BIOservicES

Soil organisms play a crucial role in many of the processes that occur in soil, which are directly linked to the provision of ecosystem services. While it's clear that soil organisms are essential for providing multiple ecosystem services, we still need to explore the relationships between specific soil organisms and the provision of essential ecosystem services across various types of land use. In addition, there is a lack of information on how nutrient cycling, pollution prevention, water infiltration/retention, productivity, soil structure, and soil biodiversity are related to different land uses. Using a statistical approach with cutting-edge elements from AI, such as statistical learning and machine learning algorithms, BIOservicES will establish the relationship between soil organisms, and their multiple uses. The primary goal of BIOservicES is to comprehend the connection between various soil organisms such as viruses, bacteria, archaea, fungi, protists, nematodes, microarthropods, earthworms, isopods, millipedes, insects, and spiders, and how they contribute to the delivery of multiple soil ecosystem functions and services at different scales, taking into account different land uses and climate change. The project seeks to identify the pressures and drivers affecting soil organisms and their services, perform an economic valuation of their contribution to the ecosystem, and develop decision-support tools and models that can help design climate-resilient management practices and monitoring, conservation, and restoration programs. The 60-month project, funded by the European Union through the Horizon Europe program, will involve 22 partners from 11 countries with very different profiles (universities, small and medium-sized enterprises, consultancies, farmers, and NGOs, among others).