The assessment of soil quality is a scientific issue that has been widely debated in the
literature for the last twenty years. We developed the Biofunctool® framework to assess soil
quality based on an integrative approach that accounts for the link between the physico-
chemical properties and the biological activity of soils. Biofunctool® consists in a set of
twelve in-field, time-and cost-effective indicators to assess three main soil functions: carbon
transformation, nutrient cycling and structure maintenance. The indicators were applied in a …

Biofunctool® is a new framework for assessing the impact of land management on soil
quality–defined as the capacity of the soil to function. Biofunctool® uses a set of twelve
indicators to monitor changes in three key soil functions: carbon transformation, nutrient
cycling and structure maintenance (part A). Information from all the indicators is integrated in
a Soil Quality Index using multivariate analysis (PCA) weighting. We used Biofunctool® to
assess the impact of land use, land use change and agricultural practices on soil quality …