Tsukuba, Japan—Maintaining soil health is crucial for sustainable agriculture. Recently, soil volatile organic compounds (VOCs) have emerged as promising indicators for assessing soil health. This study aimed to evaluate the effectiveness of soil VOC profiles as indicators of soil health in soybean fields.
Soil samples were collected from soybean fields in Fukushima Prefecture, which exhibited diverse soil conditions, over the past three years. These samples were analyzed for VOC content in conjunction with data on soil physical properties, soil metabolome, soil ionome, and soil microbiome as well as rhizosphere chemicals and root microbiome to provide a comprehensive soil health assessment. For the first time globally, the analysis revealed that soil VOC levels increased during the soybean flowering period. Furthermore, the soil VOC profiles exhibited a strong correlation with soil-related omics datasets (soil ionome, soil microbiome, soil metabolome, and soil physical properties) but not with the rhizosphere chemicals and root microbiome datasets obtained from soybean-growing fields.
The findings of this study indicate that soil VOC profiles can function as reliable indicators for evaluating soil health in agricultural environments.
