Potential threats to soil biodiversity

A recently published JRC article maps the potential threats to three categories of soil biodiversity(namely soil microorganisms, fauna and biological functions) in the EU, and gives guidelines for identifying soils that are potentially at risk.

Ranking the threats to soil biodiversity based on the knowledge of 107 soil experts from 21 different countries, the study found the potential risk to soil biodiversity to be remarkably high. According to the findings, intensive human use / exploitation poses the greatest potential threat, while agricultural genetically modified organisms(GMOs) pose the least threat.

See more: ec.europa.eu/jrc