Tags: rainfall erosivity summary: Rainfall erosivity maps for (near) real-time soil erosion predictions require the integration of (combinations of) reanalysis products and satellite-retrievals of rainfall, and the overcoming of potential bias related to their simplified spatial and temporal scale. Across Europe, we evaluate 1) the European Meteorological Observations (EMO) dataset …

Tags: EU Soil Observatory, land degradation, policy support, soil health, soil mission, soil monitoring

summary: Healthy soils are essential for sustainable food production, achieving climate neutrality and halting the loss of biodiversity. The European Commission turned the spotlights on these vital aspects of soils with the launch of the EU …

The topsoil Land Use and Cover Area frame Statistical survey (LUCAS) aims at collecting harmonised data about the state of soil health over the extent of European Union (EU). In the LUCAS 2018 survey, bulk density has been analysed for three depths, i.e., 0–10 cm = 6140 sites; 10–20 cm = 5684 sites and 20–30 cm =139 sites. The laboratory analysis and the assessment of the results conclude that the bulk density at 10–20 cm is 5–10% higher compared to 0–10 cm for all land uses except woodlands (20%).

Extreme floods occurred from 4 to 6 August 2023 in Slovenia causing three casualties and causing total direct and indirect damage, including post-disaster needs according to the Post-Disaster Needs Assessment (PDNA), close to EUR 10 billion. The atypical summer weather conditions combined with the high air and sea temperatures in the Mediterranean and the high soil moisture led to the most extreme flood event in Slovenia in recent decades. The return periods of both daily and sub-daily precipitation extremes and peak discharges reached 250–500 years, and the runoff coefficient of a typical torrential and mostly forested mesoscale catchment was around 0.5. In addition, flooding, soil erosion, mass movements and river sediment transport processes caused major damage to buildings (more than 12 000 houses) and diverse infrastructure.

Soil erosion is both a major driver and consequence of land degradation with significant on-site and off-site costs which are critical to understand and quantify. One major cost of soil erosion originates from the sediments delivered to aquatic systems (e.g., rivers, lakes, and seas), which may generate a broad array of environmental and economic impacts. As part of the EU Soil Observatory (EUSO) working group on soil erosion, we provide a comprehensive assessment of the existing costs of sediment removal from European Union (EU) catchments due to water erosion.

Here, we present and release the Global Rainfall Erosivity Database (GloREDa), a multi-source platform containing rainfall erosivity values for almost 4000 stations globally. The database was compiled through a global collaboration between a network of researchers, meteorological services and environmental organisations from 65 countries. GloREDa is the first open access database of rainfall erosivity (R-factor) based on hourly and sub-hourly rainfall records at a global scale. This database is now stored and accessible for download in the long-term European Soil Data Centre (ESDAC) repository of the European Commission's Joint Research Centre. This will ensure the further development of the database with insertions of new records, maintenance of the data and provision of a helpdesk.

As a network of researchers we release an open-access database (EUSEDcollab) of water discharge and suspended sediment yield time series records collected in small to medium sized catchments in Europe. EUSEDcollab is compiled to overcome the scarcity of open-access data at relevant spatial scales for studies on runoff, soil loss by water erosion and sediment delivery. Multi-source measurement data from numerous researchers and institutions were harmonised into a common time series and metadata structure.

Soil eukaryotes play a crucial role in maintaining ecosystem functions and services, yet the factors driving their diversity and distribution remain poorly understood. While many studies focus on some eukaryotic groups (mostly fungi), they are limited in their spatial scale. Here, we analyzed an unprecedented amount of observational data of soil eukaryomes at continental scale (787 sites across Europe) to gain further insights into the impact of a wide range of environmental conditions (climatic and edaphic) on their community composition and structure.

This study addressed a critical resource—soil—through the prism of processing big data at the continental scale. Rapid progress in technology and remote sensing has majorly improved data processing on extensive spatial and temporal scales. Here, the manuscript presents the results of a systematic effort to geo-process and analyze soil-relevant data.

The European Soil Data Centre (ESDAC), hosted by the European Commission's Joint Research Centre (JRC), is the focal point for soil data, support to policy making and awareness raising for the European Union (EU). Established in 2006 to provide harmonised soil-related information for the EU Member States, and ESDAC currently hosts 88 datasets, 6000 maps, six atlases, 500 scientific publications, and a copious amount of soil-related material.