A knowledge-based approach to estimating the magnitude and spatial patterns of potential threats to soil biodiversity.

Because of the increasing pressures exerted on soil, below-ground life is under threat. Knowledge-based rankings of potential threats to different components of soil biodiversity were developed in order to assess the spatial distribution of threats on a European scale. A list of 13 potential threats to soil biodiversity was proposed to experts with different backgrounds in order to assess the potential for three major components of soil biodiversity: soil microorganisms, fauna, and biological functions.

European perspective of ecosystem services and related policies.

In this article, we focus on the importance of terrestrial ecosystems and the services they provide. European Union policies, contributing to the conservation and maintenance of ecosystem services in Europe are discussed and their current impacts briefly reviewed in the light of the main challenges that European ecosystems might face in the near future.

Estimating the soil organic carbon content for European NUTS2 regions based on LUCAS data collection.

Under the European Union Thematic Strategy for Soil Protection, the European Commission Directorate-General for the Environment and the European Environmental Agency (EEA) identified a decline in soil organic carbon and soil losses by erosion as priorities for the collection of policy relevant soil data at European scale. Moreover, the estimation of soil organic carbon content is of crucial importance for soil protection and for climate change mitigation strategies. Soil organic carbon is one of the attributes of the recently developed LUCAS soil database.