Periodic Reporting for period 2 - SOILGUARD (Sustainable soil management to unleash soil biodiversity potential and increase environmental, economic and social wellbeing.)
Periodo di rendicontazione: 2022-12-01 al 2024-05-31
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 the perception of soil biodiversity as a key nature-based solution to face land degradation and climate change stressors. The efficacy of this call to action depends on addressing major knowledge gaps related to biodiversity and soil-mediated nature contributions to people. Soil biodiversity assessment emerges as a key challenge to be overcome.
The aim of SOILGUARD is to boost the sustainable use of soil biodiversity to protect soil multifunctionality and increase economic, social, and environmental wellbeing. This is achieved by co-creating strong evidence of the links between soil management, soil biodiversity, soil multifunctionality and human wellbeing. This evidence is 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 will be 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. It’s being developed as an ecosystem of innovation for users to showcase, learn and share experiences. SOILGUARD is co-creating 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 has 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 economic, social, and environmental wellbeing. This is achieved by co-creating strong evidence of the links between soil management, soil biodiversity, soil multifunctionality and human wellbeing. This evidence is 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 will be 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. It’s being developed as an ecosystem of innovation for users to showcase, learn and share experiences. SOILGUARD is co-creating 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 has the support and engagement of the GSP, GSBI, SOIL-BON, ITPS, FAO and IPBES.
SOILGUARD fostered actively bridging the gap between different knowledge holders and decision makers by the creation of the Soilguard Network of Knowledge and developing a groundbreaking Soil Biodiversity and Wellbeing Framework. Several actions and cross-fertilization activities have been carried out in Europe, Argentina, Cameroon, and Thailand. A total of 13 specialized workshops, 23 in-person communications, and two major events have been organized as part of communication and dissemination activities.
Research has established land degradation gradients for seven 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 the Soil BON initiative, LUCAS, and the 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. The soil food web structure and co-occurrence patterns across regions and biomes and the food web metrics were analyzed. SOILGUARD preliminary results show the importance of climate and region-specific soil features to determine soil biodiversity communities’ composition. Furthermore, the effect of sustainable soil management and land degradation on soil biodiversity is highly region- and organism-specific. The importance of soil biodiversity in maintaining soil multifunctionality was assessed with 27 different indicators covering six Nature Contributions to People: food production, soil formation and protection, climate regulation, regulation of hazards and extreme events, regulation of detrimental organisms, and regulation of fresh water.
Studies developed focus on increasing our understanding of the effect of multiple stressors on soil biodiversity and soil multifunctionality at seven sites across Europe through 2022 and 2023 field drought simulations and a heatwave simulation. The soil samples were analyzed for multifunctionality metrics related to ecosystem functioning. Preliminary results for 2022 show that each site harbored a unique soil biodiversity. Management effects on soil biodiversity were significant but highly site-dependent. Drought effects were small, varied by site, and were often masked by other drivers.
An integrated valuation approach was developed to assess the effects of the soil management strategies on the provision of soil-mediated nature contributions to people, which include an economic and a socio-cultural valuation. The economic valuation approach incorporated both cost-based valuation methods and discrete choice experiments for the seven EU NUTS-2 regions, including the difference between sustainable and unsustainable management. Information on sociodemographic characteristics was gathered through the surveys. For Denmark, Ireland, and Spain, the socio-cultural valuation provided soil-mediated nature contributions to people's ranking and weighting of importance. Results indicate that mean preferences are quite similar, with a preference for multifunctional landscapes, although they also reveal differences between respondents’ preferences.
Research has established land degradation gradients for seven 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 the Soil BON initiative, LUCAS, and the 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. The soil food web structure and co-occurrence patterns across regions and biomes and the food web metrics were analyzed. SOILGUARD preliminary results show the importance of climate and region-specific soil features to determine soil biodiversity communities’ composition. Furthermore, the effect of sustainable soil management and land degradation on soil biodiversity is highly region- and organism-specific. The importance of soil biodiversity in maintaining soil multifunctionality was assessed with 27 different indicators covering six Nature Contributions to People: food production, soil formation and protection, climate regulation, regulation of hazards and extreme events, regulation of detrimental organisms, and regulation of fresh water.
Studies developed focus on increasing our understanding of the effect of multiple stressors on soil biodiversity and soil multifunctionality at seven sites across Europe through 2022 and 2023 field drought simulations and a heatwave simulation. The soil samples were analyzed for multifunctionality metrics related to ecosystem functioning. Preliminary results for 2022 show that each site harbored a unique soil biodiversity. Management effects on soil biodiversity were significant but highly site-dependent. Drought effects were small, varied by site, and were often masked by other drivers.
An integrated valuation approach was developed to assess the effects of the soil management strategies on the provision of soil-mediated nature contributions to people, which include an economic and a socio-cultural valuation. The economic valuation approach incorporated both cost-based valuation methods and discrete choice experiments for the seven EU NUTS-2 regions, including the difference between sustainable and unsustainable management. Information on sociodemographic characteristics was gathered through the surveys. For Denmark, Ireland, and Spain, the socio-cultural valuation provided soil-mediated nature contributions to people's ranking and weighting of importance. Results indicate that mean preferences are quite similar, with a preference for multifunctional landscapes, although they also reveal differences between respondents’ preferences.
SOILGUARD is developing soil biodiversity indicators that reflect changes in soil biota, their response to environmental conditions, and their functional consequences. Additional efforts are directed to assess different methods to identify soil richness/abundance biodiversity descriptors. SOILGUARD also expects to study the role of the soil biota in soil functions and climate change adaptation. Finally, SOILGUARD is focusing on establishing keystone taxa in the maintenance of soils multifunctionality.
Region and biome-specific tailored sustainable soil management practices based on the soil biodiversity-multifunctionality will be proposed taking in account different land degradation drivers and climate stressors. In parallel, we will develop a better understanding on the effect of sustainable soil management practices in conserving soil biodiversity and incorporating its relationship with management contributions and conservation practices assessments.
Region and biome-specific tailored sustainable soil management practices based on the soil biodiversity-multifunctionality will be proposed taking in account different land degradation drivers and climate stressors. In parallel, we will develop a better understanding on the effect of sustainable soil management practices in conserving soil biodiversity and incorporating its relationship with management contributions and conservation practices assessments.