European soil threats: What, Where and Why?

Although different countries tend to encounter different soil threats, the authors of the report have attempted to see Europe’s soil threats under one, rather than delve into exactly where a specific soil threat is at and how to fix it.

 «Previous studies show that every single country in Europe faces one soil threat or another. What we’ve done, isn’t necessarily look at a specific area and say what is wrong there. We’ve rather aimed to look at Europe as a whole and define all the soil threats which pertain to our part of the world,» says Dr. Jannes Stolte, Head of Department at NIBIO and main coordinator of the report.

Despite this, the authors of the report have defined eleven separate soil threats in Europe. 

«Defining each soil threat has been important to get a full overview of the situation in Europe. In addition to this, we’ve asked the many experts involved to combine “their” specific soil threat with other soil threats. What we’ve been interested in, is to try and find interactions between the various soil threats at hand,» says Dr. Stolte.

Can you give an example of in what way a soil threat can influence or interact with another?

«For instance, if you have increased soil erosion, or loss of top soil, you’ll also see a decrease in soil biodiversity. Combine this with soil functions, a decrease in crop growth will become apparent. In our report we’ve tried to describe soil threats in interaction with each other, which gives us a better overview of exactly what kind of issues Europe needs to address, » Dr. Stolte explains.

Forms the scientific basis for RECARE

The report Soil threats in Europe is part of the RECARE project, which main aim is to reduce the negative impacts of predefined soil threats in Europe through various restoration methods. The project has defined 17 case study areas spread out all over Europe, from Norway up north, to Spain and Italy down south. 

“Our plan is to implement possible measures against all soil threats in the different study areas, to see how effective they are, what their economic impact is, what their impact on ecosystem services is and so on,” says Dr. Stolte.

The measures in question are not new, nor have the study areas been at random.

“The case study areas in the project have been identified based on available historical data from several on-going experiments, the reason for this being that a decline in soil quality is in most cases a slow process which does not happen in an instant.  

As for the measures that we’re implementing, these are also partly built on previous projects, in addition to new approaches, and will probably go beyond the lifetime of the project before we’ll see any effect of them,” Dr. Stolte says.

Collaboration with stakeholders essential

Due to this, stakeholder involvement is an important part of the project.

“Take flooding in Norway as an example. What we’ve done in the RECARE project, is to give stakeholders, i.e. farmers, administrative bodies and water boards, a set of possible actions to reduce the peak flow of the flood. This way we can find out over time, in collaboration with them, which measures are the most efficient and feasible, even after the project period is over,” Dr. Stolte explains.

What kind of measures have you implemented in the case study area affected by flooding, and have they had any effect so far?

“All our measures in this particular area aim to slow down the flow of water over agricultural land, either by means of land use, dams or retention areas. What is difficult is to quantify the effect of a certain measure, as a comparison between the different flooding events the area has encountered is impossible, due to many varying factors. What we do, and will continue doing, is to look at how efficient a certain measure is over time in one particular area.  To do this modeling and close collaboration with the stakeholders is essential.”

Europe’s eleven soil threats

So which eleven soil threats is Europe affected by? In the report, the threats described are soil erosion by water and wind, decline in soil organic matter in peat and mineral soils, soil compaction, sealing, contamination, salinization, desertification, flooding and landslides, and last, decline in soil biodiversity.

In addition to a chapter dedicated to each threat, the report includes a chapter on soil functions and ecosystem services, before it ends with a summary of what the overall soil state of Europe is.

“The drivers of climate, policy and human activity have different levels of influence and importance for the various soil threats. For some of the threats, like water erosion of flooding and landslides, climate is the most important driver. For threats like sealing and contamination, human activities are the most important. For others, a combination of climate and human activities is the main problem,” Dr. Jannes Stolte says.

“In our report we’ve, among other things, presented updated information on the concepts and definition of the soil threats, and also what kind of influence each soil threat has on other soil threats. Despite this, there is still a large uncertainty and lack of quantitative information on, for example, the interactions between the soil threats and the influence of soil threats on soil functions and ecosystem services. Hopefully, the work which is currently being carried out in the RECARE project can help in this matter and provide us with an improved overview of existing information on soil degradation in Europe, as well as finding suitable measures and practices to prevent it.”