A major European study is underway to understand how soil is created and lost and to quantify and map threats to soil including pollution and urbanisation.
The Soil Transformations in European Catchments (SoilTrEC) study is co-ordinated by the University of Sheffield and involves 14 other bodies including the Natural Environment Research Council.
Soil tends to be lost around 100 times as fast as it is created and the project aims to understand the rates of processes which dictate soil mass stock and their function within the Earth's critical zone, where soils are formed, degrade and provide eco-services.
Its objectives include soil structure and processes, creation of a GIS-based modelling framework to delineate threats and mitigation and quantification of land use, climate and biodiversity change effects.
A critical zone integrated model will be developed.
The aim is to generate some of the most comprehensive data sets ever on soil function from nano to soil profile scale and the first evaluation of soil functions at different stages in the soil life cycle.
The five-year study aims to address priority research areas in the EU soil thematic strategy and to lead a global network of critical zone observatories on soil research.
