Options
A first quantitative assessment of soil health at European scale considering soil genesis
Citation Link: https://doi.org/10.15480/882.16103
Publikationstyp
Journal Article
Date Issued
2025-10-28
Sprache
English
Author(s)
Gupta, Surya
Poulenard, Jerome
Kaiser, Antonia
Scheper, Simon
Lang, Friederike
Dise, Nancy
TORE-DOI
Citation
Journal of Plant Nutrition and Soil Science (in Press): (2025)
Publisher DOI
Scopus ID
Publisher
Wiley
Background: Soil health degradation is a major threat to European food security, biodiversity, and climate stability. While scientists have debated how to define soil health during recent decades, a quantifiable framework for monitoring, management,
and policy remains lacking.
Aim:We introduce SHERPA (SoilHealth Evaluation, Rating Protocol, and Assessment) as a framework for discussion and present
a first quantitative soil health assessment across Europe.
Methods: All major soil degradation processes (with the exception of organic contamination) were scored, averaged, and
subtracted from the intrinsic soil health resulting in quantitative final scores.
Results: As reported before, cropland soils throughout Europe are highly degraded. Surprisingly, soil health of grasslands is
also very negatively impacted. Soil erosion, nutrient surplus, and pesticide risk are largely driving poor soil health aligning with
reported high biodiversity loss in agricultural land. Forest soils are also surprisingly low in health, mainly because of nitrogen
surplus, reflecting documented widespread forest decline from nutrient imbalances. Interactive maps highlight specific threats to
soil health across Europe, offering valuable insights for targeted action.
Conclusions: SHERPA is able to quantify soil health across Europe. However, at the current state of data availability, soil health
is likely to be overestimated.Monitoring data of soil structure, compacti
and policy remains lacking.
Aim:We introduce SHERPA (SoilHealth Evaluation, Rating Protocol, and Assessment) as a framework for discussion and present
a first quantitative soil health assessment across Europe.
Methods: All major soil degradation processes (with the exception of organic contamination) were scored, averaged, and
subtracted from the intrinsic soil health resulting in quantitative final scores.
Results: As reported before, cropland soils throughout Europe are highly degraded. Surprisingly, soil health of grasslands is
also very negatively impacted. Soil erosion, nutrient surplus, and pesticide risk are largely driving poor soil health aligning with
reported high biodiversity loss in agricultural land. Forest soils are also surprisingly low in health, mainly because of nitrogen
surplus, reflecting documented widespread forest decline from nutrient imbalances. Interactive maps highlight specific threats to
soil health across Europe, offering valuable insights for targeted action.
Conclusions: SHERPA is able to quantify soil health across Europe. However, at the current state of data availability, soil health
is likely to be overestimated.Monitoring data of soil structure, compacti
Subjects
risk assessment
soil degradation
soil disturbance
soil quality
DDC Class
600: Technology
Publication version
publishedVersion
Loading...
Name
Journal of Plant Nutrition and Soil Science - 2025 - Alewell - A First Quantitative Assessment of Soil Health at European.pdf
Size
1.46 MB
Format
Adobe PDF