Our Story
Soil organisms are crucial in providing essential ecosystem services, such as nutrient cycling, pest control, water retention, and climate regulation. However, there is still a lack of understanding regarding the relationships between key soil organisms and the delivery of ecosystem services in different land use types. BIOservicES aims to address this gap using a multidisciplinary team of specialists to provide new knowledge about the soil ecosystem functions and services associated with soil organisms and develop new indicators, tools, and incentives to identify and monitor the keystone soil organisms that contribute to the delivery of ecosystem services in European land uses.
Existing research sites provide limited information on soil biodiversity and its link to ecosystem services. Using 25 experimental sites across five biogeographic regions covering eight land uses, BIOservicES plans to develop a toolbox of keystone soil biological indicators to help establish these links, facilitating land planning and decision-making.
Additionally, the project will investigate how climate change impacts soil functionality and ecosystem service delivery, particularly in low-diversity systems.
BIOservicES aims to quantify the scaling potential and impacts of soil sustainability innovations, recognising the importance of private investment and institutional arrangements in soil health conservation. The project will assign monetary values to both marketed and non-marketed ecosystem services associated with soil organisms. This approach aims to overcome barriers to transitioning towards sustainable land management reliant on healthy soils with high biodiversity.
Objectives
S01
Establishing a central hub for co-creation, co-design, and co-innovation, the BIOservicES project aims to strengthen stakeholder communities, identify key actors in soil biodiversity, and create living labs for landscape-scale innovation, utilising a shared digital platform to foster collaboration and support the integration of soil health considerations in land use planning.
S02
Developing a comprehensive methodology to assess soil organism abundance, diversity, and function across diverse land uses and regions for understanding their contribution to ecosystem functions and services, with specific key performance indicators and objectives.
S03
Creating SMART soil biodiversity targets for monitoring soil health across public and private sectors by analysing soil organisms' resilience to climate change, employing AI to understand their interactions, diversity, and role in ecosystem functions at varied levels and landscapes.
S04
Designing a comprehensive framework for valuing soil biodiversity's contribution to ecosystem services and assessing their economic worth, integrating diverse valuation methods across different regions and land uses.
S05
Developing soil biodiversity analysis tools, proposing guidelines and incentives for integrating conservation into policies, analysing financial schemes for sustainable soil management, mapping policy, and economic incentives, evaluating soil biodiversity enhancement factors, and creating recommendations for upscaling.
S06
Maximizing stakeholder engagement and awareness through strategic communication, dissemination, and exploitation of research findings on soil organisms' contribution to ecosystem services, fostering the use of soil biodiversity indicators in monitoring and conservation, to reach a broad audience and ensure long-term sustainability.
Funding
The project was funded by the Horizon Europe Programme, securing a total amount of €9,012,377, with €620,181 from Innovate UK, and €993,656 from the State Secretariat for Education, Research and Innovation in Switzerland.
