Barriers and opportunities of soil knowledge to address soil challenges: Stakeholders’ perspectives across Europe

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Soils are the foundation of agricultural production, ecosystem functioning and human well‐being. Bridging soil knowledge gaps and improving the knowledge system is crucial to meet the growing EU soil policy ambitions in the face of climate change and the ongoing trend in soil degradation. The objective of this article is to assess the current state of knowledge, knowledge use and knowledge gaps concerning sustainable soil management in Europe. This study is based on interviews with 791 stakeholders and 254 researchers and on a comprehensive review of >1800 documents carried out under the European Joint Programme on agricultural soils. Despite differences in stakeholder groups, the conclusions are rather consistent and complementary. We identified major knowledge gaps with respect to (1) soil carbon stocks, (2) soil degradation and fertility and (3) strategies for improved soil management. Transcending these three areas, particularly the loss of soil organic carbon, peatland degradation and soil compaction, are most critical, thus, we stress the urgency of developing more models and monitoring programmes on soils. Stakeholders further report that insufficient transfer of existing soil research findings to practitioners is a hindrance to the adoption of sustainable soil management practices. In addition to knowledge production, soil knowledge gaps may be addressed by considering seven recommendations from the stakeholders: (1) raising awareness, (2) strengthening knowledge brokers, (3) improving relevance of research activities and resource allocation for land users, (4) peer‐to‐peer communication, (5) targeting advice and information, (6) improving knowledge access, and (7) providing incentives. We argue that filling and bridging knowledge gaps should be a priority for policymakers and the insights provided in the article may help prioritise research and dissemination needs enabling a transition to more sustainable soil management in Europe.

Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 84%

Section: Introductionsupporting

confidence: 63%

Sustainable soil management: Soil knowledge use and gaps in Europe

Thorsøe,

Keesstra,

De Boever

et al. 2023

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“…In our study, skills formulated as outcomes tended to rank higher than other skills, but no difference between stakeholder categories could be found. Vanino et al (2023) identified soil challenges for Europe and barriers and opportunities of soil knowledge to tackle them. They found “ highly diversified types of barriers ” and opportunities, which call for multi‐ or transdisciplinary research.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

A European stakeholder survey on soil science skills for sustainable agriculture

Veenstra,

Coquet,

Melot

et al. 2024

The EU soil strategy for 2030 has set the objective of achieving ‘healthy soils’ in Europe by 2050. To achieve this ambitious goal, dedicated soil science skills will be needed in the future. This article presents the results of a survey on soil science skills for the future conducted within the framework of the EJP SOIL. The survey was distributed online in the 24 countries participating to the EJP SOIL. The skills were expressed as having knowledge in particular topics related to soils, practical know‐hows or abilities, or outcomes of knowledge and know‐hows put into action. No significant differences in the importance of soil‐science related skills were found between countries or stakeholder categories. The two groups of skills that ranked at the top of stakeholders' concern were ‘Having a scientific basis of knowledge on soils and their functioning’ and ‘Knowing how to mobilise agronomic drivers to manage and protect soils’. This means that there is a need for people with an in‐depth knowledge in soil science, but also soil scientists with integrated knowledge in agronomy and crop production. Three important findings relate to the knowledge of soil science itself: i) there is a clear need to develop the knowledge of soil biological and ecological functioning; ii) this should not happen at the expense of a strong general knowledge of the fundamentals of soil science; iii) future soil scientists should be trained to have a more holistic appreciation of soil rather than be trained as a specialist of a specific aspect of soil science only. Being able to exchange knowledge with farmers, knowing how to assess soil fertility, quality, or health, and how to improve them are viewed as essential skills for the future. These findings offer a clear path for the evolution of soil science education curricula across Europe.This article is protected by copyright. All rights reserved.

“…The results of the Europe wide consultation are described in four reports of EJP SOIL: D2.5 by Ruysschaert et al (2020); D2.6 by Munkholm and Zechmeister‐Boltenstern (2021); D2.7 by Thorsøe et al (2021) and D2.8 by Farina et al (2021), which can be found at http://www.ejpsoil.eu. D2.7 formed the basis for the manuscript of Thorsoe et al (submitted to the same EJSS special issue) and D2.8 the basis for the paper by Vanino et al (2023).…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

European agricultural soil management: Towards climate‐smart and sustainability, knowledge needs and research approaches

Keesstra,

Chenu,

Munkholm

et al. 2024

Current soil‐ and land degradation seriously challenge our societies; it contributes to climate change, loss of biodiversity and loss of agricultural productions. Yet, soils are also seen as a major part of the solution, if maintained or restored to provide ecosystem services. Climate‐smart sustainable management of soils can provide options for soil health maintenance and restoration.In the European Union, the resource management and sustainability challenge are addressed in the Green Deal that, among other goals, aspires towards a healthy climate‐resilient agricultural sector that will produce sufficient products without damaging ecosystems and contribute to better biodiversity and mitigate climate change. The European Joint Programme (EJP) SOIL was set up to contribute to these goals by developing knowledge, tools and an integrated research community to foster climate‐smart sustainable agricultural soil management that provides a diversity of ecosystem service, such as adapting to and mitigating climate change, allowing sustainable food production, sustaining soil biodiversity. This paper provides an overview of the potential of climate‐smart sustainable soil management research to the targets of the Green Deal that are related to soils most directly, specifically the Climate Ambition, the Farm to Fork Strategy and the target to preserve and restore eco‐systems and biodiversity. The EJP SOIL EU‐wide consultation (interviews and questionnaires) and literature analysis (national and international reports and papers) done in the first year (2020‐2021) generated a wealth of data. This data showed that there are specific manners to do research that are essential for it to be effective and efficient and that can actively contribute to the Green Deal targets set by the European Commission. We concluded that research needs to be: (i) interdisciplinary, (ii) long‐term, (iii) multi‐scaled, from plot to landscape, (iv) evaluating trade‐offs of selected management options for ecosystem services and (v) co‐constructed with key stakeholders. Research on climate‐smart sustainable soil management should be developed (a) on plot scale when mobilizing soil processes and on landscape scale when addressing sediment and water connectivity and biodiversity management; and (b) address the enabling conditions through good governance, social acceptance and viable economic conditions.This article is protected by copyright. All rights reserved.