# Glad we could connect at SSSA! Welcome to my digital contact card for SSSA 2025. Here's how to get in touch with me, links to our presentations, notes from my poster, recent publications, and writing about soil that you might be interested in. >[!abstract] Contact me **Yamina Pressler, PhD** Associate Professor of Soil Science and Restoration Ecology Natural Resources Management and Environmental Sciences Cal Poly, San Luis Obispo [email protected] www.yaminapressler.com # Research posters - Building a soil restoration toolbox for California grasslands (Pressler et. al.) https://scisoc.confex.com/scisoc/2025am/meetingapp.cgi/Paper/169821 - see references below - Linking Soil Organic Matter Distribution and Soil Aggregate Stability to Inform Restoration in California Coastal Grasslands (Evans et. al.) https://scisoc.confex.com/scisoc/2025am/meetingapp.cgi/Paper/170528 - Mineralogical Assessments of California Grassland Soils to Better Understand Carbon Storage (Bressler et. al.) https://scisoc.confex.com/scisoc/2025am/meetingapp.cgi/Paper/170523 # Writing about soil - [subscribe to my newsletter](https://buttondown.com/wonderofsoil) - [[learn about soil|read my essays about soil]] # Recent publications from our research team Evans, A., McLaren, E., Brito-Bersi, T., Chavez-Velasco, E., Foster, E., Byrne, K., Griffin-Nolan, R.J., Luong, J., **Pressler, Y.** *(2025)*. [Assessing aggregate stability methods to inform restoration in California coastal grasslands](https://cnga.org/resources/Documents/Grasslands%20Journal/Grassland%20Issues/2025%20Grasslands%20Journal/CNGA%20Grasslands%20Vol%2035%20No%203%20Summer.pdf). California Native Grasslands Association Grasslands Journal. Wilson, S.G., Foster, E.J., O’Neill, F., Banuelos, A., Cook, A., Paustian, K., **Pressler, Y.**, Carey, C.J. *(2025)*. Soil organic carbon better described by soil mineralogy and exchangeable cations than oak restoration in California rangelands. Catena. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.catena.2025.109453 Rodriguez-Paiatskya, A., **Pressler, Y.**, Decock, C. (*2025*). Effects of arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi inoculation and cover crop on soil carbon dynamics and microbial communities in a Mediterranean lemon orchard. *Plant and Soil*. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11104-025-07764-1 # Notes and references from my poster **Title:** Building a soil restoration toolbox for California grasslands Yamina Pressler$^1$, Erika Foster$^2$, Emma McLaren$^1$, Abby Evans$^1$, Kacie Giordano$^1$, Mollie Bressler$^1$, Marissa LeValley$^1$, Katelyn McCoy$^1$, Brady Kerr$^1$, Ernesto Chavez-Velasco$^5$, Tonia Brito-Bersi$^5$, Avalon Cook$^2$, Chloe Latt$^2$, Stewart Wilson$^1$, Kerry Byrne$^5$, Robert Griffin-Nolan$^6$, Justin Luong$^7$ $^1$ Cal Poly, San Luis Obispo  $^2$ Point Blue Conservation Science $^3$ Colorado State University $^4$ Stanford University $^5$ Cal Poly, Humboldt $^6$ California State University, Chico  $^7$ University of California, Berkeley > [!abstract] Abstract > Soils are foundational to ecological functions, long-term carbon storage, and recovery from disturbance. Restoration efforts often recognize the important role of soils in ecosystem dynamics, but most projects focus on restoring plant communities and wildlife habitat and many opportunities for greater integration of soils knowledge remains. Based on field research across California grasslands, we are developing a soil restoration toolbox to support practitioner's ability to integrate soil knowledge into grassland restoration decisions. We conducted field studies of soil properties and plant traits in coastal grasslands in San Luis Obispo, Sonoma, Santa Cruz, and Humboldt counties to inform restoration recommendations. We compared field soil assessment techniques with in-depth laboratory measurements to evaluate the efficacy of using accessible in-situ soil measurements for making restoration decisions. The toolbox provides resources to support integration of soils knowledge into three stages of restoration: (1) developing a reference model, (2) establishing the site context and baseline, (3) evaluating restoration interventions and planting decisions, and (4) long-term monitoring of soil properties. The toolbox includes accessible approaches for field characterization of soils, a simplified guide to soil taxonomy in California grasslands, and written guides for soil-focused decision-making at each stage of restoration. In this poster, we will present the framework and outcomes of the toolbox. **Soils knowledge is underused in restoration** - Restoration is the targeted practice of improving an ecosystem that has been degraded, damaged, or destroyed (Society for Ecological Restoration) - Soils provide key ecological functions including supporting fertility, preserving seed banks, long-term carbon storage, and aiding recovery from disturbance ([Dass et al 2018](https://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.1088/1748-9326/aacb39/meta)) - Soils are the foundation of terrestrial ecological systems, yet soils knowledge isn't always integrated into restoration projects - [Special issue on soil and restoration in 2020](https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/toc/1526100x/2020/28/S4) highlights that the research practice gap in soil science and ecological restoration is still an important area to work towards closing - We have known of this challenge for a while... - [Young 2005](https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1111/j.1461-0248.2005.00764.x) indicated need for greater consideration of soils in restoration - [Moorhead 2015](https://doi.org/10.3368/er.33.4.341) argues for greater integration of pedogenesis (study of soil formation) into restoration - [Callaham et al. 2008]([https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1526-100X.2008.00490.x](https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1526-100X.2008.00490.x)) and [Heneghan et al. 2008]([https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1526-100X.2008.00477.x](https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1526-100X.2008.00477.x)) called for greater integration of soil ecological knowledge into restoration practice, arguing that as systems become more complex and interconnected, the utility of soils knowledge increases **We are creating tools designed to help practitioners** 1. Develop a reference model ([Holl 2020](https://islandpress.org/books/primer-ecological-restoration#desc)) 2. Establish baseline conditions 3. Evaluate intervention options 4. Monitor soil properties Most grassland restoration projects in CA use the same 7 plant species, in part due to missing information about the natural history of "uncharacterized" species ([Luong et al. 2023](https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0006320723000563)) Linking soils knowledge to plant traits may help promote diverse species use in restoration and minimize biotic homogenization ([Holl et al. 2022](https://www.cell.com/trends/ecology-evolution/abstract/S0169-5347(22)00113-6)) **Simplified guide to soil taxonomy in CA grasslands** - Limited understanding of soil taxonomy is a barrier that keeps practitioners from applying available soils information to restoration projects - Practitioners have requested resources to help decode and interpret soil maps and taxonomic information in the context of grassland restoration  - To address this, we are developing a simplified guide that describes the classification concepts most relevant to grasslands in California - We selected all soil series from SSURGO for grasslands in CA based on [National Land Cover Database](https://www.usgs.gov/centers/eros/science/national-land-cover-database) - We generated soil profile diagrams using R to visually represent variation in soil features ([Beaudette et al. 2023](https://ncss-tech.github.io/AQP/)) - The guide will explain the variation in soil features in CA grasslands and why it matters for grassland restoration **Guidelines for measuring soil properties** - We characterized soil properties in three coastal California grasslands along a latitudinal climate gradient to inform the toolbox - We compared field and laboratory methods and assessed the utility of different approaches for capturing variation within and across sites - Aggregate stability - soil texture - surface soil pH and EC **Restoration planting decision support tools** - In progress: User-friendly web-app that allows practitioners to select grassland species planting palettes based on species characteristics and ecosystem functions - Based on CA grassland datasets to promote use of diverse species in restoration - We are building off of existing [Point Blue climate-smart restoration toolkit](https://www.pointblue.org/climate-smart-restoration-toolkit/)