Soil health indicators are vital for evaluating soil ecosystems’ vitality and sustainability. When combined with careful indicator selection and precise sampling techniques, they enable effective monitoring of soil health, guiding management practices that enhance soil fertility and bolster ecosystem resilience.

On this point, we disseminate more of our work in the third webinar on Soil Community Platform, organized in collaboration with partners from InBestSoil, Soil Health BENCHMARKS, and AI4SoilHealth.

The Soil Community platform was developed through the efforts of the InBestSoil and BIOservicES projects to create a space where diverse projects and stakeholders involved in soil health initiatives can connect, share knowledge, and collaborate effectively.

Webinar Highlights

Our discussion covered frameworks for selecting soil health indicators, their connections to ecosystem services and threats, and practical soil sampling, storage, and shipment aspects. We had three speakers, and each of them spoke from their own expertise and project perspectives:

1. Andrés Rodríguez Seijo, coordinator of InBestSoil and work package leader (WP2) in BIOservicES, broke the ice:

• He presented findings from over 770 samples collected across five experimental areas and eight land uses.
• Also, he explained how the sampling protocols were developed for both projects, noting that while InBestSoil primarily focuses on physical and chemical indicators, BIOservicES extends this scope to include biological indicators.

InBestSoil, coordinated by the University of Vigo, began two years ago to evaluate ecosystem services and promote investments in soil health economically. The project encompasses seven Lighthouses across Europe, sites with varying soil qualities and management interventions, and two Living Labs with experimental sites under conventional and alternative management practices.

A key first step was identifying indicators that could be quantified to assign economic value to soil ecosystem services, including pollutants, soil organic carbon, structure, biodiversity, nutrients, acidity, vegetation cover, landscape heterogeneity, and forest cover. Andrés also shared methodologies for biological soil analyses, cultural indicators, and satellite-based assessments, all detailed in the Handbook of Soil Sampling Procedures and methodologies for measuring soil health indicators.

BIOservicES, coordinated by the Polytechnic University of Cartagena, began almost two years ago and aims to link soil biodiversity with ecosystem functions and services across different land uses. It seeks to understand how soil organisms, from viruses and bacteria to macrofauna like earthworms, contribute to ecosystem resilience under pressures such as land use change and climate variability. The project has identified several key soil indicators based on previous H2020 projects, the LUCAS database, and others, focusing on functions such as food provision, water regulation, raw material supply, and erosion control.

2. Paolo di Lonardo, environmental scientist at Wageningen University & Research, highlighted the progress of BENCHMARKS, a project launched in January 2023:

• He emphasized the project’s definition of soil health as ’the ability of a soil, at a specified point in time, to function as a vital living system, within natural or managed ecosystem boundaries and land-use boundaries, to sustain plant and animal productivity and health, maintain or enhance water and air quality and to further provide soil-based ecosystem services in the long-term without (increased) trade-offs between ecosystem services’.

• The project develops cognitive models that break down soil functions into subfunctions and processes linked to biological, chemical, physical, and environmental parameters.
• BENCHMARKS work in the field covers 28 landscape case studies in 3 different land uses (agriculture, forest, urban) + 3 different categories for the sampling campaign (replicated long-term experimental sites, variance sites from local to landscape, and variance sites – assessing urban fragmentation).
• BENCHMARKS has conducted extensive inventories of management practices and their impacts on soil biota, and this is one of their recent works: Response of soil biota to agricultural management practices: A systematic quantitative meta-data-analysis and method selection framework.
• Also, they made protocols for soil sampling tailored for different land uses and research needs, and now are publicly available online: a. Guidelines for agricultural and forest experimental sites, b. Guidelines for farming and forest systems, c. Guidelines for urban systems.

3. David Robinson, a leading Principal Research Scientist from the UK Centre for Ecology & Hydrology, shared insights from the longstanding UK countryside survey, which has monitored soil and vegetation health for over 50 years.

• His team emphasizes clarity of purpose in monitoring, cost-effective design, and stakeholder communication.
• The survey utilizes habitat-based reporting units and templates to ensure indicators are relevant, measurable, and policy-oriented.
• Their findings highlight how reductions in acid emissions aid ecosystem recovery, and how soil organic carbon levels rebound in croplands – evidence of positive change driven by policy and management.

Post-webinar thoughts

Regardless of our involvement in a project like the ones presented in the ‘Soil Health Indicators: from selection to sampling’ webinar, our last speaker underscored that we should:

• remain true to the purpose and don’t lose our enthusiasm, no matter the challenges that arise;
• adopt a robust approach;
• Address the questions of your stakeholders.

Long-term change is the goal – expecting visible results within five years is unrealistic; we should consider 10, 20, or even 30 years. Lastly, stakeholders must understand that soil health improvements are gradual and ongoing efforts.

We can better understand and improve soil ecosystems to benefit our environment and future generations by fostering ongoing dialogue and knowledge exchange through platforms like the Soil Community platform. Let us remain committed to this vital work, recognizing that meaningful change is a gradual process rooted in sustained effort and shared vision.