SOILS4MED SOIL MONITORING SYSTEM: DEVELOPING AN OPTIMIZED APPROACH FOR CAPTURING THE SOIL AND LANDSCAPE VARIABILITY OF THE MEDITERRANEAN REGION

In the Mediterranean region (MR), there is an urgent need to improve the availability and accessibility of soil data and information, and to harmonize methodologies to develop harmonized soil monitoring systems. The limited use and quality of soil data and information pose a significant barrier to sustainable land management and developing and implementing policies to protect, restore, and enhance soil health. To address it, the “SOIL health monitoring and information systems FOR sustainable soil management in the MEDiterranean region” (SOILS4MED) PRIMA-funded project engaged a large platform of scientists, stakeholders, and final users in the co-design of scientifically sound, sustainable, and policy-relevant integrated soil health monitoring systems adapted to the specificities of the MR soils and environments. To achieve this goal, the project addressed the following research question: How do we measure soil health in MR? Shall we adapt its definition and indicators across different environmental and soil types/conditions? To support the development of the monitoring system, SOILS4MED conducted i) a systematic analysis and comparison of the two monitoring protocols identified as reference for the project, the LUCAS Soil module [1] and SOILS4AFRICA [2,3,4] project’s protocol and ii) a review of major methodological aspects addressed by ongoing operational soil monitoring systems, with a particular focus on those of the MR, making use also of the information gathered by the project. The SOILS4MED monitoring protocol, which will be validated and implemented in the project study areas, is characterized by several key features. Litter will not be sampled, but if present, it will be described. In line with the SOILS4AFRICA project, the 0-20 cm soil depth layer will be adopted as the topsoil layer, and the 20-50 cm soil depth layer as the subsoil layer, both to be sampled and described. The samples are taken by depth layer, regardless of the number or types of horizons intercepted by sampling. SOILS4MED describes the observed layers/horizons, especially the topsoil, according to a selected set of World Reference Base (WRB 2022) descriptors.