BIOservicES

Beneath our feet, a hidden crisis is unfolding. Crucial for ecosystem functions and services, soils are at risk, facing increasing pressures from land use changes, inappropriate management, and climate shifts. In this context, the EU-funded BIOservicES project aims to decode the intricate relationship between soil organisms, land use and management, and climate change. To assess their impacts and develop innovative tools for sustainable land management, BIOservicES will identify the pressures and drivers influencing soil life. To explore the relationship between soil organisms, soil structure, and ecosystem functions and services, the project will develop new indicators, digital tools, and models for climate-resilient land management practices. Moreover, it will take a collaborative approach with experimental sites spanning eight land uses and five biogeographic regions.

The main objective of BIOservicES is to understand the interconnection between soil organisms (virus, bacteria, archaea, fungi, protists, nematodes, microarthropods, earthworms, isopods, millipedes, insects and spiders) and the delivery of multiple soil ecosystem functions and services at different scales (field vs landscape), identifying the pressures and drivers resulting from different land uses and climate change, and performing an economic valuation of the contribution of soil organisms to ecosystem services.

BIOservicES will also deepen in the relationship between soil organisms and soil structure, and how this interaction is affected by land use and management intensity, to contribute to the Soil Mission objective 6 “Improve soil structure to enhance habitat quality for soil biota and crops”. BIOservisES will thus deliver new knowledge, new indicators based on soil organisms and the ecosystem functions and services in which they are involved and digital decision-support tools and models to help design climate resilient management practices and monitoring/conservation/restoration programmes adapted to a range of environments (land uses and biogeographic regions) across Europe, to maintain and foster the multiple soil ecosystem functions and services in which soil organisms are involved. It will also give relevance to soil health and soil ecosystem functions and services delivered by soil organisms in the update of EU and National legislations. For this, BIOservicES is using experimental sites across 8 land uses and 5 biogeographic regions from Europe, as central hubs for co-creation and co-design (multi-actor approach, responsible research and innovation (RRI) and open science).