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Understanding and managing soil health impacts to protect soil-dependent pollinators

Project description

The hidden link between soil health and pollinators

Soil-dependent pollinators like ground-nesting pollinators, e.g. bees, wasps and ants, play vital roles in ecosystems and agriculture, yet their decline remains poorly understood. With this in mind, the EU-funded ProPollSoil project investigates how intensive soil management and contamination impact these lesser-known species crucial for pollination, decomposition and nutrient cycling. Through a Europe-wide field campaign, innovative monitoring using eDNA, AI and lab studies, ProPollSoil aims to fill knowledge gaps about pollinator-soil interactions. The project also assesses threats like soil compaction and pollution across nine case study areas, using modelling to map pollinator habitat suitability across Europe. By integrating diverse expertise and co-creating with stakeholders, ProPollSoil seeks to guide sustainable soil practices and support pollinator conservation.

Objective

ProPollSoil aims to enhance our understanding of the relationship between soil health and soil-dependent pollinators, which spend part of their life cycle in or on soil and play vital roles in ecosystems and agriculture, providing services like pollination, decomposition and nutrient cycling. We specifically focus on lesser-known species and groups, such as ground-nesting bees, wasps, hoverflies, ants or beetles. ProPollSoil will identify how intensive soil management practices and contamination, threatening both pollinator and soil health, contribute to the decline of soil-dependent pollinators. This knowledge will be used to inform sustainable soil practices and guide conservation and restoration efforts. We will (i) conduct a pan-European field sampling campaign, including SOB4ES sites, (ii) develop novel monitoring methods, including eDNA and AI, (iii) perform lab studies to fill existing knowledge gaps, such as the role soil microbiota, (iv) assess intensive management, soil compaction and soil pollution as potential soil and pollinator threats within a co-creation research approach in nine Case Study Areas (CSAs), and (v) use different modelling approaches to produce EU-wide maps of soil substrate availability and hence pollinator suitability. Our multi-disciplinary team involves experts in soil science, pollinator ecology and biology, biodiversity monitoring, big data, social sciences, modelling and ecotoxicology.

By contributing new knowledge and data on soil health and pollinator diversity, maps on pollinator and soil habitat quality and novel approaches for joint soil and pollinator monitoring to the Mission “A Soil Deal for Europe” and the EU Pollinators Initiative, “A New Deal for Pollinators“, ProPollSoil will support strategies for reducing soil pollution, improving soil structure, safeguarding pollinators and raising awareness of the importance of soil for pollinators. Our results will be shared with the European Soil Data Centre (ESDAC) and inform the EU Soil Observatory (EUSO). ProPollSoil will collaborate closely with HORIZON projects like SOB4ES, RestPoll, BIOservicES and BUTTERFLY through data exchange and joint stakeholder and outreach campaigns and use of CSAs. Long-term impact will be ensured through shared sampling, outreach and data tools. Aligned with EU and global biodiversity strategies, ProPollSoil supports Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) such as halting biodiversity loss (SDG15, through providing best-practice guides aimed at conserving soil and pollinator health) and ensuring food security (SDG2, through improving soil and pollinator health). ProPollSoil will use a multi-actor approach, engaging stakeholders like farmers, industry, NGOs, citizens and municipalities, to ensure the co-creation of new knowledge on soil-pollinator interactions, while also promoting soil literacy and highlighting the essential role of healthy soils in maintaining pollinator populations and ecosystem resilience.

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HORIZON-RIA - HORIZON Research and Innovation Actions

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Call for proposal

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(opens in new window) HORIZON-MISS-2024-SOIL-01

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Coordinator

TECHNISCHE UNIVERSITAET MUENCHEN
Net EU contribution

Net EU financial contribution. The sum of money that the participant receives, deducted by the EU contribution to its linked third party. It considers the distribution of the EU financial contribution between direct beneficiaries of the project and other types of participants, like third-party participants.

€ 803 395,00
Address
Arcisstrasse 21
80333 Muenchen
Germany

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Region
Bayern Oberbayern München, Kreisfreie Stadt
Activity type
Higher or Secondary Education Establishments
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Total cost

The total costs incurred by this organisation to participate in the project, including direct and indirect costs. This amount is a subset of the overall project budget.

€ 803 395,00

Participants (22)

Partners (2)

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