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Data and Code Release: Linking soil health, hydrology, and agroecosystem services through expert elicitation


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Created: Jan 31, 2026 at 3:48 p.m. (UTC)
Last updated: Feb 08, 2026 at 2:26 a.m. (UTC)
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Abstract

Data and code associated with the manuscript, "Linking soil health, hydrology, and agroecosystem services through expert elicitation", by Sam Zipper et al.

Manuscript abstract:
Agricultural soil health management practices, such as cover cropping, reduced tillage, and diversified crop rotations, are becoming more widespread. However, reported effectiveness of these practices for achieving agroecosystem service goals such as enhancing crop yield and improving water quality has been mixed. Here, we conducted a survey of 386 researchers and practitioners with expertise in the North American agricultural systems, asking about both the impacts of soil health management practices on hydrology and the role of hydrological processes in mediating the impacts of different practices on agroecosystem services. We found that (in order of importance) cover crops, reduced tillage, and diverse crop rotations are generally perceived as the most important soil health practices with positive agronomic and environmental outcomes, but with significant regional variability Respondents generally (though not universally) agreed in direction with reported literature on the effects of these practices on outcomes like soil hydrological properties and yield, but survey responses had less variability than the literature. Hydrologic and landscape factors, especially soil texture and soil drainage status, were widely perceived as important controls over the ability of soil health practices to meet agroecosystem service goals. Additionally, respondents perceived that hydrologically-mediated impacts of soil health management on outcomes such as nutrient losses, irrigation requirements, and yield were more common than direct impacts of the practice alone. In sum, our results indicate that effective soil health management strategies should be driven by desired agroecosystem outcomes and hydrological, landscape, and soil conditions provide a lens to target and implement these practices.

Subject Keywords

Coverage

Spatial

Coordinate System/Geographic Projection:
WGS 84 EPSG:4326
Coordinate Units:
Decimal degrees
Place/Area Name:
North America
North Latitude
71.9143°
East Longitude
-51.6797°
South Latitude
17.1513°
West Longitude
-168.3984°

Content

README.md

README

Data and code release for the manuscript "Linking soil health, hydrology, and agroecosystem services through expert elicitation" by Sam Zipper et al.

Citation information

If you use these data or code, please cite the manuscript:

Zipper S, MT Niles, RC Mitchell, A Bhatta, D Liptzin, M Cloutier, T Tomlinson, R Afshar (submitted, 2026). Linking soil health, hydrology, and agroecosystem services through expert elicitation.

ADD FULL CITATION ONCE PUBLISHED

Description of contents

  • data/ = Folder containing data used in manuscript.
    • LiteratureData_ForComparison.xlsx = compiled data from literature that are used to compare to survey results
    • SEM_Simple Model Results_8_2025.xlsx = output from SEMs
    • SurveyResults_Anonymized_FinalExport_20250331.xlsx = De-identified survey data exported from Qualtrics.
    • Survey_Anonymized_ColNames.xlsx = a look-up table used to rename columns for working in R
    • Survey_PrepDataForMeredith.csv = output from the script "Survey_PrepDataForMeredith.R" which puts the survey data into the necessary format for creating SEMs.
  • code/ = code used for analysis and to generate figures
    • paths+packages.R = set-up script that loads necessary packages, defines aesthetics, etc.
    • SEM_FiguresForPaper.R= creates figures for main text and SI related to SEM results
    • Survey_ExploreData+CreateFigures.qmd = most of the analysis and figure creation for the manuscript
    • Survey_CompareResultsToLiterature.R = generates figures for main text and SI comparing survey results to literature
    • Survey_PrepDataForMeredith.R = prepares data in a format that can be used for SEM analysis
  • figures/ = folder containing figures for manuscript, both generated by scripts and created through Inkscape

Credits

Funding Agencies

This resource was created using funding from the following sources:
Agency Name Award Title Award Number
Foundation for Food and Agriculture Research Dairy Soil & Water Regeneration Project DSnew-0000000011
Foundation for Food and Agriculture Research WCS-FARM 22-000547

How to Cite

Zipper, S. (2026). Data and Code Release: Linking soil health, hydrology, and agroecosystem services through expert elicitation, HydroShare, http://www.hydroshare.org/resource/509e90eb82014a2dae6403f9cc5fa9f7

This resource is shared under the Creative Commons Attribution CC BY.

http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
CC-BY

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