SOILGUARD

Understanding the effects of soil management and climate change on soil biodiversity and ecosystem services to promote evidence-based conservation strategies (101000371)

2021-2025

SUMMARY

This H2020 funded project will provide a comprehensive assessment of soil biodiversity (from earthworms to bacteria) and ecosystem services in over 200 croplands sites across 7 European and 3 international regions. These sites are selected within contrasted management schemes (organic vs conventional) and degradation levels, with climate change experiments established in a subset of those sites. The main goal of SOILGUARD is to deliver evidence-based knowledge regarding sustainable soil management benefits for soil biodiversity and its potential to deliver ecosystem services across biomes and biogeographical regions under specific stressors derived from climate change. This knowledge will be used to produce recommendations on soil management, policy and conservation frameworks for the global soil assessment and raise awareness among decision and policy makers, encouraging the development of region-specific strategies to conserve soil biodiversity and avoid land degradation.

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OBJECTIVES

The specific objectives of SOILGUARD are to assess:
i) the status of soil biodiversity in 7 EU NUTS-2 regions, belonging to 4 biogeographical regions, and 3 international regions (located in Argentina, Cameroon and Thailand). 
ii) the impact of land degradation, soil management and climate change on soil biodiversity and the ecosystem services it drives. 

FUNDING

Sponsor: European Comission (H2020). IP: Salvador Lladó (LEITAT, Spain). 7.000.000 € (301.506 € for UA).

OUTPUTS

Work in progress