Harold van Es

About

Harold Mathijs van Es is a Professor of Soil and Water Management at the School of Integrative Plant Science, with responsibilities in extension, research, and teaching. His work focuses on approaches to precision soil management, including innovations such as a soil health assessment management framework (CASH), a commercialized computational technology for precision nitrogen management (Adapt-N), and new research methodologies in soil hydrology and field experimental design. Van Es has extensive experience in administration, having served as department Chair and SSSA President, and has collaborated with various tech startups and global companies. He has published over 200 peer-reviewed papers and chapters, co-authored the widely-read book Building Soils for Better Crops, developed numerous extension articles and videos, and advised 50 graduate students. His research primarily concentrates on soil health, soil and water management, precision nitrogen management, and digital agriculture. Van Es directs the Cornell Soil Health and Climate Resiliency Program and teaches courses such as Soil and Crop Management for Sustainability. His contributions significantly advance sustainable agricultural practices through innovative soil management techniques and digital tools.

Research topics

• Soil science
• Environmental science
• Data Mining
• Agronomy
• Artificial Intelligence
• Machine Learning
• Geology
• Computer Science
• Biology
• Geotechnical engineering

Selected publications

• An evaluation of carbon indicators of soil health in long-term agricultural experiments

  Soil Biology and Biochemistry · 2022 · 233 citations

  Soil organic carbon (SOC) is closely tied to soil health. However, additional biological indicators may also provide insight about C dynamics and microbial activity. We used SOC and the other C indicators (potential C mineralization, permanganate oxidizable C, water extractable organic C, and β-glucosidase enzyme activity) from the North American Project to Evaluate Soil Health Measurements to examine the continental-scale drivers of these indicators, the relationships among indicators, and the…

  PublisherDOI

• Predicting measures of soil health using the microbiome and supervised machine learning

  Soil Biology and Biochemistry · 2021 · 185 citations

  DOI

• The soil health assessment protocol and evaluation applied to soil organic carbon

  Soil Science Society of America Journal · 2021 · 162 citations

  Abstract The concept of soil health has evolved over the past several decades, recognizing that dynamic soil property response to management and land use is highly dependent on site‐specific factors that must be considered when interpreting soil health measurements. Initially, the Soil Management Assessment Framework (SMAF) and Comprehensive Assessment of Soil Health (CASH) were developed and used globally for scoring soil health indicators. However, both SMAF and CASH frameworks were developed…

  DOI

• Evaluation of aggregate stability methods for soil health

  Geoderma · 2022 · 118 citations

  Aggregate stability is a commonly used indicator of soil health because improvements in aggregate stability are related to reduced erodibility and improved soil–water dynamics. During the past 80 to 90 years, numerous methods have been developed to assess aggregate stability. Limited comparisons among the methods have resulted in varied magnitudes of response to soil health management practices and varied influences of inherent soil properties and climate. It is not clear whether selection of a…

  PublisherDOI

• SHAPEv1.0 Scoring curves and peer group benchmarks for dynamic soil health indicators

  Soil Science Society of America Journal · 2024-04-11 · 20 citations

  articleOpen access

  Abstract The soil health concept has evolved over the past several decades, recognizing that the response of dynamic soil properties to management is dependent on site‐specific factors. The Soil Health Assessment Protocol and Evaluation (SHAPE) tool provides scores and benchmark values by forming soil peer groups based on site‐specific, climate‐edaphic characteristics. Data for model development were compiled from the Cornell Soil Health Laboratory and the Kellogg Soil Survey Laboratory database…

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

Frequent coauthors

• Robert R. Schindelbeck

  Cornell University

  78 shared

• Bijesh Maharjan

  University of Nebraska–Lincoln

  63 shared

• Laura L. Van Eerd

  University of Guelph

  61 shared

• Mitchel P. McClaran

  University of Arizona

  53 shared

• Marshall D. McDaniel

  Iowa State University

  51 shared

• Newell R. Kitchen

  Quality Research

  48 shared

• Xiying Hao

  Chinese Academy of Forestry

  47 shared

• Benjamin H. Ellert

  Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada

  40 shared

Labs

• School of Integrative Plant Science, Soil and Crop Sciences SectionPI

Education

• PhD, Soil Science

  North Carolina State University

  2017

• MS, Agronomy

  Iowa State University

  1983

• Kandidaats (BS), Physical geography

  University of Amsterdam

  1981

Awards & honors

• Award of Excellence, 2017
• Researcher/Educator of the Year, 2017
• PrecisionAg Tulane Nitrogen Reduction Challenge Prize ($1Mil…
• Soil Science Society of America Top New Product of the Year…
• Fellow, American Society of Agronomy

Similar researchers at Cornell University

• Johannes Lehmannh-134
• Janice Thiesh-52
• Dan Buckleyh-46