Crop scientists over the years have learned a great deal about how plants grow above the ground, but much less is known about roots and their soil interactions. To rectify that, worm-like, soil-swimming robots are being deployed to sense and record soil properties, water, the soil microbiome and how roots grow, says Cornell University.

A research fellow at the University of Nebraska compares no-till and several different kinds of tillage operations to measure how soil disturbance affects the loss of soil carbon.

A long-term study by the University of Nebraska concludes that compaction from grazing livestock doesn't have any effect on crop yields.

Kansas State University Extension shares some detailed directions for measuring bulk density in soils to both analyze the effects of different management practices on soil quality and quantify the differences in soil density at various depths within the soil.

While most soil health indicators demonstrated no significant differences among the treatments, cover crops grown for carbon ranked the highest for the Haney test, says University of Nebraska Extension.