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

The European Journal of Soil Science (EJSS) is published by Wiley on behalf of the British Society of Soil Science (BSSS) to fulfil its original mission to 'publish an annual publication'. The Journal for Soil Science published its first issue in March 1949 (Figure 1, left) before a change of name to the European Journal of Soil Science (EJSS) in 1994. The current issue (Volume 75, Issue 2, March-April 2024; Figure 1, right) therefore marks our 75th Anniversary. In this Editorial, we (the Senior Editorial Team of the EJSS; Figure 2) review briefly how the

Section: Figurementioning

confidence: 99%

Going Platinum: The European Journal of Soil Science at 75

Dungait,

Evans,

Farrell

et al. 2024

“…SOIL, 2022). The twelve soil challenges identified by EJP SOIL (Keesstra et al, 2023) are: (i) maintain or increase soil organic carbon (SOC), (ii) minimize nitrous oxide (N 2 O) and methane (CH 4 ) emissions, (iii) avoid peat degradation, (iv) minimize soil erosion, (v) avoid soil sealing, (vi) avoid salinization, (vii) avoid acidification, (viii) avoid contamination, (ix) maintain optimal soil structure, (x) enhance soil biodiversity, (xi) enhance nutrient retention and nutrient use efficiency, and (xii) enhance water storage capacity. The soil challenges include the soil threats relevant to agricultural soils identified in the European Commission's proposal for a soil thematic strategy (European Commission, 2006) and in the Report on the Status of the World's Soil Resources (ITPS, 2015).…”

Section: Highlightsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…In the last decade, national and international initiatives and programmes have been developed to achieve sustainable soil management, including the Global Soil Partnerships voluntary guidelines for sustainable soil management (FAO, 2017), the 4p1000 initiative (Minasny et al, 2017), the European Union's Green Deal (Montanarella & Panagos, 2021), Horizon Europe's Soil Mission (European Commission, 2022), and the European Joint Program for SOIL (EJP SOIL; Keesstra et al, 2021). EJP SOIL aims at climate-smart sustainable management of agricultural soils and identified twelve soil challenges (Keesstra et al, 2023). These challenges relate to soil properties, processes and functions that need to be managed to reduce soil degradation and optimize soil functions and ecosystem services (EJP…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Towards enhanced adoption of soil‐improving management practices in Europe

Heller,

Bene,

Nino

et al. 2024

Self Cite

Sustainable agricultural soil management practices are key to restore, maintain and improve soil health. The European Joint Programme for SOIL (EJP SOIL) has identified twelve main soil challenges in Europe. To assess the potential and eventually increase the adoption of soil‐improving management practices, it is necessary to know (i) the current levels of adoption of the practices, (ii) socio‐technical barriers influencing their adoption, and (iii) their bio‐physical limits. This study compiled an inventory of soil‐improving management practices relevant to European conditions, and used a survey among soil scientists to assess the levels of adoption of these practices in Europe. In total, 53 soil management practices were identified that address one or several of the soil challenges. The adoption of most practices was low or spatially heterogeneous across Europe, highlighting region‐specific limitations to sustainable soil management. Qualitative interviews were conducted to explore the importance of socio‐technical aspects of adoption. Using conservation agriculture as an example, factors that can hinder adoption included the availability of knowledge and adequate machinery, financial risks, and farming traditions. Through a modelling approach, 54% of arable land in Europe was found to be suitable for cover cropping, indicating that the adoption of soil management practices is frequently limited by climatic constraints. We propose a region‐specific approach that recognizes the importance of identifying and overcoming socio‐technical barriers, and by acknowledging bio‐physical limits that may be expanded by innovation.

“…Moreover, one important step towards this goal is the European Joint Programme on Agricultural Soil Management (EJP SOIL; Cornu et al, 2023), that aims to establish an integrated, sustainable European research system and to develop and deploy a reference framework on climate-smart, sustainable agricultural soil management. A major part of the activities of EJP SOIL are directly related to the European Green Deal, additionally emphasizing the role of soil for a sustainable future (Keesstra et al, 2024).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Do we speak one language on the way to sustainable soil management in Europe? A terminology check via an EU‐wide survey

Weninger,

Ramler,

Bondi

et al. 2024

European soils are under increasing pressure, making it difficult to maintain the provision of soil ecosystem services (SESs). A better understanding of soil processes is needed to counteract soil threats (STs) and to promote sustainable soil management. The EJP SOIL programme of the EU provides a framework for the necessary research. However, different definitions of soil‐related terms potentially lead to varied understandings of concepts. Furthermore, there are numerous indicators available to quantify STs or SESs. As unclear communication is a key barrier that hinders the implementation of research results into practice, this study aimed to answer the question about whether the terminology of large‐scale initiatives is adequately understood within the soil‐science community and non‐research stakeholders. An online questionnaire was used to provide definitions for 33 soil‐related terms in both scientific and plain language, as well as indicators for seven SESs and 11 STs. Participants were asked to rate their agreement with the definitions and indicators on a seven‐grade Likert scale. The level of agreement was calculated as the percentage of ratings above 4, the neutral position. The survey was available from June to September 2023 and was distributed by a snowball approach. More than 260 stakeholders assessed the survey; 70% of respondents were researchers, and 15% were practitioners. Mean agreement levels for the definitions and indicators were generally high, at 85% and 78% respectively. However, it was apparent that the lowest agreement was found for terms that are relatively new, such as Ecosystem Services and Bundle, or unfamiliar for certain subgroups, such as ecological terms for stakeholders working at the farm scale. Due to their distinct majority, the results of this study primarily reflect the opinions of scientists. Thus, broad conclusions can only be drawn by comparing scientists with non‐scientists. In this regard, the agreement was surprisingly high across all types of questions. The combined outcomes indicate that there is still a need to facilitate communication between stakeholders and to improve knowledge distribution strategies. Nevertheless, this study can support and be used by future projects and programmes, especially regarding the harmonization of terminology and methods.