Prof. Dr. Christine Alewell Department of Environmental Sciences Profiles & Affiliations OverviewResearch Publications Projects & Collaborations Projects & Collaborations OverviewResearch Publications Projects & Collaborations Profiles & Affiliations Projects & Collaborations 35 foundShow per page10 10 20 50 Accelerating collection and use of soil health information using AI technology to support the Soil Deal for Europe and EU Soil Observatory Research Project | 4 Project MembersThe objective of AI4SoilHealth is to co-design, create and maintain an open access European-wide digital infrastructure, compiled using state-of-the-art Artificial Intelligence (AI) methods combined with new and deep soil health understanding and measures. The AI-based data infrastructure functions as a Digital Twin to the real-World biophysical system, forming a Soil Digital Twin. This can be used for assessing and continuously monitoring Soil Health metrics by land use and/or management parcel, supporting the Commission's objective of transitioning towards healthy soils by 2030. The project is divided into seven (7) work-packages including: (WP2) Policy and stakeholder engagement - networking and synchronizing with EU and national programs, (WP3) Soil health methodology and standards - developing/testing methodology to be used by WPs 4-6, (WP4) Soil health in-situ monitoring tools and data - developing field and laboratory solutions for Observations & Measurements, (WP5) Harmonised EU-wide soil monitoring services - developing the final suite of tools, data and services, (WP6) Multi-actor engagement pilots - organizing field-works and collect users' feedback, (WP7) Soil literacy, capacity building and communication - organizing public campaigns and producing educational materials. Key deliverables include: 1) Coherent Soil Health Index methodology, 2) Rapid Soil Health Assessment Toolbox, 3) AI4SoilHealth Data Cube for Europe, 4) Soil-Health-Soil-Degradation-Monitor, and 5) AI4SoilHealth API and Mobile phone App. Produced tools will be exposed to target-users (including farmer associations in >10 countries), so their feedback is used to improve design/functionality. Produced high-resolution pan-European datasets will be distributed under an Open Data license, allowing easy access by development communities. AI4SoilHealth will provide an effective Soil Health Index certification system to support landowners and policy makers under the new Green Deal for Europe. Keywords: Biogeochemistry, biogeochemical cycles, environmental chemistry, Earth observations from space/remote sensing, Environment, resources and sustainability, Environmental monitoring systems, Terrestrial ecology, land cover change. THE SOIL BIODIVERSITY AND FUNCTIONALITY OF MEDITERRANEAN OLIVE GROVES: A HOLISTIC ANALYSIS OF THE INFLUENCE OF LAND MANAGEMENT ON OLIVE OIL QUALITY AND SAFETY Research Project | 3 Project MembersAfter more than fifty years of intensive agriculture application, the environmental situation for many olive groves across the Mediterranean Region is quite dramatic in terms of land degradation, biodiversity impoverishment, functionality loss, which may have already impacted on the quality and safety of olive oil, one of the most important commodities produced in Europe. Through the implementation of a series of multidisciplinary and interdisciplinary WPs, this project will perform the first rigorous diagnostic of the environmental situation of olive groves soils at a broad scale, considering the most important areas of olive production at the Mediterranean Region and its relationships to olive oil quality. Soil O-live aims (i) to analyze the impact of pollution and land degradation on soils from olive groves in terms of multi-biodiversity, ecological function at different levels of organization and scales; (ii) to investigate the relationship of soil health status with quality and safety of olive oil; (iii) to implement effective soil amendments and ecological restoration practices that promote manifest soil biodiversity and functionality enhancements in permanent Mediterranean olive orchards across its native range of distribution, that should be translated to improvements in olive oil quality and safety; (iv) to define rigorous ecological thresholds that allow to implement future clear norms and regulations in order to design a novel certification for healthy soils in European olive orchards. AVATAR - A reVised dATing framework for quantifying geomorphological processes during the AnthRopocene Research Project | 4 Project MembersArtificial fallout radionuclides are found ubiquitously in the environment around the world and they provide the privileged marker candidates ("golden spikes") of the Anthropocene stratigraphic layers. The onset of their emissions coincided with the period of Great Acceleration that took place after World War II and that is characterised by an increase in soil degradation, which was often triggered by land use change. Particle-bound radiocesium and plutonium are widely used to date modern sediment archives and reconstruct soil redistribution rates during this period. However, although the fallout chronology is better constrained in the Northern Hemisphere, much less is known regarding the timing and the spatial distribution of their deposition in the Southern Hemisphere. The AVATAR project consortium will therefore fill this important knowledge gap through the compilation of all data available in the literature and in recently released declassified military archives. Then, it will conduct soil and sediment sampling in zones identified as data gaps based on the comprehensive literature survey. These soil and sediment samples (~2000 in total) will be analysed for cesium and plutonium to calculate their fallout radionuclide inventories and sources (i.e. the proportion of global fallout due to USSR and USA atmospheric nuclear bomb tests with a peak in 1963 vs. the proportion of fallout due to French nuclear tests conducted between 1966 and 1974 in the South Pacific) and to improve sediment core dating. Spatial analyses will be conducted to provide the first reference map of radiocesium and plutonium fallout in the southern hemisphere. Then, this improved fallout distribution knowledge will be used to reconstruct soil redistribution during the Anthropocene through an innovative combination of conversion and erosion models in two pilot large river basins of the southern hemisphere. Importantly, the AVATAR project will propose original methods to validate the spatial and the temporal distribution of sediment transfer reconstructions in these large river basins during the Anthropocene. Finally, the compiled databases and maps will be shared with a wide community including atmosphere scientists, climatologists, radio-toxicologists and soil scientists. A participative network to update and upgrade a fallout radionuclide database at the global scale will also be launched at the end of the project. Linking soil hydraulic properties with soil erosion estimations Research Project | 2 Project MembersLinking soil hydraulic properties with soil erosion estimations Saturated hydraulic conductivity Ks can be used to describe water movement under saturated conditions in the soils. It differentiates the amount of water infiltrating into the soil and the amount of water flowing over the surface as runoff. Soils with small values of hydraulic conductivity have low infiltration rates and during intense rains, water run-off will lead to consequent soil losses and surface transport of colloids, nutrients, and microbes, which can then cause problems of eutrophication and pollution of downstream areas (Dexter et al., 2004). Objectives: 1. To locate the hotspots with low saturated hydraulic conductivity and high soil erosion 2. To combine saturated hydraulic conductivity ( Gupta et al, 2021 ) and soil erosion ( Pasquale et al., 2017 ) spatial maps to modify risk classe s Mapping soil properties at high spatial resolution using remote sensing datasets and machine learning approaches Research Project | 2 Project MembersSpatial soil maps are essential for monitoring, management, and conservation. Maps of soil properties are available from regional to global scales, with global maps being urgently needed for global modelling and management endeavours (from soil degradation to climate change modelling and assessments). Objectives: 1. To link soil organic carbon, soil texture, nitrogen, and phosphorus to various remote sensing parameters (vegetation, topography, climate) and using machine learning algorithm. 2. To generate high resolution (20-30 m) spatial response and uncertainty maps of Switzerland 3. To compare the accuracy with different available maps Sediment Apportionment Research Project | 2 Project MembersAccelerated soil erosion is a worldwide threat to soil health. Understanding soil and sediment behaviour through sediment source apportionment allows for monitoring and detection of high sediment delivery locations. The Bayesian mixing model MixSIAR with compound-specific stable isotope tracers is increasingly being used to estimate land-use specific sediment source apportionment. The aim of this topic is to examine compound specific isotopic tracer selection in sediment source apportionment using innovative methodologies and determine which tracers improve model performance. Furthermore, this study investigates the influence of past agriculture on sediment deposit rates using new compound specific isotopic tracers and sediment cores. Understanding and exploring sediment dynamics through the application of mixing models and compound specific isotope biomarkers. Specific interests include: Tracer selection and validation in Bayesian mixing models, the degradation and conservatives of isotopic biomarkers, and the historic impact of agriculture on soil erosion in flood plains Automatisierte zeitliche & räumliche Kartierung von Bodenerosion auf montanen Graslandflächen der Schweiz Research Project | 2 Project MembersDas Projekt dient vorrangig dazu, den Bund und die Kantone bei der Beurteilung von Risiken, Ausmass und zeitlichen Entwicklungen von Bodenschäden zu unterstützen, indem flächenhafte Kartierungen und Langzeitbeobachtungen ermöglicht werden. Combining biogeochemical and modelling approach to assess peatland restoration Research Project | 4 Project MembersLarge percentages of peatlands in Europe have been degraded during the last centuries due to intensive agricultural or forestry usage resulting in a major loss of related ecosystems functions such as biodiversity, natural habitat, water cycle regulation, recreational values and last but not least carbon storage. While landscape managers seek to restore peatlands in the recent years they lack feasible monitoring tools to prove successful restoration. Here we propose to develop a set of biogeochemical and modelling tools to assess peatland restoration including a verification of net carbon storage. A combination of bulk isotope depth profiles, biomarker concentrations, soil chemical characteristics (molecular compound information, ash content, bulk density, C/N ratio, von Post humification degree, 13C NMR and IR spectroscopy) and radiocarbon data will be used to assess transformation degree and net carbon gain or loss of selected peat lands. Biogeochemical information will be used to develop a peatland model to test assumptions on isotope, molecular compound and biomarker dynamics. As such our overall aim is to develop work, cost and staff effective monitoring tools (bulk isotope data, soil chemical parameters) which will be verified in the proposed study as suitable indicators by sophisticated state-of-knowledge biogeochemical information (biomarker concentrations, molecular compounds, radiocarbon data, peat model development). Selected study sites will be in Finland, Southern Germany and Switzerland, where we already gathered experience and data from the antecedent project "Stable Carbon indicators of soil degeneration" (SNF project no. 200021-137569) and will profit from established collaborations on the long-term monitoring sites. weObserve: Integrating Citizen Observers and High Throughput Sensing Devices for Big Data Collection, Integration, and Analysis Research Project | 6 Project MembersEven though hypothesis driven research is the fundamental core of scientific advance, scientific progress by monitoring and subsequently analysing is crucial for certain phenomena of the real world. Specialized high throughput sensor devices can be used in controlled lab environments that provide very large data collections. These collections can be analysed to come up with new findings by verifying or falsifying concrete hypotheses. However, the majority of scientific domains is more complex and cannot rely on such rather simple data gathering and processing pipelines: first, the phenomena to be monitored in the real world are complex in their spatial and temporal dynamic, and confounding factors are typically of multi-causal origin. Thus, the phenomena can-not be isolated nor can natural environments be rebuilt in controlled lab environments, which was one of the lessons learned from the Biosphere II programme. Monitoring in the field is essential, but it can hardly be done with conventional sensor technology only at landscape scale, since there are always technical trade-offs between spatial resolution, coverage, temporal resolution and in-terpretability. Furthermore, even if resolution and coverage of sensors is satisfactory, it is not obvious where and when to deploy these high precision/throughput sensors to capture relevant phenomena. In the weObserve project, we will rely on citizen observers to provide semantically rich information directly from the field to complement and enrich existing sensor data. In addition, monitoring data from citizen observers will be used to anticipate where interesting phenomena are supposed to take place, to use societal knowledge and judgement on relevance of phenomena and to deploy high resolution sensing devices in these areas. From a technical point of view, weObserve will address the collection, integration, and processing of heterogeneous data in applica-tions which cannot rely on off-the-shelf sensing devices for moni-monitoring purposes. Heterogeneity includes the volume of data provided via different channels, the precision, the coverage in time and location, and also the predictability. Data collection will there-fore seamlessly combine several types of data sources: (i) high throughput sensing devices which produce very large volumes of data and cover large areas, but with rather low resolution, (ii) Citizen Observers which provide semantically rich data, but with varying levels of precision and substantial sampling bias, and (iii) specific high resolution sensing devices that need to be manually deployed. Data integration will deal with such heterogeneous data. For subsequent analysis, the origin (provenance) and uncer-tainty of individual data items needs to be kept in an integrated data set. Data analysis will detect hidden patterns and the main explanatory factors in data collections. Integration of domain knowledge into the analysis process will be essential for detecting sampling biases and confound-ing factors. Specific emphasis needs to be put on analysis models that can deal with multiple data queues varying in size, reliability, representation and resolution. A further important aspect con-cerns visualization of detected patterns as a means for improving communication between those using the data for scientific purposes and those collecting it. WeObserve will design, implement, integrate, and evaluate the individual parts of the data collection/integration/analysis pipeline in two selected applications, namely i.) monitoring of soil degradation and landslides, and ii.) monitoring of bird migration, with complementary requirements and different ways to gather data. Linkage between deposition and air-surface exchange of mercury: a comparative study between Switzerland and China Research Project | 4 Project MembersForest ecosystems in China and Switzerland exhibit distinct Hg deposition trends. While there is continuously increased Hg deposition in China, the deposition rate of Hg has been decreased since 1960s in Switzerland. In this study, we propose a collaborative project to investigate Hg biogeochemical behaviour in the remote forested ecosystems in Switzerland and China to understand how different chronologies of Hg deposition impact Hg biogeochemistry in remote forest ecosystems with a specific focus on atmosphere-land exchange of Hg. We will characterise the profile distribution of Hg at both sites to reveal at which horizons the recently and historically deposited Hg tends to accumulate. Using isotope dilution technique, we will quantify the pool of exchangeable Hg in soils. We will perform the first ever research to quantify gaseous elemental mercury (Hg(0), GEM) fluxes above and below the forest canopy utilising REA and dynamic flux chamber at both sites, in addition to mass balance analysis of Hg. This approach will complete our understanding on Hg biogeochemical cycles in the terrestrial environments at Chinese and Swiss sites. Mesocosm systems with litterfall, O layers and subsoils will be carried out to measure Hg reemission and leaching from soils at the Chinese and Swiss sites under manipulated precipitation, temperatures, biological activities and irradiance to examine how environmental factors affect Hg reemission and leaching from litterfall, O layers and subsoils at both sites. We will also measure Hg isotope compositions of Hg in atmospheric Hg, wet precipitation, litterfall, soils and bedrock at both sites to assess Hg sources along the soil profile to gain more insights into historical changes in deposition sources at both Chinese and Swiss sites. In mesocosm systems, the magnitude and direction of Hg isotope change during incubation will be utilised to identify possible Hg reduction pathways in soils and furthermore to elucidate how the pathway of Hg reduction in litterfall, O layers and subsoils. The proposed research will deliver quantitative information on the air-land exchange of Hg in forest ecosystems with distinct Hg deposition fluxes at the two study sites. This information is crucial for better understanding of global cycling of Hg in the environment, and has the potential in understanding how effective the implementation of the Minimata Convention will curb the process of recovery from Hg accumulation not only in China but also in Europe and North America. 1234 1...4 OverviewResearch Publications Projects & Collaborations
Projects & Collaborations 35 foundShow per page10 10 20 50 Accelerating collection and use of soil health information using AI technology to support the Soil Deal for Europe and EU Soil Observatory Research Project | 4 Project MembersThe objective of AI4SoilHealth is to co-design, create and maintain an open access European-wide digital infrastructure, compiled using state-of-the-art Artificial Intelligence (AI) methods combined with new and deep soil health understanding and measures. The AI-based data infrastructure functions as a Digital Twin to the real-World biophysical system, forming a Soil Digital Twin. This can be used for assessing and continuously monitoring Soil Health metrics by land use and/or management parcel, supporting the Commission's objective of transitioning towards healthy soils by 2030. The project is divided into seven (7) work-packages including: (WP2) Policy and stakeholder engagement - networking and synchronizing with EU and national programs, (WP3) Soil health methodology and standards - developing/testing methodology to be used by WPs 4-6, (WP4) Soil health in-situ monitoring tools and data - developing field and laboratory solutions for Observations & Measurements, (WP5) Harmonised EU-wide soil monitoring services - developing the final suite of tools, data and services, (WP6) Multi-actor engagement pilots - organizing field-works and collect users' feedback, (WP7) Soil literacy, capacity building and communication - organizing public campaigns and producing educational materials. Key deliverables include: 1) Coherent Soil Health Index methodology, 2) Rapid Soil Health Assessment Toolbox, 3) AI4SoilHealth Data Cube for Europe, 4) Soil-Health-Soil-Degradation-Monitor, and 5) AI4SoilHealth API and Mobile phone App. Produced tools will be exposed to target-users (including farmer associations in >10 countries), so their feedback is used to improve design/functionality. Produced high-resolution pan-European datasets will be distributed under an Open Data license, allowing easy access by development communities. AI4SoilHealth will provide an effective Soil Health Index certification system to support landowners and policy makers under the new Green Deal for Europe. Keywords: Biogeochemistry, biogeochemical cycles, environmental chemistry, Earth observations from space/remote sensing, Environment, resources and sustainability, Environmental monitoring systems, Terrestrial ecology, land cover change. THE SOIL BIODIVERSITY AND FUNCTIONALITY OF MEDITERRANEAN OLIVE GROVES: A HOLISTIC ANALYSIS OF THE INFLUENCE OF LAND MANAGEMENT ON OLIVE OIL QUALITY AND SAFETY Research Project | 3 Project MembersAfter more than fifty years of intensive agriculture application, the environmental situation for many olive groves across the Mediterranean Region is quite dramatic in terms of land degradation, biodiversity impoverishment, functionality loss, which may have already impacted on the quality and safety of olive oil, one of the most important commodities produced in Europe. Through the implementation of a series of multidisciplinary and interdisciplinary WPs, this project will perform the first rigorous diagnostic of the environmental situation of olive groves soils at a broad scale, considering the most important areas of olive production at the Mediterranean Region and its relationships to olive oil quality. Soil O-live aims (i) to analyze the impact of pollution and land degradation on soils from olive groves in terms of multi-biodiversity, ecological function at different levels of organization and scales; (ii) to investigate the relationship of soil health status with quality and safety of olive oil; (iii) to implement effective soil amendments and ecological restoration practices that promote manifest soil biodiversity and functionality enhancements in permanent Mediterranean olive orchards across its native range of distribution, that should be translated to improvements in olive oil quality and safety; (iv) to define rigorous ecological thresholds that allow to implement future clear norms and regulations in order to design a novel certification for healthy soils in European olive orchards. AVATAR - A reVised dATing framework for quantifying geomorphological processes during the AnthRopocene Research Project | 4 Project MembersArtificial fallout radionuclides are found ubiquitously in the environment around the world and they provide the privileged marker candidates ("golden spikes") of the Anthropocene stratigraphic layers. The onset of their emissions coincided with the period of Great Acceleration that took place after World War II and that is characterised by an increase in soil degradation, which was often triggered by land use change. Particle-bound radiocesium and plutonium are widely used to date modern sediment archives and reconstruct soil redistribution rates during this period. However, although the fallout chronology is better constrained in the Northern Hemisphere, much less is known regarding the timing and the spatial distribution of their deposition in the Southern Hemisphere. The AVATAR project consortium will therefore fill this important knowledge gap through the compilation of all data available in the literature and in recently released declassified military archives. Then, it will conduct soil and sediment sampling in zones identified as data gaps based on the comprehensive literature survey. These soil and sediment samples (~2000 in total) will be analysed for cesium and plutonium to calculate their fallout radionuclide inventories and sources (i.e. the proportion of global fallout due to USSR and USA atmospheric nuclear bomb tests with a peak in 1963 vs. the proportion of fallout due to French nuclear tests conducted between 1966 and 1974 in the South Pacific) and to improve sediment core dating. Spatial analyses will be conducted to provide the first reference map of radiocesium and plutonium fallout in the southern hemisphere. Then, this improved fallout distribution knowledge will be used to reconstruct soil redistribution during the Anthropocene through an innovative combination of conversion and erosion models in two pilot large river basins of the southern hemisphere. Importantly, the AVATAR project will propose original methods to validate the spatial and the temporal distribution of sediment transfer reconstructions in these large river basins during the Anthropocene. Finally, the compiled databases and maps will be shared with a wide community including atmosphere scientists, climatologists, radio-toxicologists and soil scientists. A participative network to update and upgrade a fallout radionuclide database at the global scale will also be launched at the end of the project. Linking soil hydraulic properties with soil erosion estimations Research Project | 2 Project MembersLinking soil hydraulic properties with soil erosion estimations Saturated hydraulic conductivity Ks can be used to describe water movement under saturated conditions in the soils. It differentiates the amount of water infiltrating into the soil and the amount of water flowing over the surface as runoff. Soils with small values of hydraulic conductivity have low infiltration rates and during intense rains, water run-off will lead to consequent soil losses and surface transport of colloids, nutrients, and microbes, which can then cause problems of eutrophication and pollution of downstream areas (Dexter et al., 2004). Objectives: 1. To locate the hotspots with low saturated hydraulic conductivity and high soil erosion 2. To combine saturated hydraulic conductivity ( Gupta et al, 2021 ) and soil erosion ( Pasquale et al., 2017 ) spatial maps to modify risk classe s Mapping soil properties at high spatial resolution using remote sensing datasets and machine learning approaches Research Project | 2 Project MembersSpatial soil maps are essential for monitoring, management, and conservation. Maps of soil properties are available from regional to global scales, with global maps being urgently needed for global modelling and management endeavours (from soil degradation to climate change modelling and assessments). Objectives: 1. To link soil organic carbon, soil texture, nitrogen, and phosphorus to various remote sensing parameters (vegetation, topography, climate) and using machine learning algorithm. 2. To generate high resolution (20-30 m) spatial response and uncertainty maps of Switzerland 3. To compare the accuracy with different available maps Sediment Apportionment Research Project | 2 Project MembersAccelerated soil erosion is a worldwide threat to soil health. Understanding soil and sediment behaviour through sediment source apportionment allows for monitoring and detection of high sediment delivery locations. The Bayesian mixing model MixSIAR with compound-specific stable isotope tracers is increasingly being used to estimate land-use specific sediment source apportionment. The aim of this topic is to examine compound specific isotopic tracer selection in sediment source apportionment using innovative methodologies and determine which tracers improve model performance. Furthermore, this study investigates the influence of past agriculture on sediment deposit rates using new compound specific isotopic tracers and sediment cores. Understanding and exploring sediment dynamics through the application of mixing models and compound specific isotope biomarkers. Specific interests include: Tracer selection and validation in Bayesian mixing models, the degradation and conservatives of isotopic biomarkers, and the historic impact of agriculture on soil erosion in flood plains Automatisierte zeitliche & räumliche Kartierung von Bodenerosion auf montanen Graslandflächen der Schweiz Research Project | 2 Project MembersDas Projekt dient vorrangig dazu, den Bund und die Kantone bei der Beurteilung von Risiken, Ausmass und zeitlichen Entwicklungen von Bodenschäden zu unterstützen, indem flächenhafte Kartierungen und Langzeitbeobachtungen ermöglicht werden. Combining biogeochemical and modelling approach to assess peatland restoration Research Project | 4 Project MembersLarge percentages of peatlands in Europe have been degraded during the last centuries due to intensive agricultural or forestry usage resulting in a major loss of related ecosystems functions such as biodiversity, natural habitat, water cycle regulation, recreational values and last but not least carbon storage. While landscape managers seek to restore peatlands in the recent years they lack feasible monitoring tools to prove successful restoration. Here we propose to develop a set of biogeochemical and modelling tools to assess peatland restoration including a verification of net carbon storage. A combination of bulk isotope depth profiles, biomarker concentrations, soil chemical characteristics (molecular compound information, ash content, bulk density, C/N ratio, von Post humification degree, 13C NMR and IR spectroscopy) and radiocarbon data will be used to assess transformation degree and net carbon gain or loss of selected peat lands. Biogeochemical information will be used to develop a peatland model to test assumptions on isotope, molecular compound and biomarker dynamics. As such our overall aim is to develop work, cost and staff effective monitoring tools (bulk isotope data, soil chemical parameters) which will be verified in the proposed study as suitable indicators by sophisticated state-of-knowledge biogeochemical information (biomarker concentrations, molecular compounds, radiocarbon data, peat model development). Selected study sites will be in Finland, Southern Germany and Switzerland, where we already gathered experience and data from the antecedent project "Stable Carbon indicators of soil degeneration" (SNF project no. 200021-137569) and will profit from established collaborations on the long-term monitoring sites. weObserve: Integrating Citizen Observers and High Throughput Sensing Devices for Big Data Collection, Integration, and Analysis Research Project | 6 Project MembersEven though hypothesis driven research is the fundamental core of scientific advance, scientific progress by monitoring and subsequently analysing is crucial for certain phenomena of the real world. Specialized high throughput sensor devices can be used in controlled lab environments that provide very large data collections. These collections can be analysed to come up with new findings by verifying or falsifying concrete hypotheses. However, the majority of scientific domains is more complex and cannot rely on such rather simple data gathering and processing pipelines: first, the phenomena to be monitored in the real world are complex in their spatial and temporal dynamic, and confounding factors are typically of multi-causal origin. Thus, the phenomena can-not be isolated nor can natural environments be rebuilt in controlled lab environments, which was one of the lessons learned from the Biosphere II programme. Monitoring in the field is essential, but it can hardly be done with conventional sensor technology only at landscape scale, since there are always technical trade-offs between spatial resolution, coverage, temporal resolution and in-terpretability. Furthermore, even if resolution and coverage of sensors is satisfactory, it is not obvious where and when to deploy these high precision/throughput sensors to capture relevant phenomena. In the weObserve project, we will rely on citizen observers to provide semantically rich information directly from the field to complement and enrich existing sensor data. In addition, monitoring data from citizen observers will be used to anticipate where interesting phenomena are supposed to take place, to use societal knowledge and judgement on relevance of phenomena and to deploy high resolution sensing devices in these areas. From a technical point of view, weObserve will address the collection, integration, and processing of heterogeneous data in applica-tions which cannot rely on off-the-shelf sensing devices for moni-monitoring purposes. Heterogeneity includes the volume of data provided via different channels, the precision, the coverage in time and location, and also the predictability. Data collection will there-fore seamlessly combine several types of data sources: (i) high throughput sensing devices which produce very large volumes of data and cover large areas, but with rather low resolution, (ii) Citizen Observers which provide semantically rich data, but with varying levels of precision and substantial sampling bias, and (iii) specific high resolution sensing devices that need to be manually deployed. Data integration will deal with such heterogeneous data. For subsequent analysis, the origin (provenance) and uncer-tainty of individual data items needs to be kept in an integrated data set. Data analysis will detect hidden patterns and the main explanatory factors in data collections. Integration of domain knowledge into the analysis process will be essential for detecting sampling biases and confound-ing factors. Specific emphasis needs to be put on analysis models that can deal with multiple data queues varying in size, reliability, representation and resolution. A further important aspect con-cerns visualization of detected patterns as a means for improving communication between those using the data for scientific purposes and those collecting it. WeObserve will design, implement, integrate, and evaluate the individual parts of the data collection/integration/analysis pipeline in two selected applications, namely i.) monitoring of soil degradation and landslides, and ii.) monitoring of bird migration, with complementary requirements and different ways to gather data. Linkage between deposition and air-surface exchange of mercury: a comparative study between Switzerland and China Research Project | 4 Project MembersForest ecosystems in China and Switzerland exhibit distinct Hg deposition trends. While there is continuously increased Hg deposition in China, the deposition rate of Hg has been decreased since 1960s in Switzerland. In this study, we propose a collaborative project to investigate Hg biogeochemical behaviour in the remote forested ecosystems in Switzerland and China to understand how different chronologies of Hg deposition impact Hg biogeochemistry in remote forest ecosystems with a specific focus on atmosphere-land exchange of Hg. We will characterise the profile distribution of Hg at both sites to reveal at which horizons the recently and historically deposited Hg tends to accumulate. Using isotope dilution technique, we will quantify the pool of exchangeable Hg in soils. We will perform the first ever research to quantify gaseous elemental mercury (Hg(0), GEM) fluxes above and below the forest canopy utilising REA and dynamic flux chamber at both sites, in addition to mass balance analysis of Hg. This approach will complete our understanding on Hg biogeochemical cycles in the terrestrial environments at Chinese and Swiss sites. Mesocosm systems with litterfall, O layers and subsoils will be carried out to measure Hg reemission and leaching from soils at the Chinese and Swiss sites under manipulated precipitation, temperatures, biological activities and irradiance to examine how environmental factors affect Hg reemission and leaching from litterfall, O layers and subsoils at both sites. We will also measure Hg isotope compositions of Hg in atmospheric Hg, wet precipitation, litterfall, soils and bedrock at both sites to assess Hg sources along the soil profile to gain more insights into historical changes in deposition sources at both Chinese and Swiss sites. In mesocosm systems, the magnitude and direction of Hg isotope change during incubation will be utilised to identify possible Hg reduction pathways in soils and furthermore to elucidate how the pathway of Hg reduction in litterfall, O layers and subsoils. The proposed research will deliver quantitative information on the air-land exchange of Hg in forest ecosystems with distinct Hg deposition fluxes at the two study sites. This information is crucial for better understanding of global cycling of Hg in the environment, and has the potential in understanding how effective the implementation of the Minimata Convention will curb the process of recovery from Hg accumulation not only in China but also in Europe and North America. 1234 1...4
Accelerating collection and use of soil health information using AI technology to support the Soil Deal for Europe and EU Soil Observatory Research Project | 4 Project MembersThe objective of AI4SoilHealth is to co-design, create and maintain an open access European-wide digital infrastructure, compiled using state-of-the-art Artificial Intelligence (AI) methods combined with new and deep soil health understanding and measures. The AI-based data infrastructure functions as a Digital Twin to the real-World biophysical system, forming a Soil Digital Twin. This can be used for assessing and continuously monitoring Soil Health metrics by land use and/or management parcel, supporting the Commission's objective of transitioning towards healthy soils by 2030. The project is divided into seven (7) work-packages including: (WP2) Policy and stakeholder engagement - networking and synchronizing with EU and national programs, (WP3) Soil health methodology and standards - developing/testing methodology to be used by WPs 4-6, (WP4) Soil health in-situ monitoring tools and data - developing field and laboratory solutions for Observations & Measurements, (WP5) Harmonised EU-wide soil monitoring services - developing the final suite of tools, data and services, (WP6) Multi-actor engagement pilots - organizing field-works and collect users' feedback, (WP7) Soil literacy, capacity building and communication - organizing public campaigns and producing educational materials. Key deliverables include: 1) Coherent Soil Health Index methodology, 2) Rapid Soil Health Assessment Toolbox, 3) AI4SoilHealth Data Cube for Europe, 4) Soil-Health-Soil-Degradation-Monitor, and 5) AI4SoilHealth API and Mobile phone App. Produced tools will be exposed to target-users (including farmer associations in >10 countries), so their feedback is used to improve design/functionality. Produced high-resolution pan-European datasets will be distributed under an Open Data license, allowing easy access by development communities. AI4SoilHealth will provide an effective Soil Health Index certification system to support landowners and policy makers under the new Green Deal for Europe. Keywords: Biogeochemistry, biogeochemical cycles, environmental chemistry, Earth observations from space/remote sensing, Environment, resources and sustainability, Environmental monitoring systems, Terrestrial ecology, land cover change.
THE SOIL BIODIVERSITY AND FUNCTIONALITY OF MEDITERRANEAN OLIVE GROVES: A HOLISTIC ANALYSIS OF THE INFLUENCE OF LAND MANAGEMENT ON OLIVE OIL QUALITY AND SAFETY Research Project | 3 Project MembersAfter more than fifty years of intensive agriculture application, the environmental situation for many olive groves across the Mediterranean Region is quite dramatic in terms of land degradation, biodiversity impoverishment, functionality loss, which may have already impacted on the quality and safety of olive oil, one of the most important commodities produced in Europe. Through the implementation of a series of multidisciplinary and interdisciplinary WPs, this project will perform the first rigorous diagnostic of the environmental situation of olive groves soils at a broad scale, considering the most important areas of olive production at the Mediterranean Region and its relationships to olive oil quality. Soil O-live aims (i) to analyze the impact of pollution and land degradation on soils from olive groves in terms of multi-biodiversity, ecological function at different levels of organization and scales; (ii) to investigate the relationship of soil health status with quality and safety of olive oil; (iii) to implement effective soil amendments and ecological restoration practices that promote manifest soil biodiversity and functionality enhancements in permanent Mediterranean olive orchards across its native range of distribution, that should be translated to improvements in olive oil quality and safety; (iv) to define rigorous ecological thresholds that allow to implement future clear norms and regulations in order to design a novel certification for healthy soils in European olive orchards.
AVATAR - A reVised dATing framework for quantifying geomorphological processes during the AnthRopocene Research Project | 4 Project MembersArtificial fallout radionuclides are found ubiquitously in the environment around the world and they provide the privileged marker candidates ("golden spikes") of the Anthropocene stratigraphic layers. The onset of their emissions coincided with the period of Great Acceleration that took place after World War II and that is characterised by an increase in soil degradation, which was often triggered by land use change. Particle-bound radiocesium and plutonium are widely used to date modern sediment archives and reconstruct soil redistribution rates during this period. However, although the fallout chronology is better constrained in the Northern Hemisphere, much less is known regarding the timing and the spatial distribution of their deposition in the Southern Hemisphere. The AVATAR project consortium will therefore fill this important knowledge gap through the compilation of all data available in the literature and in recently released declassified military archives. Then, it will conduct soil and sediment sampling in zones identified as data gaps based on the comprehensive literature survey. These soil and sediment samples (~2000 in total) will be analysed for cesium and plutonium to calculate their fallout radionuclide inventories and sources (i.e. the proportion of global fallout due to USSR and USA atmospheric nuclear bomb tests with a peak in 1963 vs. the proportion of fallout due to French nuclear tests conducted between 1966 and 1974 in the South Pacific) and to improve sediment core dating. Spatial analyses will be conducted to provide the first reference map of radiocesium and plutonium fallout in the southern hemisphere. Then, this improved fallout distribution knowledge will be used to reconstruct soil redistribution during the Anthropocene through an innovative combination of conversion and erosion models in two pilot large river basins of the southern hemisphere. Importantly, the AVATAR project will propose original methods to validate the spatial and the temporal distribution of sediment transfer reconstructions in these large river basins during the Anthropocene. Finally, the compiled databases and maps will be shared with a wide community including atmosphere scientists, climatologists, radio-toxicologists and soil scientists. A participative network to update and upgrade a fallout radionuclide database at the global scale will also be launched at the end of the project.
Linking soil hydraulic properties with soil erosion estimations Research Project | 2 Project MembersLinking soil hydraulic properties with soil erosion estimations Saturated hydraulic conductivity Ks can be used to describe water movement under saturated conditions in the soils. It differentiates the amount of water infiltrating into the soil and the amount of water flowing over the surface as runoff. Soils with small values of hydraulic conductivity have low infiltration rates and during intense rains, water run-off will lead to consequent soil losses and surface transport of colloids, nutrients, and microbes, which can then cause problems of eutrophication and pollution of downstream areas (Dexter et al., 2004). Objectives: 1. To locate the hotspots with low saturated hydraulic conductivity and high soil erosion 2. To combine saturated hydraulic conductivity ( Gupta et al, 2021 ) and soil erosion ( Pasquale et al., 2017 ) spatial maps to modify risk classe s
Mapping soil properties at high spatial resolution using remote sensing datasets and machine learning approaches Research Project | 2 Project MembersSpatial soil maps are essential for monitoring, management, and conservation. Maps of soil properties are available from regional to global scales, with global maps being urgently needed for global modelling and management endeavours (from soil degradation to climate change modelling and assessments). Objectives: 1. To link soil organic carbon, soil texture, nitrogen, and phosphorus to various remote sensing parameters (vegetation, topography, climate) and using machine learning algorithm. 2. To generate high resolution (20-30 m) spatial response and uncertainty maps of Switzerland 3. To compare the accuracy with different available maps
Sediment Apportionment Research Project | 2 Project MembersAccelerated soil erosion is a worldwide threat to soil health. Understanding soil and sediment behaviour through sediment source apportionment allows for monitoring and detection of high sediment delivery locations. The Bayesian mixing model MixSIAR with compound-specific stable isotope tracers is increasingly being used to estimate land-use specific sediment source apportionment. The aim of this topic is to examine compound specific isotopic tracer selection in sediment source apportionment using innovative methodologies and determine which tracers improve model performance. Furthermore, this study investigates the influence of past agriculture on sediment deposit rates using new compound specific isotopic tracers and sediment cores. Understanding and exploring sediment dynamics through the application of mixing models and compound specific isotope biomarkers. Specific interests include: Tracer selection and validation in Bayesian mixing models, the degradation and conservatives of isotopic biomarkers, and the historic impact of agriculture on soil erosion in flood plains
Automatisierte zeitliche & räumliche Kartierung von Bodenerosion auf montanen Graslandflächen der Schweiz Research Project | 2 Project MembersDas Projekt dient vorrangig dazu, den Bund und die Kantone bei der Beurteilung von Risiken, Ausmass und zeitlichen Entwicklungen von Bodenschäden zu unterstützen, indem flächenhafte Kartierungen und Langzeitbeobachtungen ermöglicht werden.
Combining biogeochemical and modelling approach to assess peatland restoration Research Project | 4 Project MembersLarge percentages of peatlands in Europe have been degraded during the last centuries due to intensive agricultural or forestry usage resulting in a major loss of related ecosystems functions such as biodiversity, natural habitat, water cycle regulation, recreational values and last but not least carbon storage. While landscape managers seek to restore peatlands in the recent years they lack feasible monitoring tools to prove successful restoration. Here we propose to develop a set of biogeochemical and modelling tools to assess peatland restoration including a verification of net carbon storage. A combination of bulk isotope depth profiles, biomarker concentrations, soil chemical characteristics (molecular compound information, ash content, bulk density, C/N ratio, von Post humification degree, 13C NMR and IR spectroscopy) and radiocarbon data will be used to assess transformation degree and net carbon gain or loss of selected peat lands. Biogeochemical information will be used to develop a peatland model to test assumptions on isotope, molecular compound and biomarker dynamics. As such our overall aim is to develop work, cost and staff effective monitoring tools (bulk isotope data, soil chemical parameters) which will be verified in the proposed study as suitable indicators by sophisticated state-of-knowledge biogeochemical information (biomarker concentrations, molecular compounds, radiocarbon data, peat model development). Selected study sites will be in Finland, Southern Germany and Switzerland, where we already gathered experience and data from the antecedent project "Stable Carbon indicators of soil degeneration" (SNF project no. 200021-137569) and will profit from established collaborations on the long-term monitoring sites.
weObserve: Integrating Citizen Observers and High Throughput Sensing Devices for Big Data Collection, Integration, and Analysis Research Project | 6 Project MembersEven though hypothesis driven research is the fundamental core of scientific advance, scientific progress by monitoring and subsequently analysing is crucial for certain phenomena of the real world. Specialized high throughput sensor devices can be used in controlled lab environments that provide very large data collections. These collections can be analysed to come up with new findings by verifying or falsifying concrete hypotheses. However, the majority of scientific domains is more complex and cannot rely on such rather simple data gathering and processing pipelines: first, the phenomena to be monitored in the real world are complex in their spatial and temporal dynamic, and confounding factors are typically of multi-causal origin. Thus, the phenomena can-not be isolated nor can natural environments be rebuilt in controlled lab environments, which was one of the lessons learned from the Biosphere II programme. Monitoring in the field is essential, but it can hardly be done with conventional sensor technology only at landscape scale, since there are always technical trade-offs between spatial resolution, coverage, temporal resolution and in-terpretability. Furthermore, even if resolution and coverage of sensors is satisfactory, it is not obvious where and when to deploy these high precision/throughput sensors to capture relevant phenomena. In the weObserve project, we will rely on citizen observers to provide semantically rich information directly from the field to complement and enrich existing sensor data. In addition, monitoring data from citizen observers will be used to anticipate where interesting phenomena are supposed to take place, to use societal knowledge and judgement on relevance of phenomena and to deploy high resolution sensing devices in these areas. From a technical point of view, weObserve will address the collection, integration, and processing of heterogeneous data in applica-tions which cannot rely on off-the-shelf sensing devices for moni-monitoring purposes. Heterogeneity includes the volume of data provided via different channels, the precision, the coverage in time and location, and also the predictability. Data collection will there-fore seamlessly combine several types of data sources: (i) high throughput sensing devices which produce very large volumes of data and cover large areas, but with rather low resolution, (ii) Citizen Observers which provide semantically rich data, but with varying levels of precision and substantial sampling bias, and (iii) specific high resolution sensing devices that need to be manually deployed. Data integration will deal with such heterogeneous data. For subsequent analysis, the origin (provenance) and uncer-tainty of individual data items needs to be kept in an integrated data set. Data analysis will detect hidden patterns and the main explanatory factors in data collections. Integration of domain knowledge into the analysis process will be essential for detecting sampling biases and confound-ing factors. Specific emphasis needs to be put on analysis models that can deal with multiple data queues varying in size, reliability, representation and resolution. A further important aspect con-cerns visualization of detected patterns as a means for improving communication between those using the data for scientific purposes and those collecting it. WeObserve will design, implement, integrate, and evaluate the individual parts of the data collection/integration/analysis pipeline in two selected applications, namely i.) monitoring of soil degradation and landslides, and ii.) monitoring of bird migration, with complementary requirements and different ways to gather data.
Linkage between deposition and air-surface exchange of mercury: a comparative study between Switzerland and China Research Project | 4 Project MembersForest ecosystems in China and Switzerland exhibit distinct Hg deposition trends. While there is continuously increased Hg deposition in China, the deposition rate of Hg has been decreased since 1960s in Switzerland. In this study, we propose a collaborative project to investigate Hg biogeochemical behaviour in the remote forested ecosystems in Switzerland and China to understand how different chronologies of Hg deposition impact Hg biogeochemistry in remote forest ecosystems with a specific focus on atmosphere-land exchange of Hg. We will characterise the profile distribution of Hg at both sites to reveal at which horizons the recently and historically deposited Hg tends to accumulate. Using isotope dilution technique, we will quantify the pool of exchangeable Hg in soils. We will perform the first ever research to quantify gaseous elemental mercury (Hg(0), GEM) fluxes above and below the forest canopy utilising REA and dynamic flux chamber at both sites, in addition to mass balance analysis of Hg. This approach will complete our understanding on Hg biogeochemical cycles in the terrestrial environments at Chinese and Swiss sites. Mesocosm systems with litterfall, O layers and subsoils will be carried out to measure Hg reemission and leaching from soils at the Chinese and Swiss sites under manipulated precipitation, temperatures, biological activities and irradiance to examine how environmental factors affect Hg reemission and leaching from litterfall, O layers and subsoils at both sites. We will also measure Hg isotope compositions of Hg in atmospheric Hg, wet precipitation, litterfall, soils and bedrock at both sites to assess Hg sources along the soil profile to gain more insights into historical changes in deposition sources at both Chinese and Swiss sites. In mesocosm systems, the magnitude and direction of Hg isotope change during incubation will be utilised to identify possible Hg reduction pathways in soils and furthermore to elucidate how the pathway of Hg reduction in litterfall, O layers and subsoils. The proposed research will deliver quantitative information on the air-land exchange of Hg in forest ecosystems with distinct Hg deposition fluxes at the two study sites. This information is crucial for better understanding of global cycling of Hg in the environment, and has the potential in understanding how effective the implementation of the Minimata Convention will curb the process of recovery from Hg accumulation not only in China but also in Europe and North America.
