Spatially explicit heteroskedastic modeling for the Soil Health Assessment Protocol and Evaluation version 1.0S

Abstract Greater awareness of the role of soil management in achieving global production goals and mitigating emerging environmental challenges has focused the spotlight on soil health assessment and interpretation. The role of site‐specific characteristics in soil health assessment has long been recognized through small‐scale experimental studies, and the soil health assessment protocol and evaluation (SHAPE) tool was developed to facilitate cross‐site comparisons and provide regionally relevant interpretation by accounting for site‐specific factors. Specifically, SHAPE version 1.0 was developed to account for primary climate‐edaphic factors including long‐term climate means (temperature and precipitation) and edaphic characteristics (soil texture and soil suborder). Version 1.0S of SHAPE further incorporates a spatially explicit, heteroskedastic approach into the Bayesian linear regression model to refine peer‐group scoring curves and benchmark values based on proximity. This approach captures regional variability in soil characteristics and improves the relevance and interpretability of the SHAPE scores and benchmark values.