SUS-SOIL is a four-year research project funded by Horizon Europe.
This initiative adopts a multidisciplinary approach that will develop a set of 15 Subsoil-Living Labs, to inventory, analyse, and benchmark different agro-ecology subsoil management and land uses practices. It also analyses their impacts on the subsoil spatial variations and dynamics, to best combine Agricultural Systems Management (ASM) practices in rural and urban areas within a global regional context. The Livings Labs will be located in eight biogeographic regions: Boreal, Atlantic, Continental, Alpine, Pannonian, Mediterranean, Black Sea and Anatolian, across Europe and North Africa.
Three relevant types of soil will be analysed in each Living Lab, in order to study soil degradation and long-term land use, and to develop farm idiotypes mixing different agro-ecology subsoil management practices as an alternative to conventional systems.
SUS-SOIL results will be the start point to increase the awareness of land managers and public authorities to understand the subsoil threats and risks, support EU agro-ecological transformation tackling subsoils and increasing ecosystem services delivery, promoting water security and climate change mitigation of rural and urban ecosystems.