Ece Aksoy, researcher at the University of Malaga: "The soil is a forgotten resource, because it is not seen ..."
More than half of the world's population now lives in cities and urban expansion continues, causing the rural population to move to urban areas. This translates into loss of land for other purposes, particularly land for agriculture and drainage.
Ece Aksoy, is responsible for a group of researchers from the European Topic Center, from the University of Malaga, who have defined the first European digital map on soil biodiversity, which characterizes the dynamics and utilities of the different ecosystems that make up. The digital instrument gathers the degree of surface quality in relation to its biodiversity and helps to make decisions about the soil, how to manage it sustainably and improve its usability.
The map
To configure this map, experts resorted to local and regional studies on soil, as well as to the existing bibliography regarding land uses. With this information they identified the most influential environmental and climatic parameters in the biodiversity of the land in each area. This computer tool allows you to represent any type of geographic information in layers, connecting maps with databases, allowing you to combine indicators that favor edaphic biodiversity, such as organic matter and soil texture, evapotranspiration, the average temperature of existing maps and the productivity of soil biomass and its use.
"We place the information at different overlapping levels and manage to find the best conditions and levels of soil biodiversity relating all these values”, Explains Aksoy.
In this cartography, which has been configured in raster format, which consists of dividing the space into regular cells of a square kilometer and where each one represents a single value, the user will find all the information about the soil biodiversity of 27 countries of the European Union.
Ece Aksoy, warns that “Until now there were only local studies and maps of the edaphic biodiversity, that is, of the soil, but none of them gathered their potential at European level. It is vital to know what quality of soil each country has and under what conditions to plan its use".
Interest of science
In this foreground on soil biodiversity, the growing scientific interest in this fertile soil layer is confirmed. "Most of the key processes of the terrestrial ecosystem that sustain life on the planet are driven by soil biology and are becoming increasingly important internationally. Therefore, this tool is essential to determine the functions and services provided by this natural resource for biomass production, such as food, the nutrient cycle or carbon sequestration.”, Explains the expert.
Based on this scientific initiative, it is concluded that about half of European soils (47%) are home to an average diversity of plant and animal species, while 37% has a low index and only in the remaining 16%, the quality of Ecosystems is good. "The diversity of the land, as well as of the microorganisms and living beings that inhabit it is higher in grassland and grassland areas, while in the cultivation areas they are lower”, Clarifies the head of the study.
"The soil is a 'forgotten' resource because it is not seen, despite housing more than a quarter of the plant and animal organisms that live on the planet. But it is essential to know what soil characteristics are in each place and to attribute in each case the most appropriate use”, Comments this researcher.
The results provided by the study will also serve as information to write European and global initiatives that analyze the state of terrestrial ecosystems and sustainability.
Source: Martín Carrillo O. - Blueberries Consulting
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