaposition of People and Soil: An Educational Opportunity -- An Ecosystem Services Framework for Urban Soils -- Anthropogenic Influences on Urban Soils and Their Assessment -- Direct Effects -- Land Use Change and Urbanization -- Waste Disposal -- Grading and Stormwater Management -- Sealing and Paving -- Soil Replacement and Recycling -- Lawn Management -- Indirect Effects -- Urban Climate -- Urban Atmospheric Chemistry -- Nonnative and Invasive Species -- Mapping, Classification, and Interpretation -- Opportunities for Ecosystem Service Enhancements in Cities -- Recycling Municipal Waste to Enhance Urban Soils -- Soil Amendments to Reduce Contaminant Bioavailability -- Green Roofs: An Opportunity for Ecosystem Service Enhancement -- Diverse Plant Communities Stabilize Ecosystem Service Enhancement -- Key Findings -- Key Information Needs -- Literature Cited -- 8: Soil Management and Restoration -- Introduction -- Context -- Historical Forest Soil Management -- Historical Rangeland Soil Management -- Progressive Shifts in Policy and Planning -- Forest Service Policy -- Use of Ecological Sites and Associated Information -- Advances in Management and Restoration -- Soils-based Management -- Application of Resistance and Resilience Concepts -- Soil Security -- Soil Sensitivity -- Forest Management -- WildFire and Prescribed Fire -- Mine Reclamation -- Soils and Problematic Species -- Innovative Approaches -- Biochar -- Seed Coating Technologies -- Soil Transplants -- Monitoring Restoration Success -- Case Studies -- Mower Tract Ecological Restoration: Monongahela National Forest, West Virginia.

Long-Term Soil Productivity Study: North America -- Soil Matters: Deschutes National Forest, Oregon -- Key Findings -- Key Information Needs -- Literature Cited -- 9: Soil Mapping, Monitoring, and Assessment -- Introduction -- Soil Mapping -- Historical Context -- Methods -- Traditional Soil Mapping -- Digital Soil Mapping -- Soil Monitoring and Assessment -- US Monitoring and Assessment Installations -- Long-Term Ecological Research Sites -- Forest Inventory and Analysis (FIA) Program -- "Smart" Environmental Sensor Technology -- Guidelines -- Tools and Technology -- Web Soil Survey (WSS) -- Gridded Soil Survey Geographic (gSSURGO) Database -- Soil Data Viewer (SDV) -- ESRI® ArcGIS Soil Inference Engine (ArcSIE) -- Terrestrial Ecological Unit Inventory (TEUI) Geospatial Toolkit -- Key Findings -- Key Information Needs -- Literature Cited -- 10: Challenges and Opportunities -- Introduction -- Understanding Basic Soil Properties and Processes -- Significance -- Challenges and Opportunities -- Understanding Disturbance and Stress Effects -- Significance -- Climate Change -- Fire -- Invasive Species, Pests, and Disease -- Pollution -- Nonurban Land Uses -- Urban Land Uses -- Challenges and Opportunities -- Monitoring, Modeling, Mapping, and Data-Sharing: A Key Component of Knowledge Acquisition and Decision-Making for Land Managers -- Significance -- Challenges and Opportunities -- Training the Next Generation of Scientists -- Significance -- Challenges and Opportunities -- Managing Soils in an Age of Accelerated Disturbance, Land Use, and Environmental Changes -- Significance -- Challenges and Opportunities -- Conclusions -- Literature Cited -- Appendices -- Appendix A: Regional Summaries -- Northeast -- Introduction -- The Environment of the Northeast -- Conversion of Forests to Other Land Use -- Climate Change and Extreme Weather Events.

Sea Level Rise and Salt Water Intrusion.