Sampling and analysis or visual examination of soil to assess its status and use potential is widely practiced from plot to national scales. However, the choice of relevant soil attributes and interpretation of measurements are not straightforward, because of the complexity and site-specificity of soils, legacy effects of previous land use, and trade-offs between ecosystem services. Here we review soil quality and related concepts, in terms of definition, assessment approaches, and indicator selection and interpretation. We identify the most frequently used soil quality indicators under agricultural land use. We find that explicit evaluation of soil quality with respect to specific soil threats, soil functions and ecosystem services has rarely been implemented, and few approaches provide clear interpretation schemes of measured indicator values. This limits their adoption by land managers as well as policy. We also consider novel indicators that address currently neglected though important soil properties and processes, and we list the crucial steps in the development of a soil quality assessment procedure that is scientifically sound and supports management and policy decisions that account for the multi-functionality of soil. This requires the involvement of the pertinent actors, stakeholders and end-users to a much larger degree than practiced to date.

Soil quality – A critical review

Pesticide residues in European agricultural soils – A hidden reality unfolded

The loss of biodiversity can have significant impacts on ecosystem functioning, but the mechanisms involved lack empirical confirmation. Using soil microcosms, we show experimentally that functional dissimilarity among detritivorous species, not species number, drives community compositional effects on leaf litter mass loss and soil respiration, two key soil ecosystem processes. These experiments confirm theoretical predictions that biodiversity effects on ecosystem functioning can be predicted by the degree of functional differences among species.

Biodiversity effects on soil processes explained by interspecific functional dissimilarity

/pdf/biodiversity-decline-as-a-consequence-of-an-inappropriate-4wc42b1cho.pdf

Biodiversity Decline as a Consequence of an Inappropriate Environmental Risk Assessment of Pesticides

https://bura.brunel.ac.uk/bitstream/2438/17467/1/FullText.pdf

Current EU research activities on combined exposure to multiple chemicals

Following a request from EFSA, the Panel on Plant Protection Products and their Residues developed an opinion on the science behind the risk assessment of plant protection products for in-soil organisms. The current risk assessment scheme is reviewed, taking into account new regulatory frameworks and scientific developments. Proposals are made for specific protection goals for in-soil organisms being key drivers for relevant ecosystem services in agricultural landscapes such as nutrient cycling, soil structure, pest control and biodiversity. Considering the time-scales and biological processes related to the dispersal of the majority of in-soil organisms compared to terrestrial non-target arthropods living above soil, the Panel proposes that in-soil environmental risk assessments are made at in- and off-field scale considering field boundary levels. A new testing strategy which takes into account the relevant exposure routes for in-soil organisms and the potential direct and indirect effects is proposed. In order to address species recovery and long-term impacts of PPPs, the use of population models is also proposed.

Scientific Opinion addressing the state of the science on risk assessment of plant protection products for in-soil organisms

Towards a landscape scale management of pesticides: ERA using changes in modelled occupancy and abundance to assess long-term population impacts of pesticides

According to Regulation (EC) No 1107/2009, pesticide active substance to be approved shall not pose unacceptable effects for human health, animal health and the environment. For this purpose, applicants must submit a dossier, containing a data package including ecotoxicity studies in line with the EU data requirements. The evaluation of such studies, particularly when a standard test guideline is not available, may be challenging and result in inconsistent outcomes. The scope of the procurement described in this report was to develop Critical Appraisal Tools (CATs) to support the evaluation of seven types of non-standard higher tier ecotoxicity studies submitted with these dossiers (for both aquatic and terrestrial risk assessment: aquatic organisms, bees, non-target arthropods other than bees, birds and mammals). CATs provide a structured and transparent approach to assess the internal and external validity (i.e., reliability and relevance) of individual studies. The project included a systematic literature review of existing CATs and study evaluation methods in ecotoxicology and environmental risk assessment. Based on this review, it was decided to base the CATs to be developed on the CRED approach (Criteria for Reporting and Evaluating Ecotoxicity Data) for evaluating reliability and relevance of studies. The CATs consist of MS Excel spreadsheets with criteria and scoring tables, accompanied by handbooks with detailed instructions for appraising the individual criteria. A method for evaluating the overall validity of these ecotoxicity studies, based on both a (semi-) quantitative scoring system and expert judgement, is also proposed. The adoption of common appraisal tools will enhance the harmonisation and transparency of the study evaluations performed by the experts in the area of ecotoxicology and it will increase the trust of the scientific assessments conducted by National competent authorities and EFSA. 

Klaus Swarowsky

Papers

Scientific Opinion addressing the state of the science on risk assessment of plant protection products for in-soil organisms

Towards a landscape scale management of pesticides: ERA using changes in modelled occupancy and abundance to assess long-term population impacts of pesticides

Proposal of critical appraisal tools for the evaluation of ecotoxicology studies