15AGRITECHCAT3. Assessment of SOIL quality using a BIOindicator (SoilBio)

由于人口增长，预计到2050年，全球对粮食的需求将翻一番，这将增加土壤压力。直接退化对土壤的威胁是多方面的，包括侵蚀、盐碱化、压实、有机质流失、滑坡、污染和封堵。所有这些压力都对欧洲的土壤产生了重大影响，那里16%的土壤被认为受到了破坏。由于大约40%的农业土壤已经退化，保护土壤质量显然至关重要，另一种选择是进一步改变自然生态系统。土壤侵蚀过程的结果之一是土壤肥力、碳和生物多样性下降，水分保持能力降低，气体和养分循环中断，污染物降解减少。在欧洲，由于共同农业政策(CAP)改革，与土壤保护有关的立法越来越多。尽管在地方、区域和国家范围内对土壤进行有效监测的政策要求越来越高，但仍不清楚哪些土壤性质最适合监测。这在一定程度上是因为土壤提供了大量的商品和服务，但也因为其固有的化学、物理和生物复杂性。英国的许多政策文件都建议建立一个国家土壤质量监测计划，尽管与欧洲一样，由于土壤系统的复杂性，还没有建立任何单一的指标。因此，很可能需要一些工具来充分跟踪土壤健康的变化。在全球范围内，土壤受到来自人为和环境来源的严重压力，因此保护土壤至关重要。要使保护工作取得成功，就必须开发出能够提供简单易懂产出的快速监测工具。由于生物群在大多数土壤生态系统服务中具有基础性作用，因此它们是土壤健康/质量的有效替代指标。线虫因其丰度、多样性和快速的世代时间以及相对容易从土壤中提取而被认为是潜在的候选生物学指标。在这个项目中，我们将独特地将传统的土壤化学测试与土壤系统的物理(渗透阻力和容重)和生物成分(线虫)相结合来测量土壤质量。我们将开展一项重要的土壤采样活动，以模仿国家监测方案的规模，并根据土壤质量光谱校准我们的结果。这将通过基于订阅的服务为种植者生成土壤质量的空间现场地图，并为农场精准农业框架提供投入，该框架以田间地区为目标，以改善土壤质量、增加产量，同时减少投入，因为不需要采取广谱的整田缓解行动。这样的系统使英国在土壤和环境保护方面处于明显的领先地位。

Due to population growth, demand for grain is expected to double worldwide by 2050, increasing pressure on soil. Directdegradation threats to soils are manifold, including erosion, salinisation, compaction, loss of organic matter, landslides,contamination and sealing. All of these pressures have major impacts on soils in Europe, where 16% of all soils areconsidered to be damaged. With approximately 40% of agricultural soils, already suffering degradation, protection of soilquality is clearly critical, the alternative being further conversion of natural ecosystems. For protection to be successful thegeneration of rapid monitoring tools that provide simple understandable output is essential.Decline of soil fertility, carbon and biodiversity; lower water retention capacity, disruption of gas and nutrient cycles andreduced degradation of contaminants are among the results of soil erosion processes. In Europe, there is an increasing listof legislation relating to the protection of soils as a result of Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) reform. Despite thisincreasing policy requirement for effective monitoring of soils at local-, regional- and national-scales, it remains unclearwhich properties of soils are the most appropriate to monitor. This is partly because of the numerous goods and servicesthat soils provide, but also because of their inherent chemical, physical and biological complexity. Numerous UK policydocuments have recommended a national soil quality monitoring scheme although, as within Europe, no single indicatorhas been established due to the complexity of the soil system. It is therefore likely that a number of tools will be required toadequately follow shifts in soil health. Globally, soils are under severe pressure from both anthropogenic and environmentalsources thus protection of soils is of paramount importance. For protection to be successful the generation of rapidmonitoring tools that provide simple understandable outputs is essential. As biota have fundamental roles in the majority ofsoil ecosystem services, they are logical candidates as effective proxy indicators of soil health/quality. Nematodes areconsidered potential candidate biological indicators due to their abundance, diversity and rapid generation times as well asrelative ease of extraction from soil.In this project we will uniquely integrate traditional tests of soil chemistry with physical (penetrometer resistance and bulkdensity) and biological components (nematodes) of the soil system to measure soil quality. We will conduct a significantsoil sampling campaign to mimic the scale of a national monitoring programme and calibrate our results against a spectrumof soil qualities. This will generate spatial field mapping of soil quality for the grower available through a subscription basedservice and provide input to an on-farm precision agriculture framework that targets in-field areas for improvement of soil quality, increasing yields but at the same time reducing inputs as broad spectrum whole field mitigating actions are notrequired.Such a system places the UK in a demonstrable leading role of soil and environmental protection.