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

Silvia Vanino; Tiziana Pirelli; Claudia Di Bene; Frederik Bøe; Nádia Castanheira; Claire Chenu; Sophie Cornu; Virginijus Feiza; Dario Fornara; Olivier Heller; Raimonds Kasparinskis; Saskia Keesstra; Maria Valentina Lasorella; Sevinç Madenoğlu; Katharina H.E. Meurer; Lilian O'Sullivan; Noemi Peter; Chiara Piccini; Grzegorz Siebielec; Bozena Smreczak; Martin Hvarregaard Thorsøe; Roberta Farina

doi:10.1016/j.jenvman.2022.116581

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

Silvia Vanino, Tiziana Pirelli^*, Claudia Di Bene, Frederik Bøe, Nádia Castanheira, Claire Chenu, Sophie Cornu, Virginijus Feiza, Dario Fornara, Olivier Heller, Raimonds Kasparinskis, Saskia Keesstra, Maria Valentina Lasorella, Sevinç Madenoğlu, Katharina H.E. Meurer, Lilian O'Sullivan, Noemi Peter, Chiara Piccini, Grzegorz Siebielec, Bozena SmreczakMartin Hvarregaard Thorsøe, Roberta Farina

^*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › Academic › peer-review

21 Citations (Scopus)

Abstract

Climate-smart sustainable management of agricultural soil is critical to improve soil health, enhance food and water security, contribute to climate change mitigation and adaptation, biodiversity preservation, and improve human health and wellbeing. The European Joint Programme for Soil (EJP SOIL) started in 2020 with the aim to significantly improve soil management knowledge and create a sustainable and integrated European soil research system. EJP SOIL involves more than 350 scientists across 24 Countries and has been addressing multiple aspects associated with soil management across different European agroecosystems. This study summarizes the key findings of stakeholder consultations conducted at the national level across 20 countries with the aim to identify important barriers and challenges currently affecting soil knowledge but also assess opportunities to overcome these obstacles. Our findings demonstrate that there is significant room for improvement in terms of knowledge production, dissemination and adoption. Among the most important barriers identified by consulted stakeholders are technical, political, social and economic obstacles, which strongly limit the development and full exploitation of the outcomes of soil research. The main soil challenge across consulted member states remains to improve soil organic matter and peat soil conservation while soil water storage capacity is a key challenge in Southern Europe. Findings from this study clearly suggest that going forward climate-smart sustainable soil management will benefit from (1) increases in research funding, (2) the maintenance and valorisation of long-term (field) experiments, (3) the creation of knowledge sharing networks and interlinked national and European infrastructures, and (4) the development of regionally-tailored soil management strategies. All the above-mentioned interventions can contribute to the creation of healthy, resilient and sustainable soil ecosystems across Europe.

Original language	English
Article number	116581
Journal	Journal of Environmental Management
Volume	325
Issue number	Part B
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jenvman.2022.116581
Publication status	Published - 1 Jan 2023

Keywords

Agricultural soil
Science to policy interface
Soil challenge
Soil knowledge

UN SDGs

This output contributes to the following UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)

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10.1016/j.jenvman.2022.116581Licence: CC BY-NC

https://edepot.wur.nl/580759Licence: CC BY-NC

EJP SOIL: Towards climate-smart sustainable management of agricultural soils
1/02/20 → 31/01/25
Project: EU research project

Cite this

Vanino, S., Pirelli, T., Di Bene, C., Bøe, F., Castanheira, N., Chenu, C., Cornu, S., Feiza, V., Fornara, D., Heller, O., Kasparinskis, R., Keesstra, S., Lasorella, M. V., Madenoğlu, S., Meurer, K. H. E., O'Sullivan, L., Peter, N., Piccini, C., Siebielec, G., ... Farina, R. (2023). Barriers and opportunities of soil knowledge to address soil challenges: Stakeholders’ perspectives across Europe. Journal of Environmental Management, 325(Part B), Article 116581. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jenvman.2022.116581

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title = "Barriers and opportunities of soil knowledge to address soil challenges: Stakeholders{\textquoteright} perspectives across Europe",

abstract = "Climate-smart sustainable management of agricultural soil is critical to improve soil health, enhance food and water security, contribute to climate change mitigation and adaptation, biodiversity preservation, and improve human health and wellbeing. The European Joint Programme for Soil (EJP SOIL) started in 2020 with the aim to significantly improve soil management knowledge and create a sustainable and integrated European soil research system. EJP SOIL involves more than 350 scientists across 24 Countries and has been addressing multiple aspects associated with soil management across different European agroecosystems. This study summarizes the key findings of stakeholder consultations conducted at the national level across 20 countries with the aim to identify important barriers and challenges currently affecting soil knowledge but also assess opportunities to overcome these obstacles. Our findings demonstrate that there is significant room for improvement in terms of knowledge production, dissemination and adoption. Among the most important barriers identified by consulted stakeholders are technical, political, social and economic obstacles, which strongly limit the development and full exploitation of the outcomes of soil research. The main soil challenge across consulted member states remains to improve soil organic matter and peat soil conservation while soil water storage capacity is a key challenge in Southern Europe. Findings from this study clearly suggest that going forward climate-smart sustainable soil management will benefit from (1) increases in research funding, (2) the maintenance and valorisation of long-term (field) experiments, (3) the creation of knowledge sharing networks and interlinked national and European infrastructures, and (4) the development of regionally-tailored soil management strategies. All the above-mentioned interventions can contribute to the creation of healthy, resilient and sustainable soil ecosystems across Europe.",

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author = "Silvia Vanino and Tiziana Pirelli and {Di Bene}, Claudia and Frederik B{\o}e and N{\'a}dia Castanheira and Claire Chenu and Sophie Cornu and Virginijus Feiza and Dario Fornara and Olivier Heller and Raimonds Kasparinskis and Saskia Keesstra and Lasorella, {Maria Valentina} and Sevin{\c c} Madenoğlu and Meurer, {Katharina H.E.} and Lilian O'Sullivan and Noemi Peter and Chiara Piccini and Grzegorz Siebielec and Bozena Smreczak and Thors{\o}e, {Martin Hvarregaard} and Roberta Farina",

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Vanino, S, Pirelli, T, Di Bene, C, Bøe, F, Castanheira, N, Chenu, C, Cornu, S, Feiza, V, Fornara, D, Heller, O, Kasparinskis, R, Keesstra, S, Lasorella, MV, Madenoğlu, S, Meurer, KHE, O'Sullivan, L, Peter, N, Piccini, C, Siebielec, G, Smreczak, B, Thorsøe, MH & Farina, R 2023, 'Barriers and opportunities of soil knowledge to address soil challenges: Stakeholders’ perspectives across Europe', Journal of Environmental Management, vol. 325, no. Part B, 116581. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jenvman.2022.116581

TY - JOUR

T1 - Barriers and opportunities of soil knowledge to address soil challenges

T2 - Stakeholders’ perspectives across Europe

AU - Vanino, Silvia

AU - Pirelli, Tiziana

AU - Di Bene, Claudia

AU - Bøe, Frederik

AU - Castanheira, Nádia

AU - Chenu, Claire

AU - Cornu, Sophie

AU - Feiza, Virginijus

AU - Fornara, Dario

AU - Heller, Olivier

AU - Kasparinskis, Raimonds

AU - Keesstra, Saskia

AU - Lasorella, Maria Valentina

AU - Madenoğlu, Sevinç

AU - Meurer, Katharina H.E.

AU - O'Sullivan, Lilian

AU - Peter, Noemi

AU - Piccini, Chiara

AU - Siebielec, Grzegorz

AU - Smreczak, Bozena

AU - Thorsøe, Martin Hvarregaard

AU - Farina, Roberta

PY - 2023/1/1

Y1 - 2023/1/1

N2 - Climate-smart sustainable management of agricultural soil is critical to improve soil health, enhance food and water security, contribute to climate change mitigation and adaptation, biodiversity preservation, and improve human health and wellbeing. The European Joint Programme for Soil (EJP SOIL) started in 2020 with the aim to significantly improve soil management knowledge and create a sustainable and integrated European soil research system. EJP SOIL involves more than 350 scientists across 24 Countries and has been addressing multiple aspects associated with soil management across different European agroecosystems. This study summarizes the key findings of stakeholder consultations conducted at the national level across 20 countries with the aim to identify important barriers and challenges currently affecting soil knowledge but also assess opportunities to overcome these obstacles. Our findings demonstrate that there is significant room for improvement in terms of knowledge production, dissemination and adoption. Among the most important barriers identified by consulted stakeholders are technical, political, social and economic obstacles, which strongly limit the development and full exploitation of the outcomes of soil research. The main soil challenge across consulted member states remains to improve soil organic matter and peat soil conservation while soil water storage capacity is a key challenge in Southern Europe. Findings from this study clearly suggest that going forward climate-smart sustainable soil management will benefit from (1) increases in research funding, (2) the maintenance and valorisation of long-term (field) experiments, (3) the creation of knowledge sharing networks and interlinked national and European infrastructures, and (4) the development of regionally-tailored soil management strategies. All the above-mentioned interventions can contribute to the creation of healthy, resilient and sustainable soil ecosystems across Europe.

AB - Climate-smart sustainable management of agricultural soil is critical to improve soil health, enhance food and water security, contribute to climate change mitigation and adaptation, biodiversity preservation, and improve human health and wellbeing. The European Joint Programme for Soil (EJP SOIL) started in 2020 with the aim to significantly improve soil management knowledge and create a sustainable and integrated European soil research system. EJP SOIL involves more than 350 scientists across 24 Countries and has been addressing multiple aspects associated with soil management across different European agroecosystems. This study summarizes the key findings of stakeholder consultations conducted at the national level across 20 countries with the aim to identify important barriers and challenges currently affecting soil knowledge but also assess opportunities to overcome these obstacles. Our findings demonstrate that there is significant room for improvement in terms of knowledge production, dissemination and adoption. Among the most important barriers identified by consulted stakeholders are technical, political, social and economic obstacles, which strongly limit the development and full exploitation of the outcomes of soil research. The main soil challenge across consulted member states remains to improve soil organic matter and peat soil conservation while soil water storage capacity is a key challenge in Southern Europe. Findings from this study clearly suggest that going forward climate-smart sustainable soil management will benefit from (1) increases in research funding, (2) the maintenance and valorisation of long-term (field) experiments, (3) the creation of knowledge sharing networks and interlinked national and European infrastructures, and (4) the development of regionally-tailored soil management strategies. All the above-mentioned interventions can contribute to the creation of healthy, resilient and sustainable soil ecosystems across Europe.

KW - Agricultural soil

KW - Science to policy interface

KW - Soil challenge

KW - Soil knowledge

U2 - 10.1016/j.jenvman.2022.116581

DO - 10.1016/j.jenvman.2022.116581

M3 - Article

AN - SCOPUS:85140922549

SN - 0301-4797

VL - 325

JO - Journal of Environmental Management

JF - Journal of Environmental Management

IS - Part B

M1 - 116581

ER -

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

Abstract

Keywords

UN SDGs

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Projects

EJP SOIL: Towards climate-smart sustainable management of agricultural soils

Cite this