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The second MAES report presents indicators that can be used at European and Member State's level to map and assess biodiversity, ecosystem condition and ecosystem services according to the Common International Classification of... more
The second MAES report presents indicators that can be used at European and Member State's level to map and assess biodiversity, ecosystem condition and ecosystem services according to the Common International Classification of Ecosystem Services (CICES v4.3). This work is based on a review of data and indicators available at national and European level and is applying the MAES analytical framework adopted in 2013.
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Growing environmental awareness and advances in modelling have generated interest in soil monitoring networks. Data management tools have to be developed in order to store data, check for errors and retrieve data for sharing and for... more
Growing environmental awareness and advances in modelling have generated interest in soil monitoring networks. Data management tools have to be developed in order to store data, check for errors and retrieve data for sharing and for analysis. As a result, we have designed a web application and a database for the Biosoil project that focuses on European forest soils. Integral to the system are authentication of users and access rights to the modules and data. It also logs all activities of each user. During data submission, the system automatically manages data transfer from the flat file (ASCII file) to the database after compliance checks. Then error tracking is followed by automated expert checks. These checks identify potential mistakes that can be corrected or commented on by data providers. The database is intended to cope with the challenges of transnational monitoring and integrates data quality assurance/quality control mechanisms. Benefits from the architecture of the datab...
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Research Interests: Environmental Engineering, Civil Engineering, Physical Geography, Environmental Science, Climate Change, and 13 moreTime Series, Temporal Resolution, Risk assessment, Soil Erosion, Kriging, Multiple Regression, Spatial Distribution, Precipitation, Risk Assessment, Vegetation Cover, Temporal Variability, Latitude, and Longitude
Research Interests: Engineering, Environmental Engineering, Botany, Environmental Science, Agronomy, and 15 moreForestry, Climate Change, Conservation Biology, Hydrology, Environmental Studies, Climatology, Biology, Ecology, Agriculture, Environmental Sustainability, Environmental Soil Science, EC, Contamination, Executive Summary, and Ec
Research Interests: Environmental Science, Climate Change, Soil, Carbon, Plant Biology, and 15 moreCarbon Sequestration, Global Change Biology, Medicine, Land Use Change, Biological Sciences, Global change, Canadian, Environmental Sciences, Europe, Forest Management, Kyoto Protocol, Soil Carbon, Grassland, Croplands, and Global Climate Model
The present article is dedicated to the generalization of data obtained in the framework of the preparation of Armenian portion of European Soil Database. Briefly described geography of Armenia. Great variability of soil variants... more
The present article is dedicated to the generalization of data obtained in the framework of the preparation of Armenian portion of European Soil Database. Briefly described geography of Armenia. Great variability of soil variants represented in Armenia is recorded. It is shown that nearly all zonal soil types those are developed not only in the region of Little Caucasus and the Armenian Volcanic Plateau but also in the mountain system of the Big Caucasus, are available in Armenia’s territory. In general the soils in the country are classified to 14 types and 27 subtypes which include a lot of families, varieties and species of soils; total number of soil kinds is 228. Brief description is presented of main soil types including area coverage in the country, altitudinal range, distribution, natural conditions (climate, forming rocks, etc.), structure and composition, current and prospective usage. Distributional map of zonal soils in the country is given.
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of water, nutrients and as a medium for growing. Soil stores, filters, buffers and transforms substances that are introduced into the environment. This capability is crucial in producing and protecting water supplies and for regulating... more
of water, nutrients and as a medium for growing. Soil stores, filters, buffers and transforms substances that are introduced into the environment. This capability is crucial in producing and protecting water supplies and for regulating greenhouse gases. Soil is a provider of raw materials. Soil is also an incredible habitat and gene pool. Soil is a fundamental component of our landscape and cultural heritage. The properties of soil vary tremendously from region to region. Soils under tropical rainforests are vulnerable to erosion and nutrient depletion if the vegetation cover is removed. Oasis regions in deserts and the Sahel show how seemingly infertile soils can be cultivated in the presence of water. The wetlands of Congo and other major African systems are stores of soil organic carbon and important wildlife habitats. The black, clay-rich soils of the Nile Valley in Sudan are rich in nutrients but difficult to cultivate when very wet or very dry. Soils with high salt levels are ...
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Developing the Version 4 of the Soil Geographical Database at scale 1:1,000,000 aims that providing a harmonised set of soil parameters covering Eurasia and Mediterranean countries for use in agro-meteorological and environmental... more
Developing the Version 4 of the Soil Geographical Database at scale 1:1,000,000 aims that providing a harmonised set of soil parameters covering Eurasia and Mediterranean countries for use in agro-meteorological and environmental modelling at regional, national, and continental levels. In this context, the expansion into the Mediterranean Basin will eventually include Turkey. In order to extend the Soil Geographical Database (SGDBE) to the countries of Mediterranean Basin, the preparation of soil geographical database of Turkey at 1:1 million scales was initiated at the end of 2008. In the current report, the reader will be informed about the preparation of soil geographical database of Turkey compatible with European database and how the Turkish soil data have been integrated the European Soil Database. The implementation of this work has been achieved since we have built a common understanding and nomenclature of soils in Europe and Mediterranean region. A number of attributes hav...
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The demand for information on functional soil properties is high and has increased over time. This is especially true for soil organic carbon (SOC) in the framework of food security and climate change. The GlobalSoilMap consortium was... more
The demand for information on functional soil properties is high and has increased over time. This is especially true for soil organic carbon (SOC) in the framework of food security and climate change. The GlobalSoilMap consortium was established in response to such a soaring demand for up-to-date and relevant soil information. The majority of the data needed to produce GlobalSoilMap soil property maps will, at least for the first generation, come mainly from archived soil legacy data, which could include polygon soil maps and point pedon data, and from available co-variates such as climatic data, remote sensing information, geological data, and other forms of environmental information. Several countries have already released products according to the GlobalSoilMap specifications and the project is rejuvenating soil survey and mapping in many parts of the world. Functional soil property maps have been produced using digital soil mapping techniques and existing legacy information and...
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In 2009, the European Commission extended the periodic Land Use/Land Cover Area Frame Survey (LUCAS) to sample and analyse the main properties of topsoil in 23 Member States of the European Union (EU). This topsoil survey represents the... more
In 2009, the European Commission extended the periodic Land Use/Land Cover Area Frame Survey (LUCAS) to sample and analyse the main properties of topsoil in 23 Member States of the European Union (EU). This topsoil survey represents the first attempt to build a consistent spatial database of the soil cover across The EU based on standard sampling and analytical procedures, with the analysis of all soil samples being carried out in a single laboratory. Approximately 20,000 points were selected out of the main LUCAS grid for the collection of soil samples. A standardised sampling procedure was used to collect around 0.5 kg of topsoil (0-20 cm). The samples were dispatched to a central laboratory for physical and chemical analyses. Subsequently, Malta and Cyprus provided soil samples even though the main LUCAS survey was not carried on their territories. Cyprus has adapted the sampling methodology of LUCAS-Topsoil for (the southern part of the island) while Malta adjusted its national ...
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Soil erosion by water is one of the most widespread forms of soil degradation in the Europe. On the occasion of the 2015 celebration of the International Year of Soils, the European Commission’s Joint Research Centre (JRC) published the... more
Soil erosion by water is one of the most widespread forms of soil degradation in the Europe. On the occasion of the 2015 celebration of the International Year of Soils, the European Commission’s Joint Research Centre (JRC) published the RUSLE2015, a modified modelling approach for assessing soil erosion in Europe by using the best available input data layers. The objective of the recent assessment performed with RUSLE2015 was to improve our knowledge and understanding of soil erosion by water across the European Union and to accentuate the differences and similarities between different regions and countries beyond national borders and nationally adapted models. RUSLE2015 has maximized the use of available homogeneous, updated, pan-European datasets (LUCAS topsoil, LUCAS survey, GAEC, Eurostat crops, Eurostat Management Practices, REDES, DEM 25m, CORINE, European Soil Database) and have used the best suited approach at European scale for modelling soil erosion. The collaboration of J...
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This report is summarizing the results of recent research activities on the fields of soil degradation, soil quality and soil information systems performed in the Joint Research Center, in collaboration with partner institutions. An... more
This report is summarizing the results of recent research activities on the fields of soil degradation, soil quality and soil information systems performed in the Joint Research Center, in collaboration with partner institutions. An overview is given about the main soil threats (erosion, compaction, salinisation, landslides, decline of soil organic matter, biodiversity decline and contamination) and a soil quality concept with relevance to the Thematic Strategy for Soil Protection. How to obtain EU publications Our priced publications are available from EU Bookshop (http://bookshop.europa.eu), where you can place an order with the sales agent of your choice. The Publications Office has a worldwide network of sales agents. You can obtain their contact details by sending a fax to (352) 29 29-42758. The mission of the JRC is to provide customer-driven scientific and technical support for the conception, development, implementation and monitoring of EU policies. As a service of the Euro...
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SummaryThere is an increasing demand for up‐to‐date soil organic carbon (OC) data for global environmental and climatic modelling. The aim of this study was to create a map of topsoil OC content at the European scale by applying digital... more
SummaryThere is an increasing demand for up‐to‐date soil organic carbon (OC) data for global environmental and climatic modelling. The aim of this study was to create a map of topsoil OC content at the European scale by applying digital soil mapping techniques to the first European harmonized geo‐referenced topsoil (0–20 cm) database, which arises from the Land use/Cover Area frame statistical Survey (LUCAS). A map of the associated uncertainty was also produced to support careful use of the predicted OC contents. A generalized additive model (GAM) was fitted on 85% of the dataset (R2 = 0.29), using OC content as dependent variable; a backward stepwise approach selected slope, land cover, temperature, net primary productivity, latitude and longitude as suitable covariates. The validation of the model (performed on 15% of the data‐set) gave an overall R2 of 0.27 and an R2 of 0.21 for mineral soils and 0.06 for organic soils. Organic C content in most organic soils was under‐predicted...
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Jones, RJA, Hiederer, R., Rusco, E., Loveland, PJ and Montanarella, L. (2004). The map of organic carbon in topsoils in Europe, Version 1.2, September 2003: Explanation of Special Publication Ispra 2004 No.72 (SPI04.72). European Soil... more
Jones, RJA, Hiederer, R., Rusco, E., Loveland, PJ and Montanarella, L. (2004). The map of organic carbon in topsoils in Europe, Version 1.2, September 2003: Explanation of Special Publication Ispra 2004 No.72 (SPI04.72). European Soil Bureau Research Report No.17, EUR 21209 ...
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The results on ‘Data and Database Strategy’of the Integrated Sink Enhancement Assessment (INSEA) project of the 6 Framework Programme are presented. The collection of papers include a wide range of studies carried out in the EU:... more
The results on ‘Data and Database Strategy’of the Integrated Sink Enhancement Assessment (INSEA) project of the 6 Framework Programme are presented. The collection of papers include a wide range of studies carried out in the EU: observation of available data sources on soils; the organic carbon content in the top soil and its validation; field verification of the changes in the soil organic carbon; application of the field-scale model EPIC (Environmental Policy Integrated Climate) to predict the changes in soil organic carbon content due to land management. The book addresses specialists and those who are focused on the research of the soil organic carbon. The mission of the JRC is to provide customer-driven scientific and technical support for the conception, development, implementation and monitoring of EU policies. As a service of the European Commission, the JRC functions as a reference centre of science and technology for the Union. Close to the policy-making process, it serves...
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Abstract The novelty of this study lies in the analyses of legislation concerning land use policies by examining the specific boundary between land ownership and land take. The basic motive was that the European Commission (EC) withdrew... more
Abstract The novelty of this study lies in the analyses of legislation concerning land use policies by examining the specific boundary between land ownership and land take. The basic motive was that the European Commission (EC) withdrew the Soil Framework Directive (SFD) in 2014 following the objections of certain Member States (MS) who countered that as most lands are privately owned, they should not fall under the remit of public governance. Since the withdrawal of the SFD land take is an issue receiving more attention. The legal content of ownership rights has been subjected to constant debate in the context of land-use policies and planning practices, which raises the questions of who decides how the land can be used and whether administrative authorities give priority to non-agricultural uses. Our study seeks to explore these issues through the lens of property law by comparing different legislations on access to land on three levels of policy implementation: the EU, the national, and the local levels. MS legislations are highlighted through the example of Hungary in two aspects: (1) regulation regarding Access to Land and Land Ownership Rights (ALOR), and (2) legislation and results of the LANDSUPPORT decision support system concerning Land Take Changes (LTC). We designed figures to demonstrate how policymakers can use the new LANDSUPPORT platform to show the gaps and inconsistencies among the above aspects. We found that the legislative regulations concerning private land use to achieve soil protection objectives remain the weakest link in the environmental protection legislation of the EU. Anxieties concerning built-in legal guarantees on each of the studied levels actualise our research. Currently, global land management is not on the political table although common European legislation might be able to preserve land for agricultural use.
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Soil erosion is one of the eight threats in the Soil Thematic Strategy, the main policy instrument dedicated to soil protection in the European Union (EU). During the last decade, soil erosion indicators have been included in monitoring... more
Soil erosion is one of the eight threats in the Soil Thematic Strategy, the main policy instrument dedicated to soil protection in the European Union (EU). During the last decade, soil erosion indicators have been included in monitoring the performance of the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) and the progress towards the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). This study comes five years after the assessment of soil loss by water erosion in the EU [Environmental science & policy 54, 438–447 (2015)], where a soil erosion modelling baseline for 2010 was developed. Here, we present an update of the EU assessment of soil loss by water erosion for the year 2016. The estimated long-term average erosion rate decreased by 0.4% between 2010 and 2016. This small decrease of soil loss was due to a limited increase of applied soil conservation practices and land cover change observed at the EU level. The modelling results suggest that, currently, ca. 25% of the EU land has erosion rates higher tha...
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Understanding of the processes governing soil organic carbon turnover is confounded by the fact that C feedbacks driven by soil erosion have not yet been fully explored at large scale. However, in a changing climate, variation in rainfall... more
Understanding of the processes governing soil organic carbon turnover is confounded by the fact that C feedbacks driven by soil erosion have not yet been fully explored at large scale. However, in a changing climate, variation in rainfall erosivity (and hence soil erosion) may change the amount of C displacement, hence inducing feedbacks onto the land C cycle. Using a consistent biogeochemistry-erosion model framework to quantify the impact of future climate on the C cycle, we show that C input increases were offset by higher heterotrophic respiration under climate change. Taking into account all the additional feedbacks and C fluxes due to displacement by erosion, we estimated a net source of 0.92 to 10.1 Tg C year−1 from agricultural soils in the European Union to the atmosphere over the period 2016–2100. These ranges represented a weaker and stronger C source compared to a simulation without erosion (1.8 Tg C year−1), respectively, and were dependent on the erosion-driven C loss ...
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Copper (Cu) distribution in soil is influenced by climatic, geological and pedological factors. Apart from geological sources and industrial pollution, other anthropogenic sources, related to the agricultural activity, may increase copper... more
Copper (Cu) distribution in soil is influenced by climatic, geological and pedological factors. Apart from geological sources and industrial pollution, other anthropogenic sources, related to the agricultural activity, may increase copper levels in soils, especially in permanent crops such as olive groves and vineyards. This study uses 21,682 soil samples from the LUCAS topsoil survey to investigate copper distribution in the soils of 25 European Union (EU) Member States. Generalized Linear Models (GLM) were used to investigate the factors driving copper distribution in EU soils. Regression analysis shows the importance of topsoil properties, land cover and climate in estimating Cu concentration. Meanwhile, a copper regression model confirms our hypothesis that different agricultural management practices have a relevant influence on Cu concentration. Besides the traditional use of copper as a fungicide for treatments in several permanent crops, the combined effect of soil properties...
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This study combines two unprecedentedly high resolution (250 × 250 m) maps of soil erosion (inter-rill and rill processes) and soil organic carbon to calculate a global estimate of erosion-induced organic carbon (C) displacement. The... more
This study combines two unprecedentedly high resolution (250 × 250 m) maps of soil erosion (inter-rill and rill processes) and soil organic carbon to calculate a global estimate of erosion-induced organic carbon (C) displacement. The results indicate a gross C displacement by soil erosion of 2.5-0.3+0.5 Pg C/year. The greatest share of displaced C (64%) comes from seminatural lands and forests. This suggests that lateral C transfer from erosion in noncroplands may play a more important role than previously assumed.
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Approval for glyphosate-based herbicides in the European Union (EU) is under intense debate due to concern about their effects on the environment and human health. The occurrence of glyphosate residues in European water bodies is rather... more
Approval for glyphosate-based herbicides in the European Union (EU) is under intense debate due to concern about their effects on the environment and human health. The occurrence of glyphosate residues in European water bodies is rather well documented whereas only few, fragmented and outdated information is available for European soils. We provide the first large-scale assessment of distribution (occurrence and concentrations) of glyphosate and its main metabolite aminomethylphosphonic acid (AMPA) in EU agricultural topsoils, and estimate their potential spreading by wind and water erosion. Glyphosate and/or AMPA were present in 45% of the topsoils collected, originating from eleven countries and six crop systems, with a maximum concentration of 2mgkg-1. Several glyphosate and AMPA hotspots were identified across the EU. Soil loss rates (obtained from recently derived European maps) were used to estimate the potential export of glyphosate and AMPA by wind and water erosion. The est...
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The adoption of the 17 sustainable development goals (SDGs) listed in the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development by the United Nations urged the scientific community to generate information for planning and monitoring socioeconomic... more
The adoption of the 17 sustainable development goals (SDGs) listed in the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development by the United Nations urged the scientific community to generate information for planning and monitoring socioeconomic development and the underlying environmental compartments. SDGs 2, 3, 6, 11, 13, 14, and 15 have targets which commend direct consideration of soil resources. There are five groups of SDGs and assigned SDG indicators where soil plays a central role. Frameworks of soil-related sustainable development goals and related indicators which can be monitored in current monitoring schemes are proposed.
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Human activity and related land use change are the primary cause of accelerated soil erosion, which has substantial implications for nutrient and carbon cycling, land productivity and in turn, worldwide socio-economic conditions. Here we... more
Human activity and related land use change are the primary cause of accelerated soil erosion, which has substantial implications for nutrient and carbon cycling, land productivity and in turn, worldwide socio-economic conditions. Here we present an unprecedentedly high resolution (250 × 250 m) global potential soil erosion model, using a combination of remote sensing, GIS modelling and census data. We challenge the previous annual soil erosion reference values as our estimate, of 35.9 Pg yr-1 of soil eroded in 2012, is at least two times lower. Moreover, we estimate the spatial and temporal effects of land use change between 2001 and 2012 and the potential offset of the global application of conservation practices. Our findings indicate a potential overall increase in global soil erosion driven by cropland expansion. The greatest increases are predicted to occur in Sub-Saharan Africa, South America and Southeast Asia. The least developed economies have been found to experience the h...
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Soils underpin our existence through food production and represent the largest terrestrial carbon store. Understanding soil state-and-change in response to climate and land use change is a major challenge. Our aim is to bridge the... more
Soils underpin our existence through food production and represent the largest terrestrial carbon store. Understanding soil state-and-change in response to climate and land use change is a major challenge. Our aim is to bridge the science-policy interface by developing a natural capital accounting structure for soil, for example, attempting a mass balance between soil erosion and production, which indicates that barren land, and woody crop areas are most vulnerable to potential soil loss. We test out our approach using earth observation, modelling and ground based sample data from the European Union's Land Use/Cover Area frame statistical Survey (LUCAS) soil monitoring program. Using land cover change data for 2000-2012 we are able to identify land covers susceptible to change, and the soil resources most at risk. Tree covered soils are associated with the highest carbon stocks, and are on the increase, while areas of arable crops are declining, but artificial surfaces are incre...
Abstract Within the frame of the Collaboration Agreement signed the 10th November 2008 between the Joint Research Centre (JRC) and the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA), a specific Service Level Agreement (SLA/EFSA-JRC/2008/01)... more
Abstract Within the frame of the Collaboration Agreement signed the 10th November 2008 between the Joint Research Centre (JRC) and the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA), a specific Service Level Agreement (SLA/EFSA-JRC/2008/01) supporting the activities of ...
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ABSTRACT Based on the LUCAS soil spectral library (~ 20,000 samples distributed over 23 EU countries), we developed multivariate calibration models (model trees) for estimating the SOC content from the visible and near infrared... more
ABSTRACT Based on the LUCAS soil spectral library (~ 20,000 samples distributed over 23 EU countries), we developed multivariate calibration models (model trees) for estimating the SOC content from the visible and near infrared reflectance (Vis-NIR) spectra. The root mean square error of validation of these models ranged from 4 to 15 g C kg-1. The prediction accuracy is usually negatively related to samples heterogeneity in a given library, so that large scale databases typically demonstrate low prediction accuracy compared to local scale studies. This is inherent to the empirical nature of the approach that cannot accommodate well the changing and scale-dependent relationship between Vis-NIR spectra and soil properties. In our study, we analyzed the effect of key soil properties and environmental covariates (land cover) on the SOC prediction accuracy of the spectroscopic models. It is shown that mineralogy as well as soil texture have large impacts on prediction accuracy and that pedogenetic factors that are easily obtainable if the samples are geo-referenced can be used as input in the spectroscopic models to improve model accuracies.
Curie point pyrolysis/mass spectrometry of Penicillium species was performed with 530 degrees C Curie point foils. The mass spectra were submitted to principal component analysis, canonical variates analysis and hierarchical cluster... more
Curie point pyrolysis/mass spectrometry of Penicillium species was performed with 530 degrees C Curie point foils. The mass spectra were submitted to principal component analysis, canonical variates analysis and hierarchical cluster analysis, producing a final dendrogram by the use of average linkage clustering. By this approach a successful classification of the species Penicillium italicum, P. expansum and P. digitatum originating from fruits was obtained. Isolates of the same species grouped together in the dendrogram, while the different species were distinguished. Also when grown on two different agar media, replicates of the same species grouped together. Likewise, a satisfactory classification was achieved by multivariate analysis of the data for various isolates of the cheese-associated fungi Aspergillus versicolor, P. discolor, P. roqueforti, P. solitum, P. verrucosum, P. commune and P. palitans. However, some difficulties appeared in distinguishing the closely related species P. commune and P. palitans. Such difficulties became greater on including more isolates and limiting the analysis to five of the species. The use of back-propagation artificial neural networks, in contrast, resulted in a correct classification in all cases. Thus, it is concluded that Curie point pyrolysis/mass spectrometry is useful in chemotaxonomic studies of the closely related species in the genus Penicillium.