Periodic Reporting for period 1 - SELVANS (Soil condition and capability mapping for sustainable forest management)
Période du rapport: 2023-05-15 au 2025-05-14
Soils are essential for facing humanity’s existential challenges of food security, water security, climate change mitigation and adaptation, sustaining biodiversity and ecosystem functioning. Whilst the increasing demand for food, clean water and energy by society intensify the pressures on soils, the importance of maintaining the soil resources has gained recognition in the last decades. This emphasizes the need to manage soils according to their intrinsic capability and to assess the effects of human activities on soil condition, so that we can ensure the long-term provision of the services they provide. For example, intensive forestry operations in steep soils can increase erosion, loss of soil organic carbon (SOC) and depletion of nutrients, affecting the growth of trees and other ecosystem functions. Thus, it is important to identify thresholds for soil properties that are used as indicators of functions, to warn us of a possible degradation in soil condition. But every soil is different. What we imagine as a healthy soil, or a soil in good condition, may look very different depending on the pedoclimatic context. We need to identify references specific to the soil class, the local climate, landscape and land use history. These references are suitable for local and regional management. Finding these references becomes difficult in places with a long history of intensive soil use.
The main goals of SELVANS were to implement a digital soil mapping framework for setting class-specific thresholds and assessing the effects of forest management on soil condition with respect to reference soils. This knowledge will inform sustainable forest management strategies in the Basque Country, maintain soil multifunctionality, counteract the risk of soil degradation, and upscale estimates on soil condition and capability. The second and more conceptual objective was to design a modelling approach for quantifying soil change in the context of long-term intensive soil use, using France as a case study.
The main goals of SELVANS were to implement a digital soil mapping framework for setting class-specific thresholds and assessing the effects of forest management on soil condition with respect to reference soils. This knowledge will inform sustainable forest management strategies in the Basque Country, maintain soil multifunctionality, counteract the risk of soil degradation, and upscale estimates on soil condition and capability. The second and more conceptual objective was to design a modelling approach for quantifying soil change in the context of long-term intensive soil use, using France as a case study.
SELVANS designed a methodology for mapping soil classes at 25 m resolution using spatial information on relief, climate, parent material and vegetation. These classes were used as soil monitoring units. Within each class, reference soils were identified combining tree inventory data and a forest map. Unit-specific thresholds for indicators of soil condition (pH, SOC:clay, bulk density) were established and used to assess the health status of the soils sampled with the permanent monitoring network for sustainable forest management of the Basque Country. Maps of soil pH at 25 m resolution and predictions of soil condition ̶̶ meaning if the soils under plantations were at risk of acidification below recommended reference levels ̶ were also created. These maps of soil condition allow to know the geographical areas where the soils need intervention to improve their health and to avoid that they degrade further.
The capacity of the soil to perform functions is controlled by properties that acquired slowly, as a result of soil formation, whereas the condition reflects the effects of management in its status. Together, capacity and condition inform on whether the soil is being managed sustainably, according to its capability. SELVANS modelled and mapped the capacity of the forest soils of the Basque Country for the production of biomass, using the capacity for growth of Monterrey pine stands as proxy. Maps of capacity and condition for the storage of soil organic carbon and the nutrient storage and cycling were also produced. This was achieved applying the Soil Security Assessment Framework. The storage of carbon is an important function for mitigation and adaptation to climate change, and the nutrient cycling and storage is key for sustaining the forest ecosystems, semi-natural or managed.
SELVANS developed an interactive web application that can be used to visualize the results of the soil condition assessments for the forest soils of the Basque Country, maps of the condition of forest plantations and their associated uncertainty. This app can be exploited to decide collectively with the different stakeholders the indicators’ thresholds and explore the possible outcomes on the soil condition assessment.
The capacity of the soil to perform functions is controlled by properties that acquired slowly, as a result of soil formation, whereas the condition reflects the effects of management in its status. Together, capacity and condition inform on whether the soil is being managed sustainably, according to its capability. SELVANS modelled and mapped the capacity of the forest soils of the Basque Country for the production of biomass, using the capacity for growth of Monterrey pine stands as proxy. Maps of capacity and condition for the storage of soil organic carbon and the nutrient storage and cycling were also produced. This was achieved applying the Soil Security Assessment Framework. The storage of carbon is an important function for mitigation and adaptation to climate change, and the nutrient cycling and storage is key for sustaining the forest ecosystems, semi-natural or managed.
SELVANS developed an interactive web application that can be used to visualize the results of the soil condition assessments for the forest soils of the Basque Country, maps of the condition of forest plantations and their associated uncertainty. This app can be exploited to decide collectively with the different stakeholders the indicators’ thresholds and explore the possible outcomes on the soil condition assessment.
The tools for sustainable forest management developed by SELVANS can be adapted to assess the soil condition of agricultural systems, and upscaled from regional to continental level. At the level of the European Union, the set of indicators used for soil condition assessment can be aligned with the EU Soil Monitoring and Resilience Directive. The steps needed to ensure further success on the impact of SELVANS are to test the methods in other study areas, adapting the methodology to the context of other land uses.
SELVANS also made relevant progress for assessing soil change resulting from long-term human activities together with changes in climate, taking France as case study. For France, SELVANS identified areas with similar trajectories in changes in land use and climatic conditions. This information allows to understand the spatial distribution of soil classes and how different soils respond to human pressures depending on their intrinsic vulnerability and capacity. This knowledge is useful for setting baselines and management targets in a context where no soil is exempt of the impact of humans (there are no pristine soils), but where we still need to identify references of soils in good condition.
SELVANS also made relevant progress for assessing soil change resulting from long-term human activities together with changes in climate, taking France as case study. For France, SELVANS identified areas with similar trajectories in changes in land use and climatic conditions. This information allows to understand the spatial distribution of soil classes and how different soils respond to human pressures depending on their intrinsic vulnerability and capacity. This knowledge is useful for setting baselines and management targets in a context where no soil is exempt of the impact of humans (there are no pristine soils), but where we still need to identify references of soils in good condition.