From Indicators to Action: Modeling Soil Health for Ecosystem Service Optimization.

Globally, soil plays a crucial role in delivering multiple soil-based ecosystem services (SESs), such as food provisioning, water regulation and purification, nutrient cycling, and others. This makes soils fundamental to achieving several Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), including food security (SDG 2), water quality (SDG 6), and climate action (SDG 13). However, around 60 to 70% of soils in the EU are currently in an unhealthy state, highlighting the urgent need for concrete and immediate actions. 

Ultimately, a variety of soil health indicators have been proposed, based on physical, chemical, and biological measurements, both in the field and in the laboratory. However, many of these indicators, being derived from single measurements at specific points in time, fail to fully capture the complexity of the diverse and interconnected ecosystem services provided by soils. Consequently, evaluating SESs in a comprehensive spatio-temporal framework remains a significant challenge.

This study introduces an integrated approach to evaluating SESs using the ARMOSA (Analysis of cRopping systems for Management Optimization and Sustainable Agriculture) process-based model. ARMOSA enables the quantification of agronomic practices' effects on a broad set of crop and soil-related variables on a daily time scale. By utilizing multiple integrated indicators rather than isolated measurements, this approach captures the dynamic interactions within the soil-plant-atmosphere system—including water, carbon, and nitrate balances—across both spatial and temporal scales. This provides a more robust framework for soil health assessment tailored to site-specific characteristics. As highlighted in this session, the approach facilitates the identification of potential soil health statuses, laying the foundation for evaluating the impacts of various management practices on diverse soil types. Furthermore, it aligns with the objectives of soil monitoring legislation by offering insights into soil district delimitation and management strategies. It also provides a consistent and comprehensive framework for evaluating multiple soil ecosystem services while addressing scaling challenges in soil health assessments.

The approach is demonstrated in a hilly area of the Campania region (southern Italy), which encompasses five distinct climatic zones where durum wheat is the predominant crop. Various indicators were assessed in relation to key SES, including yield for food production, infiltration for water regulation, carbon stock changes for climate regulation, and nitrate leaching for nutrient cycling. The results of this study highlight the potential of the integrated SESs evaluations to support sustainable soil management and inform strategies that align with global soil health objectives.