Multi-approach assessment of soil-based ecosystem services: the study case of Emilia Romagna Region (Italy)

The European vision for soil by 2050 is anchored in the EU biodiversity strategy for 2030 and in the Climate Adaption Strategy with the purpose of contributing significantly to several objectives of the European Green Deal and Sustainable Development Goal 15.3 of the United Nations. Consequently, Soil based Ecosystem Services (SESs) have now become a critical topic within the scientific community and policy where both definition and quantification of SESs are being actively discussed. Based on available inputs, different approaches can be chosen at the required spatial scale and outputs. Among the many available approaches, there are those based on a time-invariant soil property (e.g., clay content, AWC) or on a soil property varying on time (e.g., SOM), or yet process-based (e.g., soil functions). The study was carried out within the EJP Soil SERENA project and was aimed at comparing the outcomes of two different approaches for assessing SESs, in which soil physics is the key factor in regulating the functioning of agricultural ecosystems. In particular, i) a physically based modelling approach to map and quantify multiple potential SESs considering the non-linear processes and dynamic nature of the whole ecosystem ii) a spatially explicit indicators-based approach based on DSM and geostatistics. Both approaches are fed with soil data from the regional soil database. The study area (3703 km²) is the province of Bologna (Emilia Romagna Region, NE Italy) and was chosen because of its large variability in terms of pedoclimatic conditions with 7 climatic zones and about 200 soil mapping units. The comparison involved the following SESs: water regulation and storage, buffering capacity, climate regulation (via C stock sequestration), crop production, and was performed in terms of data availability, spatial scale, output provided, and users’ needs.