Periodic Reporting for period 3 - SOILGUARD (Sustainable soil management to unleash soil biodiversity potential and increase environmental, economic and social wellbeing.)
Reporting period: 2024-06-01 to 2025-05-31
SOILGUARD envisages a future where the conservation of soil biodiversity and the environmental, economic and social wellbeing of EU biogeographical regions is guaranteed. Urgent action is required to mainstream sustainable soil management practices and soil biodiversity as a key nature-based solution to face land degradation and climate change stressors. Soil biodiversity assessment emerges as a key challenge to overcome.
The aim of SOILGUARD is to boost the sustainable use of soil biodiversity to protect soil multifunctionality and increase wellbeing. Strong evidence was obtained by means of a holistic ground- breaking Soil Biodiversity and Wellbeing Framework to fill the gaps of knowledge and quantify the environmental, economic, and social consequences of unsustainable soil management. All knowledge co-created was shared through SOILGUARDIANS APP, a predictive tool based on the causal links between soil biodiversity, soil multifunctionality and wellbeing to support stakeholders on the transition to sustainable soil management. SOILGUARD co-created evidence-based conservation recommendations for policies and frameworks at EU and international level and will support Member States' commitments under the Global Soil Partnership. SOILGUARD had the support and engagement of the GSP, GSBI, SOIL-BON, ITPS, FAO and IPBES.
The aim of SOILGUARD is to boost the sustainable use of soil biodiversity to protect soil multifunctionality and increase wellbeing. Strong evidence was obtained by means of a holistic ground- breaking Soil Biodiversity and Wellbeing Framework to fill the gaps of knowledge and quantify the environmental, economic, and social consequences of unsustainable soil management. All knowledge co-created was shared through SOILGUARDIANS APP, a predictive tool based on the causal links between soil biodiversity, soil multifunctionality and wellbeing to support stakeholders on the transition to sustainable soil management. SOILGUARD co-created evidence-based conservation recommendations for policies and frameworks at EU and international level and will support Member States' commitments under the Global Soil Partnership. SOILGUARD had the support and engagement of the GSP, GSBI, SOIL-BON, ITPS, FAO and IPBES.
SOILGUARD had implemented a comprehensive strategy, engaging more than 500 stakeholders across the years in Europe, Argentina, Cameroon, and Thailand. Surveys, workshops, field reports, meetings, co-development sessions, webinars, and customised communications have reached a wide range of actors, from farmers and advisors to researchers, policymakers, and civil society representatives.
Research has established land degradation gradients for 7 EU NUTS-2 regions and three international regions, which are publicly available on the SOILGUARD website. Sampling protocols for soil biodiversity and soil multifunctionality were harmonized with Soil BON, LUCAS, and GSP. A total of 233 samples were analyzed, including taxonomic richness, abundance, and existing connections of faunal and microbial taxa and comparing their diversity at larger scales with the effect of location, soil attributes, climate, land use, or landscape features. This full soil biodiversity assessment collected a comprehensive list of measurements ranging from viruses to invertebrates’ diversity and abundance used for soil food web structure and co-occurrence patterns establishment.
SOILGUARD biodiversity status results show the importance of climate and region-specific soil features to determine soil biodiversity. Furthermore, the effect of soil management (conventional vs organic, low vs high species grasslands, and clear-cut vs continuous cover forests) and land degradation on soil biodiversity is highly region and organism-specific. Taking our results collectively, these suggest that shifting from conventional to organic farming would be more beneficial for fungi than for prokaryotes or soil invertebrates, under arid conditions (e.g. Spain, Hungary) and in already degraded soils (in comparison to those with low degradation levels). SOILGUARD also evaluated optimal landscapes to maximize crop yield, soil biodiversity and functioning, establishing where to foster EU’s farm to fork strategy transformation and showing a lack of intrinsic trade-offs.
In SOILGUARD we have used our comprehensive soil biodiversity database to contribute soil biodiversity indicators to the EU´s soil monitoring law. The objective is to give indicators that reflect changes in soil biota, their response to environmental conditions, and their functional consequences. Our results suggest that the monitoring of four indicators (fungal abundance, prokaryotic richness, the abundance of mites and microbial storage biomass) could represent about 70% of the variation in soil biodiversity changes, they are good indicators for environmental changes and management, as well as show strong relationships with the different soil functions measured. Cross-validation analyses suggest that these indicators could be generalizable to farmland regions other than the ones sampled, as well as to other biomes.
SOILGUARD has been studying the effects of field-simulated climate stressors and soil management on soil biodiversity and multifunctionality at 7 sites across Europe through two field drought simulations (2022 and 2023) and a heatwave simulation. The soil samples from the two years were analysed for multifunctionality metrics related to ecosystem functioning. Overall, the effect of climate stressors and interactions with soil management were notably modulated by local factors, and more visible on specific biotic groups or soil compartments. Thus, an impact is expected on future decision making at the farm and government scale, raising concerns about the long-term effects of these climate disturbances on soil biodiversity and functionality. Findings also highlight that short-term climate stress had a generally small and context-dependent impact, indicating substantial buffering capacity of soil; however, showing increasing effects on biodiversity associated with crops and more pronounced impact on eukaryotes, raising concerns about crop performance and specific soil functions.
An integrated valuation approach was developed to estimate the plural values provided by soil-mediated contributions to people and to quantify the benefits of sustainable soil management or – vice versa – the costs of policy inaction. This approach includes economic and socio-cultural valuation.
Research has established land degradation gradients for 7 EU NUTS-2 regions and three international regions, which are publicly available on the SOILGUARD website. Sampling protocols for soil biodiversity and soil multifunctionality were harmonized with Soil BON, LUCAS, and GSP. A total of 233 samples were analyzed, including taxonomic richness, abundance, and existing connections of faunal and microbial taxa and comparing their diversity at larger scales with the effect of location, soil attributes, climate, land use, or landscape features. This full soil biodiversity assessment collected a comprehensive list of measurements ranging from viruses to invertebrates’ diversity and abundance used for soil food web structure and co-occurrence patterns establishment.
SOILGUARD biodiversity status results show the importance of climate and region-specific soil features to determine soil biodiversity. Furthermore, the effect of soil management (conventional vs organic, low vs high species grasslands, and clear-cut vs continuous cover forests) and land degradation on soil biodiversity is highly region and organism-specific. Taking our results collectively, these suggest that shifting from conventional to organic farming would be more beneficial for fungi than for prokaryotes or soil invertebrates, under arid conditions (e.g. Spain, Hungary) and in already degraded soils (in comparison to those with low degradation levels). SOILGUARD also evaluated optimal landscapes to maximize crop yield, soil biodiversity and functioning, establishing where to foster EU’s farm to fork strategy transformation and showing a lack of intrinsic trade-offs.
In SOILGUARD we have used our comprehensive soil biodiversity database to contribute soil biodiversity indicators to the EU´s soil monitoring law. The objective is to give indicators that reflect changes in soil biota, their response to environmental conditions, and their functional consequences. Our results suggest that the monitoring of four indicators (fungal abundance, prokaryotic richness, the abundance of mites and microbial storage biomass) could represent about 70% of the variation in soil biodiversity changes, they are good indicators for environmental changes and management, as well as show strong relationships with the different soil functions measured. Cross-validation analyses suggest that these indicators could be generalizable to farmland regions other than the ones sampled, as well as to other biomes.
SOILGUARD has been studying the effects of field-simulated climate stressors and soil management on soil biodiversity and multifunctionality at 7 sites across Europe through two field drought simulations (2022 and 2023) and a heatwave simulation. The soil samples from the two years were analysed for multifunctionality metrics related to ecosystem functioning. Overall, the effect of climate stressors and interactions with soil management were notably modulated by local factors, and more visible on specific biotic groups or soil compartments. Thus, an impact is expected on future decision making at the farm and government scale, raising concerns about the long-term effects of these climate disturbances on soil biodiversity and functionality. Findings also highlight that short-term climate stress had a generally small and context-dependent impact, indicating substantial buffering capacity of soil; however, showing increasing effects on biodiversity associated with crops and more pronounced impact on eukaryotes, raising concerns about crop performance and specific soil functions.
An integrated valuation approach was developed to estimate the plural values provided by soil-mediated contributions to people and to quantify the benefits of sustainable soil management or – vice versa – the costs of policy inaction. This approach includes economic and socio-cultural valuation.
SOILGUARD evidence chains embedded in the SOILGUARDIANs App are able to predict outcomes for over 200 NUTS2 regions for each ES model. In the final version of the app, five evidence chains have been created, each with its modelling approach, input data and intermediate linkages, indicators and functions has been developed at European scale. Each incorporates environmental and economic information from the project and feeds into the SOILGUARDIANS app. Interactions with more than 300 stakeholders have shaped the App and its business model.
Policy and conservation brochures were co-developed with international initiatives and European projects. The former outlines a series of SOILGUARD science-based recommendations and the need to link biodiversity monitoring to ecosystem services. The conservation one, focus on supporting the sustainable use of biodiversity in agriculture and forestry, including key messages on the role of soil biodiversity in cropland functioning, trade-offs between biodiversity and productivity, and the implications of expanding organic farming.
SOILGUARD's findings were referenced in EU-level dialogues and disseminated to GSP focal points, contributing to current benchmarks on biodiversity indicators and soil monitoringThe information generated on soil biodiversity monitoring and indicators, as well as the conservation recommendations, will be relevant to Working Group (WG) 1 of the GSP (soil biodiversity monitoring) and WG 2 (sustainable use of soil biodiversity), respectively. SOILGUARD’s Valuation Approach—including its development, the most relevant NCPs, indicators and methodologies—could also be key for WG 3 (soil biodiversity economics). Additionally, the recommendations for the SMRD will be relevant to WG 4, which focuses on policy related to soil biodiversity.
Policy and conservation brochures were co-developed with international initiatives and European projects. The former outlines a series of SOILGUARD science-based recommendations and the need to link biodiversity monitoring to ecosystem services. The conservation one, focus on supporting the sustainable use of biodiversity in agriculture and forestry, including key messages on the role of soil biodiversity in cropland functioning, trade-offs between biodiversity and productivity, and the implications of expanding organic farming.
SOILGUARD's findings were referenced in EU-level dialogues and disseminated to GSP focal points, contributing to current benchmarks on biodiversity indicators and soil monitoringThe information generated on soil biodiversity monitoring and indicators, as well as the conservation recommendations, will be relevant to Working Group (WG) 1 of the GSP (soil biodiversity monitoring) and WG 2 (sustainable use of soil biodiversity), respectively. SOILGUARD’s Valuation Approach—including its development, the most relevant NCPs, indicators and methodologies—could also be key for WG 3 (soil biodiversity economics). Additionally, the recommendations for the SMRD will be relevant to WG 4, which focuses on policy related to soil biodiversity.