RECARE undertakes a major review of soil threats in Europe
The RECARE project has just completed a major review of soil threats in Europe. The report, Soil threats in Europe: Status, methods, drivers and effects on ecosystem services was co-ordinated by Jannes Stolte from NIBIO with contributions from 61 authors. It provides an up to date overview of existing information on soil threats and degradation at the European scale.
Eleven soil threats are covered by the report. These soil threats are soil erosion by water, soil erosion by wind, decline of organic matter (OM) in peat soils, decline of OM in mineral soils, soil compaction, soil sealing, soil contamination, soil salinization, desertification, flooding and landslides and decline in soil biodiversity.
The report is organised into 14 chapters. A chapter is dedicated to each soil threat which gives a description of the following:
- definition of the soil threat and processes involved
- state of the soil degradation
- drivers/pressures (including climate, human activities, policies)
- key indicators of the soil threat
- methods to assess the soil threat
- effects of the soil threat on soil functions.
In addition, the report contains a chapter reviewing the concepts and application of ecosystem services and soil functions. To download the final report, please click here. For more information about this report please contact WP2 leader, Jannes Stolte: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.