This deliverable relates to Task 5.3 – Design of a monitoring schema and Task 5.4: Testing and evaluation of monitoring schema. These two tasks aimed to develop a monitoring schema to assess the capacity of European Soils to deliver the five soil functions; 1) primary productivity, 2) water purification and regulation, 3) climate regulation and carbon sequestration, 4) habitat for biodiversity and 5) nutrient cycling. The monitoring schema was designed to facilitate an European wide assessment of the five soil functions, with details on the requirements needed at a regional scale (Member state). The soil, management and environmental attributes selected for measurement and assessment in the monitoring schema were based upon the five soil function models developed in WP3 to support the development of the Navigator decision support system in Pillar 1. The collection and measurement of these attributes were tested at 94 sites across Europe to assess the feasibility, sensitivity and costs of such indicators. The outcome of this work in addition to the D5.2 is six scientific research papers describing parts of the process and presenting the monitoring schema and its applicability across the climatic regions of Europe for two landuse types; arable systems (defined as cereal rotations) and grassland systems (defined as sites with grassland in-situ for five years or longer).
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Agricultural run-off and subsurface drainage tiles transport a significant amount of nitrogen and phosphorus leached after fertilization. alchemia-nova GmbH in collaboration with University of Natural Resources and Life Sciences, Vienna developed two multi-layer vertical filter systems to address the agricultural run-off issue, which has been installed on the slope of an agricultural field in Mistelbach, Austria. While another multi-layer addressing subsurface drainage water is implemented in Gleisdorf, Austria. The goal is to develop a drainage filter system to retain water and nutrients. Both multi-layer filter systems contain biochar and other substrates with adsorption properties of nutrients (nitrogen, phosphorus). The filter system can be of practical use if an excess of nutrients being washed out is of concern in the fields of the practitioner by keeping the surrounding waters clean. This approach may result in economic value by re-using the saturated biochar as fertilizer and improving the soil structure, thus increasing long-term soil fertility. Link: https://wateragri.eu/a-bio-inspired-multilayer-drainage-system/
This project has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation program under Grant Agreement No 858735This project has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation program under Grant Agreement No 858735. FACTSHEET NANOCELLULOSE MEMBRANES FOR NUTRIENT RECOVERY Key information Functionalized nanocellulose membranes can take up nitrate and phosphate. These membranes can be put in a water treatment unit. As the membranes are biobased, degradable materials, they can after use be added to the soil, thus returning the leached nutrients back for their original purpose providing fertilizers (nutrient recycling).
Because variables such as temperature and humidity have a profound effect on the activity of crop pests, diseases and natural enemies, the ability to monitor environmental conditions within a crop has always been important for crop protection.