Periodic Reporting for period 1 - SOILGUARD (Sustainable soil management to unleash soil biodiversity potential and increase environmental, economic and social wellbeing.)
Berichtszeitraum: 2021-06-01 bis 2022-11-30
SOILGUARD envisages a future where the conservation of soil biodiversity and the environmental, economic and social wellbeing of EU biogeographical regions is guaranteed. Unsustainable management and climate change are increasing land degradation and threatening soil biodiversity. 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 will be achieved by co-creating strong evidence of the links between soil management, soil biodiversity, soil multifunctionality and human wellbeing across biogeographical regions. A holistic ground-breaking Soil Biodiversity and Wellbeing Framework will provide this evidence, being validated in an innovative experimental design, combining multiple study sites across biomes and regional land degradation gradients with in-situ climate change simulations. Thus, creating the evidence 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, 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. The SOILGUARD’s network of knowledge, and the connectivity enabled by SOILGUARDIANS app will create an ecosystem of innovation for users to showcase, learn and share experiences. SOILGUARD will co-create 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 will be achieved by co-creating strong evidence of the links between soil management, soil biodiversity, soil multifunctionality and human wellbeing across biogeographical regions. A holistic ground-breaking Soil Biodiversity and Wellbeing Framework will provide this evidence, being validated in an innovative experimental design, combining multiple study sites across biomes and regional land degradation gradients with in-situ climate change simulations. Thus, creating the evidence 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, 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. The SOILGUARD’s network of knowledge, and the connectivity enabled by SOILGUARDIANS app will create an ecosystem of innovation for users to showcase, learn and share experiences. SOILGUARD will co-create 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.
During this first reporting period, we have developed the SOILGUARD conceptual and analytical Soil Biodiversity and Wellbeing Framework with the potential to become the global standard for future assessments of soil biodiversity status and its contribution to soil multifunctionality and human wellbeing. Furthermore, we are boosting transdisciplinary research approach, fostered by the creation of the SOILGUARD Network of Knowledge to improve the science and society dialogue, fairly and inclusive engaging diverse actors to understand their perceptions and knowledge to properly address land degradation and climate change stressors.
We have also produced land degradation gradients for seven EU NUTS-2 regions (in 5 biogeographical regions and 3 biomes: cropland, grassland and forest) and 3 equivalent regions in Argentina, Cameroon and Thailand. These degradation levels are calculated using information on soil carbon, soil erosion and soil texture. Land degradation maps are available for the 10 regions tackled and will be made public in SOILGUARD´s website by 2023. Across these, we have selected 234 sites where the current status of soil biodiversity, in relation to land degradation and (un)sustainable management, is being assessed. Tailor-made sampling protocols for soil biodiversity and soil multifunctionality assessment were developed and harmonized as much as possible with methods used in the SoilBON initiative, LUCAS and the Global Soil Partnership. Soil biodiversity and soil multifunctionality for each of the sites is being analysed following the framework.
To increase our understanding of the effect of climate change on soil biodiversity and soil multifunctionality, we have produced regional-specific climate projections for 7 sites distributed across the same 7 regions previously described. The calculated indexes of precipitation reduction during expected droughts were simulated in the seven countries in summer 2022 using rainout shelters. Soil samples were collected after the three-month simulation and soil biodiversity and soil multifunctionality are being analysed following the framework. The feasibility to accurately simulate heatwaves in real soil environments was studied through 5 pilot experiments in Denmark. Preparations for drought and heatwave simulations in 2023 are ongoing.
We use Nature Contributions to People, accounting for the diversity of values from a more holistic perspective. During this period, we have developed an integrated valuation approach to assess the effects of the soil management strategies and stressors. Thus, aiming to pursue a pluralistic approach to valuation to increase the understanding of how sustainable soil management impacts soil biodiversity, soil-mediated nature contributions to people and human wellbeing. Our valuation approach mixes behaviour-based methods and statement-based methods on various scales and in various regions and address different stakeholder groups.
During this period, we also worked to build the conceptual network of linked nodes which will underpin the evidence chains relating stressors, soil biodiversity, soil multifunctionality and nature contributions to people.
A first version of the Data Platform was designed and started to be implemented, a model repository is also being created and we are also starting the co-creation process of the users’ interface as first steps to create the SOILGUARDIANS app.
All the required communication tools and materials have been created, and both the communication strategy as well as the dissemination and exploitation strategy were developed and started to be implemented through communication and dissemination actions.
We have also produced land degradation gradients for seven EU NUTS-2 regions (in 5 biogeographical regions and 3 biomes: cropland, grassland and forest) and 3 equivalent regions in Argentina, Cameroon and Thailand. These degradation levels are calculated using information on soil carbon, soil erosion and soil texture. Land degradation maps are available for the 10 regions tackled and will be made public in SOILGUARD´s website by 2023. Across these, we have selected 234 sites where the current status of soil biodiversity, in relation to land degradation and (un)sustainable management, is being assessed. Tailor-made sampling protocols for soil biodiversity and soil multifunctionality assessment were developed and harmonized as much as possible with methods used in the SoilBON initiative, LUCAS and the Global Soil Partnership. Soil biodiversity and soil multifunctionality for each of the sites is being analysed following the framework.
To increase our understanding of the effect of climate change on soil biodiversity and soil multifunctionality, we have produced regional-specific climate projections for 7 sites distributed across the same 7 regions previously described. The calculated indexes of precipitation reduction during expected droughts were simulated in the seven countries in summer 2022 using rainout shelters. Soil samples were collected after the three-month simulation and soil biodiversity and soil multifunctionality are being analysed following the framework. The feasibility to accurately simulate heatwaves in real soil environments was studied through 5 pilot experiments in Denmark. Preparations for drought and heatwave simulations in 2023 are ongoing.
We use Nature Contributions to People, accounting for the diversity of values from a more holistic perspective. During this period, we have developed an integrated valuation approach to assess the effects of the soil management strategies and stressors. Thus, aiming to pursue a pluralistic approach to valuation to increase the understanding of how sustainable soil management impacts soil biodiversity, soil-mediated nature contributions to people and human wellbeing. Our valuation approach mixes behaviour-based methods and statement-based methods on various scales and in various regions and address different stakeholder groups.
During this period, we also worked to build the conceptual network of linked nodes which will underpin the evidence chains relating stressors, soil biodiversity, soil multifunctionality and nature contributions to people.
A first version of the Data Platform was designed and started to be implemented, a model repository is also being created and we are also starting the co-creation process of the users’ interface as first steps to create the SOILGUARDIANS app.
All the required communication tools and materials have been created, and both the communication strategy as well as the dissemination and exploitation strategy were developed and started to be implemented through communication and dissemination actions.
The work carried out till now helps SOILGUARD to go beyond the state of the art for: i) The integration of knowledge, technologies, practices and efforts to overcome knowledge fragmentation in relation to soil biodiversity, ii) the co-creation of a framework with the potential to fill knowledge gaps in relation to the contribution of soil biodiversity to soil multifunctionality delivery and its economic and socio-cultural value, and the impact of land degradation, unsustainable soil management and climate change on this contribution, iii) the co-creation of an integrated valuation approach for soil-mediated nature contributions to people and iv) to set the basis for the establishment of evidence on the links between soil natural capital assets and nature contributions to people.
The key expected results, and their potential impact, until the end of the project will be: i) increased knowledge about the global distribution of soil biodiversity and its multifunctionality to increase our understanding of the current status, challenges and potential of soil biodiversity, ii) evidence on the impact of soil management practices on the environmental, economic and social value of soil-mediated nature contributions to people to quantify the consequences of unsustainable soil management and, iii) the integration of evidence chains within the SOILGUARDIANS app, and recommendations to contribute to the understanding, management and conservation of soil biodiversity.
The key expected results, and their potential impact, until the end of the project will be: i) increased knowledge about the global distribution of soil biodiversity and its multifunctionality to increase our understanding of the current status, challenges and potential of soil biodiversity, ii) evidence on the impact of soil management practices on the environmental, economic and social value of soil-mediated nature contributions to people to quantify the consequences of unsustainable soil management and, iii) the integration of evidence chains within the SOILGUARDIANS app, and recommendations to contribute to the understanding, management and conservation of soil biodiversity.