Spatial sampling complete in SOB4ES!

With over 75% of EU soils classified as degraded, the need to assess and restore soil health has never been more urgent. The SOB4ES project aims to identify biological indicators that can streamline soil health monitoring across European ecosystems.

Just over a year into the project, we are proud to announce that a major milestone has been reached: the successful completion of spatial sampling. A collaborative team of 12 partner organisations has finished the first phase of the project, collecting over 6,000 individual samples.

The spatial sampling covered more than 430 sites, using a standardised protocol. These sites spanned nine pedoclimatic zones, five land-use types (Arable, Forest, Grassland, Urban, and Wetlands), and three intensity levels. Back in the lab, the samples are being rigorously analysed for a range of physical, chemical, and biological properties.

We are now finalising soil biodiversity measurements, focusing on the soil fauna and microbes that play key roles in ecosystem services. This includes counting and identifying earthworms, macrofauna, mesofaunal mites (decomposers and predators), springtails, nematodes, and potworms. These data will be aligned with bacterial and fungal communities, alongside measures of biological and genetic activity. Exciting early results reveal emerging trends in earthworm, nematode, mite, and enchytraeid densities across different land-use types and intensities.

The next phase involves completing the temporal variation analysis across a subset of the same sites. Once we have both spatial and temporal datasets in hand, we’ll be able to gain deeper insights into the networks of soil organisms and how they contribute to ecosystem services - paving the way for more routine soil health assessments.