Holistic approach to biodiversity and bioindication in soil

24-26 hours 24-26 hours 24-26 hours The mission of the JRC-IES is to provide scientific-technical support to the European Union's policies for the protection and sustainable development of the European and global environment. Legal Notice Neither the European Commission nor any person acting on behalf of the Commission is responsible for the use which might be made of this publication. (*) Certain mobile telephone operators do not allow access to 00 800 numbers or these calls may be billed. Preface After the Rio Conference in 1992, Biodiversity became synonymous with protecting the environment. Bioindication has emerged as useful process for environmental evaluation particularly of the soil, which is a complex entity able to perform a multitude of key functions, vital for life, such as breathing, assimilating nutrients like carbon and nitrogen, transforming and mineralizing organic materials like vegetables and animals, storing substances in reserve in the form of humus. Direct or indirect contamination of the soil, by inorganic elements and/or organic compounds, can significantly change the activity and the composition of the organisms living in soil (soil biodiversity) and irreversibly prevent the soil fulfilling its key functions to support the planet's ecosystems. For example, decline in organic matter content is closely linked to the loss of soil biodiversity. Recognising that soils contain as much biodiversity as the above ground habitats is the catalyst needed to protect this precious resource from further degradation (Montanarella, 2006). Project BIO-BIO has wanted to give a signal tightly applying an important number of Bioindicators with appearance that cover the field of the Biodiversity for a reading very diversified that cover the three nutritional nets and that in the same time holds in consideration of the temporal appearance with the seasonal influences that can change the replies of the bioindicators, everything supported from a robust chemical-physical soil analyses. Preface 6 Chemical-physical soil analyses are very important for a complete interpretation of soil quality. The results obtained, sole in their fill, will be able to serve to other experts like example to imitate to appraise, in manner exhaustive and entire, the quality and the health of the soil with special attention to those areas that have an important human pressure. This report is a summary of the findings of the BIO-BIO Project and contains text, tables and graphs taken from the chapters of the BIO-BIO Project Report 'Biodiversity-Bioindication to evaluate soil health', EUR 22245 EN, edited by …