Natural soil fertility

The assessment of the soil subfunction ‘habitation’ is based, inter alia, on the criterion ‘Natural soil fertility’. Natural soil fertility refers to the natural production capacity of the soil in its function for higher plants. This does not take into account to what extent the yield performance depends on the management and plant species. The evaluation of “natural soil fertility” is carried out by assessing the usable field capacity in the effective root space. The key data for this are among others: Soil type of fine soil, coarse soil proportions, rooting depth, usable field capacity, soil density and soil humus content. For the derivation of soil fertility, the horizontal and layer data of the guide profiles of the FIS soil are used. In addition, the forest area and grassland area were integrated for soil assessment. Soils under forest use are awarded a supplement to the rooting depth, while grassland soils receive a tee. Soils with high slope inclination receive rating tees. The assessment does not directly assess the terrain position and climatic location conditions, although these are relevant for agricultural yield performance.