About SELVANS
The overall goal of SELVANS is to implement a digital soil mapping framework for assessing the effects of forest management on soil condition.
Soils are essential for facing humanity’s existential challenges of food security, water security, climate change mitigation, and ecosystem functioning and biodiversity. Whilst the increasing demand for food, clean water and energy by society intensify the pressures on soils and threaten their functioning, the importance of maintaining the soil resources has gained recognition in the last decade.
The capacity of forests in the Mediterranean for providing services is expected to decrease due to the increase in aridity and climate change related disturbances (e.g., higher frequency and severity of wildfires, pathogens outbreaks). Drought events are related to crown defoliation and tree mortality with the consequent decrease in the capacity to sequester carbon and supply biomass, but also with the decline in soil regulating functions like nutrient cycling. At the same time, forestry practices inadequate for the site conditions or that foster a single function (e.g., monospecific commercial plantations) can lead to soil erosion, alter soil functioning and increase the vulnerability to disturbances. Hence, to guarantee the long-term performance of soil functions, forest soils should be managed according to their capability, improving their condition or health. The sensitivity of forest soils to global change requires to identify thresholds for key soil properties that alert of the potential loss of soil functioning, and this thresholds should be specific to the local conditions. And we can use digital soil maps as tools to gain all this information.
The objectives of SELVANS are to:
The objectives of SELVANS are to:
- Delineate soil monitoring units for the Basque Country (Spain) applying pedogenon mapping in the context of the Soil Monitoring and Resilience Law.
- Investigate the trajectories of soil condition indicators in response to contemporary land use and forest management history for different soil monitoring units.
- Quantify and map the capacity and current condition of soils for performing soil functions, specifically on biomass production, climate regulation, and nutrient cycling and storage. The comparison between reference soils (e.g., forest stands with native species) and human-affected forest soils will indicate whereas the soil is being managed according to its capability.
- Adapt the pedogenon, genosoil and phenosoil mapping approach to the context of long history of intensive human use and pressure, using France as case study.
- Investigate the linkages between inherent soil properties, forest management history, climatic conditions, and soil organic carbon change in the forest soils of the Basque Country.
- Develop an interactive tool for guiding the sustainable management of forest soils by assessing their healthy condition. Detailed information -quantitative and spatially explicit- on soil condition and capability generated to address the previous objectives will be integrated into a data-driven knowledge tool for guiding the decision-making process.
SELVANS is funded by the European Union (Call: HORIZON-MSCA-2021-PF-01; Type of Action: HORIZON TMA MSCA Postdoctoral Fellowships - European Fellowships; Agreement number: GA- 101063363).
Views and opinions expressed are however those of the authors only and do not necessarily reflect those of the European Union or BC3. Neither the European Union nor the granting authority can be held responsible for them.
Views and opinions expressed are however those of the authors only and do not necessarily reflect those of the European Union or BC3. Neither the European Union nor the granting authority can be held responsible for them.