Periodic Reporting for period 1 - SOIL O-LIVE (THE SOIL BIODIVERSITY AND FUNCTIONALITY OF MEDITERRANEAN OLIVE GROVES: A HOLISTIC ANALYSIS OF THE INFLUENCE OF LAND MANAGEMENT ON OLIVE OIL QUALITY AND SAFETY)
Período documentado: 2023-01-01 hasta 2024-06-30
Context
The olive tree is one of the most important oil-producing crops in the Mediterranean region. However, olive growers face many challenges due to intensive agriculture applications, land degradation, biodiversity impoverishment and functionality loss. In this context, the EU-funded SOIL O-LIVE project will implement a set of multidisciplinary and interdisciplinary projects. The aim is to diagnose the environmental situation of olive grove soils on a broad scale. The project will target the most significant areas of olive production in the Mediterranean region. SOIL O-LIVE will analyse the impact of pollution and land degradation on olive groves’ soils, investigate the relationship of soil health status with the quality and safety of olive oil, implement effective soil amendments and ecological restoration practices, and define rigorous ecological thresholds for healthy European olive groves.
Objective
After more than fifty years of intensive agriculture application, the environmental situation for many olive groves across the Mediterranean Region is quite dramatic in terms of land degradation, biodiversity impoverishment, functionality loss, which may have already impacted on the quality and safety of olive oil, one of the most important commodities produced in Europe. Through the implementation of a series of multidisciplinary and interdisciplinary WPs, this project will perform the first rigorous diagnostic of the environmental situation of olive groves soils at a broad scale, considering the most important areas of olive production at the Mediterranean Region and its relationships to olive oil quality. Soil O-live aims (i) to analyze the impact of pollution and land degradation on soils from olive groves in terms of multi-biodiversity, ecological function at different levels of organization and scales; (ii) to investigate the relationship of soil health status with quality and safety of olive oil; (iii) to implement effective soil amendments and ecological restoration practices that promote manifest soil biodiversity and functionality enhancements in permanent Mediterranean olive orchards across its native range of distribution, that should be translated to improvements in olive oil quality and safety; (iv) to define rigorous ecological thresholds that allow to implement future clear norms and regulations in order to design a novel certification for healthy soils in European olive orchards.
The olive tree is one of the most important oil-producing crops in the Mediterranean region. However, olive growers face many challenges due to intensive agriculture applications, land degradation, biodiversity impoverishment and functionality loss. In this context, the EU-funded SOIL O-LIVE project will implement a set of multidisciplinary and interdisciplinary projects. The aim is to diagnose the environmental situation of olive grove soils on a broad scale. The project will target the most significant areas of olive production in the Mediterranean region. SOIL O-LIVE will analyse the impact of pollution and land degradation on olive groves’ soils, investigate the relationship of soil health status with the quality and safety of olive oil, implement effective soil amendments and ecological restoration practices, and define rigorous ecological thresholds for healthy European olive groves.
Objective
After more than fifty years of intensive agriculture application, the environmental situation for many olive groves across the Mediterranean Region is quite dramatic in terms of land degradation, biodiversity impoverishment, functionality loss, which may have already impacted on the quality and safety of olive oil, one of the most important commodities produced in Europe. Through the implementation of a series of multidisciplinary and interdisciplinary WPs, this project will perform the first rigorous diagnostic of the environmental situation of olive groves soils at a broad scale, considering the most important areas of olive production at the Mediterranean Region and its relationships to olive oil quality. Soil O-live aims (i) to analyze the impact of pollution and land degradation on soils from olive groves in terms of multi-biodiversity, ecological function at different levels of organization and scales; (ii) to investigate the relationship of soil health status with quality and safety of olive oil; (iii) to implement effective soil amendments and ecological restoration practices that promote manifest soil biodiversity and functionality enhancements in permanent Mediterranean olive orchards across its native range of distribution, that should be translated to improvements in olive oil quality and safety; (iv) to define rigorous ecological thresholds that allow to implement future clear norms and regulations in order to design a novel certification for healthy soils in European olive orchards.
At this initial stage, the project aimed to perform two priority general goals: selecting study orchards representing various modes of olive cultivation in the Mediterranean area and conducting tasks to assess the current status of olive cultivation in soil health and olive oil quality. Diagnostic-related goals align with the soil degradation descriptors defined by the European Commission in the Soil Monitoring Law. In this respect, we offer some key deliverables (e.g. D.3.1 D.2.1) demonstrating soil degradation across multiple cultivation methods and geographical regions. In addition, we also summarize the results and findings of tasks conducted to enhance soil health from the perspective of organic amendments, electro-remediation, microbiome inoculation, and optimal plant cover restoration, which will be the basis of the next phase of the Soil O-live research program. In addition, during this period, we have developed a strong communication and dissemination program comprising many outreach activities of a diverse nature that have allowed us to expand important messages for sustainability and quality enhancements during olive oil production at regional, national, and international levels. We can propose now a comprehensive causal scheme that explains in full, for the first time, the direct and indirect links between soil health, soil functionality, plant status, and olive oil quality holistically, the primary goal of the Soil O-live project. Remarkably, from the tasks performed in the WP2, we have identified critical issues contributing to land degradation in olive cultivation, such as pollution due to metal accumulation (copper), soil compaction, erosion, lack of organic material and fertility, etc. Each one of these factors were analyzed to explore the variation between modes of cultivation (organic, traditional, and high-density) across countries and regions. This analysis is crucial for implementing tailored restoration actions for each cultivation method (GO3). The bridge between GO1 and GO3 will be developed in the project's second stage, although some pilot restoration experiments (GO3) were already underway on selected farms. Noticeably, a new full genus of free-living nematode has been described for the first time for science; this remarkable finding has been published in a specialized journal, Zoosystematic and Evolution. A new method for assessing olive trees' water status and leaf pigment content was described using multispectral and thermal data and published in Remote Sensing journal. We have determined soil respiration, an important proxy for soil biodiversity and functionality. Likewise, we have estimated the Organic Stock Carbon variation of olive orchards related to promoting soil health in olive groves within the framework of farmer behavior and gender roles, will commence in September 2024 with the launch of surveys. Finally, some pilot experiments linked to the next operational stage (GO3) have already been set up in selected farms during this first period.
In this first period, we conducted the first Pan-Mediterranean diagnostic of the soil health situation of Mediterranean olive groves. In addition, we have proposed a comprehensive causal scheme that explains in full, for the first time, the direct and indirect links between soil health, soil functionality, plant status, and olive oil quality holistically. Without any doubt, results from this scheme go beyond the state of the art in the field of sustainability in agrosystems, whose findings have the potential to be a model for permanent crops in the Mediterranean by identifying key soil indicators that influence yield and quality.
From the soil restoration part, our preliminary test using electrokinetic is promising. This technology can extract up to 35 % of the copper retained in the soil, which has the potential to be increased in future assays. In the project's next stage, we will optimize the technology and start the field assays.
From the soil restoration part, our preliminary test using electrokinetic is promising. This technology can extract up to 35 % of the copper retained in the soil, which has the potential to be increased in future assays. In the project's next stage, we will optimize the technology and start the field assays.