Soil Electrical Conductivity (EC)

AUS-AKW-CON-SEC General Moderate confidence

Benchmark Value

No specific value — see range

Range: 7 to 23 dS/m

Optimal Range: 7 to 23

Direction: Lower is desirable ↓

Form: OptimalRange

Scoring Curve

Scoring curve unavailable

The scoring engine could not generate a curve for this benchmark context. The primary form is CompositeFramework, but the benchmark data may be missing required fields (e.g., optimal range bounds for an OptimalRange benchmark). This is typically a data quality issue in the benchmark pipeline.

Contributing Benchmarks

CompositeFramework Primary Point Guard OptimalRange Guard OptimalRange Guard OptimalRange Guard MaximumOnly Guard Point Guard OptimalRange Guard MaximumOnly Guard Point Guard OptimalRange Guard MinimumOnly Guard MaximumOnly Guard OptimalRange Guard MaximumOnly Guard

Evidence & Context

Optimal Functional Range: The interquartile range of the reference site data, 7.0 – 23.0 dS/m, is identified as the optimal range for ecosystem health.

Metric Definition:

Soil Electrical Conductivity (EC) measured as 1:5 soil-to-water extract in the topsoil (0-30 cm)

Benchmark Definition:

Interquartile range of soil electrical conductivity representing the typical and expected variation in soil salinity across healthy, functioning ecosystems in the Arid Karstic Woodlands & Shrublands biome.

Justification:

The interquartile range captures the middle 50% of measurements from high-quality conservation sites, representing typical conditions for ecosystem health.

Supporting Sources (1)

Additional references from the underlying research that informed this benchmark.

TERN AusPlots, Ecosystem Surveillance Monitoring, Australia

Direct Evidence

TERN AusPlots, Ecosystem Surveillance Monitoring, Australia

View Source

Context

Region Australia
Biome Arid Karstic Woodlands & Shrublands
Land Use Conservation / Protected Natural Areas
Assessment Pristine Reference
Vegetation Shrubland
Evidence Type ReferenceCondition

Lifecycle

Status Active
Version 1
Effective From 7 Jun 2026

Notes

No upper detrimental threshold — higher values are always better up to natural saturation. This range supports a resilient and structurally complex chenopod community, representing the best available condition for the biome.

Related Benchmarks

Other benchmarks in the AUS-AKW-CON-SEC family.