Twinning excellence on organic soil amendments effect on nutrient and contaminant dynamics in the subsurface

Project Information

TwinSubDyn

Grant agreement ID: 101059546

DOI

10.3030/101059546

Project closed

EC signature date 12 April 2022

Start date 1 August 2022

End date 30 November 2025

Funded under

• Widening participation and spreading excellence

Total cost

€ 1 499 592,50

EU contribution

€ 1 499 592,50

Coordinated by

University of Novi Sad Faculty of Sciences
Serbia

Periodic Reporting for period 1 - TwinSubDyn (Twinning excellence on organic soil amendments effect on nutrient and contaminant dynamics in the subsurface)

Reporting period: 2022-08-01 to 2023-10-31

Summary of the context and overall objectives of the project

Globally, current agricultural practices have significant environmental consequences, including soil depletion, groundwater contamination, and an increase in waste and agricultural residues. Estimates reveal that (i) around 83% of EU arable soils, along with a significant portion of groundwater, are contaminated with residual pesticides; (ii) nitrogen and phosphorus cycles in 65-75% of agricultural soils have exceeded safe limits, causing diffuse pollution; (iii) arable soils are experiencing a decline in soil organic matter at a rate of 0.5% per year.
At the same time, valuable resources, potential organic soil amendments as an important solution for above mentioned problems, are continuously lost through waste streams. This problem is highlighted in the Western Balkan countries, where these resources are used even less. There is a wide pool of such resources (anaerobic digestate, manure, sewage sludge, compost, as well as biochar) are available. But these amendments could affect soil structure, element cycling, and nutrient composition in the soil. Additionally, they can be a source and/or a sink of nutrients as well as organic and inorganic pollutants. Thus, they are expected to affect soil and groundwater quality. TwinSubDyn project aims to boost research excellence of UNSPMF and establish a knowledge hub based in Serbia to address unresolved challenges in this field.
Within this project University of Novi Sad, Faculty of Sciences aims to increase its capacity for scientific excellence in the field via collaborations and training with 4 top-class leading EU partners: University of Vienna; Forschungszentrum Jülich; Martin Luther University Halle-Wittenberg and Spanish National Research Council. These internationally renowned research institutions will help UNSPMF to unlock its scientific potential through networking and transfer of knowledge.
Project activities will include training of early stage and experienced researchers from UNSPMF at renowned partner institutions, workshops and summer school. The project will also include a small strategic research project in this field.

Work performed from the beginning of the project to the end of the period covered by the report and main results achieved so far

Based on the objectives set for establishing excellence, five different but connected activities have been defined.
Networking for excellence and knowledge transfer road map - As Serbia moves towards joining the EU, to avoid the brain drain towards the EU and the rest of the world, UNSPMF must position itself as a fully integrated member of the ERA. This implies future participation in international joint research projects, which would in turn call for a constant trans-national exchange of researchers at all carrier stage between UNSPMF and our strategic partners. Up to now several short-term staff exchanges to EU partners and online and on-site trainings was organized to allow UNSPMF researchers to acquire new knowledge, and to bridge the previously identified research gaps and needs: (1) At UNIVIE - Use of chromatography coupled to advanced mass spectrometry methods s; Hydro-geological groundwater modelling; Optimization and improvement of experimental designs; Building capacity of research management and administration. (2) At FZJ - Using isotope signatures as tracers nutrient cycling in different soil layers; Large-scale field experiments. (3) At MLU – Soil organic matter functional analysis using molecular markers and stabile isotope techniques; Insights to the large-scale field experiments; Meta-analysis. (4) At CSIC - Techniques for the characterization of the composition and recalcitrance of soil organic matter by solid-state NMR spectroscopy, analytical pyrolysis, isotope-based and biochemical approaches.
Road map for raising UNSPMF staff research profile - This specific objective will be achieved through three main activities: organization of large-scale events (workshops and summer schools), establishing a virtual TwinSubDyn knowledge platform, and developing a Science and Innovation Strategy. Up to now one first workshop “Organic soil amendments impact on soil organic matter and nutrient characteristics and dynamics” have been organized.
In addition, the TwinSubDyn knowledge platform have been established with the aim to further contribute to the UNSPMF visibility at national and international levels (https://knowledge-hub.pmf.uns.ac.rs/ ).
Strategic collaborative research project - The research activities within TwinSubDyn have been tailored to align with the overall project, utilizing planned training activities to facilitate knowledge transfer and foster mutually beneficial scientific collaboration among the consortium partners. In this regard, the research conducted during all short-term staff exchanges of UNSPMF researchers serves as a means of evaluation for achieving specific research goals to address knowledge gaps related to the impacts of organic substances on soil organic matter dynamics, as well as the effects of organic substances on nutrient and contaminant sorption, transport, and degradation. Specific objectives that are targeted and realized up to now in collaboration between UNSPMF and one or more consortium partners are: Investigation of the the impact of types of OSA on spatial and temporal soil organic matter properties and dynamics (key collaborator CSIC and MLU); investigation of the element and nutrient cycling in different soil layers in dependence of organic soil amendment type (key collaborator FZJ); investigation of the impact of the organic soil amendment on (ionizable) organic contaminants (key collaborator UNIVIE) and hydrophobic organic contaminants fate in soil subsurface and groundwater.

Progress beyond the state of the art and expected potential impact (including the socio-economic impact and the wider societal implications of the project so far)

Application of organic soil amendments is a widespread practice worldwide expected to grow in use and application scenarios. Organic soil amendments can play a key role in maintaining soil functioning and facilitating a shift towards a resource-efficient, low-carbon, and climate-resilient agro-economy by minimizing the environmental footprint of agricultural food production. An important aspect of organic soil amendments application is that these amendments can be a source and/or a sink of nutrients as well as organic and inorganic pollutants (pharmaceuticals, pesticides, microplastics, and heavy metals). Thus, they are expected to affect soil subsurface and groundwater contamination. A generalizable assessment of organic soil amendments effect on sorption, transformation and transport processes in soil is challenging. Up to now limited number of studies is available in this area of research especially those including comparison of different organic soil amendments effects. Therefore, the TwinSubDyn project will go beyond state of the art and try to close existing gaps and disentangle specific effects of organic soil amendments on nutrient and contaminant dynamics following their agricultural application.

Concept of TwinSubDyn project