Soil – a bridge �between geodiversity and biodiversity

Ladislav Miko

Advisor, Ministry of Environment

Czech Republic

Why soil?

• Extremely important for humans

​

• Platform, ground
• Food, agriculture, water (wells)
• Ownership, territory, power
• Cultural artefacts, history
• Geological past, paleontology
• Carbon sink/source, climate

change actor

• ….

​

Linked to geology

• Geology (bedrock) and topography dependent
• Evolving in geological timescales, conserving information about the past (soil horizons)
• Physically an interface between geosphere, atmosphere and biosphere: thin skin of the Planet Earth

Major policy priorities of present: �soil involved

• Food, feed and material production

​

• Climate change – mitigation, adaptation

​

• Biodiversity

​

…moje hvězdy jsou na dosah… nohy (půdní roztoči pancířníci - Oribatida)

Energy and biomass in ecosystems:�photosynthesis and decomposition �linking living and geological worlds

energy

CO2

nutrients

BIOMASS

(org.matter)

FOTO

SYNTHESIS

water

FOTO

SYNTÉZA

DECOMPOSITION

nutrients

humus

CO2

heat

ACCUMULATION REGIME

SOIL: actors and structure

DECOMPOSITION

nutrients

CO2

heath

edafon

fungi

bacteria

aggregates

soil structure

humus

Why is soil structure so important: nutrients

cationts

- K⁺

- Ca ²⁺

- Na ⁺, …

​

anionts

- phosphorus

- nitrogen, …

Why is soil structure so important: �food production – problem of intensification: nutrient loss

nutrient loss

​

​

mineral

fertilisers (NPK)

nutrients recycled, available – kept in system,

may be limuting

Independent on human intervention

Long term sustainable

human dependent,

expanding,

loss of structure

eutrofication

Why is soil structure so important: water

Differences on water availability and holding capacity

Flooding prevention, different level of aeration

Temeperature buffering

etc.

Energy availability in soil system and biodiversity

• Food/ecological pyramid
• Trofic levles
• Energy transfer roughly 10 %
• What happens when we také away

50 % on the basis??

​

50%

For higher level there is less energy available – influencing not only rare, but also all (common) species! (some disappear, some lower abundance)

LANDSCAPE CHANGES …

hunter and gatherer farmer engineer

…and changes of land use

natural nature close extensive intensive

Forest over 95%

arable 38%

sealed 10%

arable 0%

sealed 0%

forest cca 10-34%

Production: aboveground and belowground biomass (g/m2/yr)

950

250

500

600

500

80

100 %

48 %

37 %

Use of biomass produced on (intense) fields (g/m2/rok)

250

500

500

80

48 %

37 %

grain 40-55-60%

straw 30-35-50%

Roots 6-10-15%

roots 10% of 37% = cca 4% of original biomass

With plants rests remaining on field 5 - 10% of organic matter

3500 kcal/kg

2200 kcal/kg

WATER

EXPLOITATION REGIME

How much man acquires??? - HANPP

Intensive farming and organic matter in soils

• With increased intensity of farming Corg declines
• Decrease is more intensive in higher temperatures and lower humidity
• Therefore, this trend is even stregthened by change of climate
• Adaptation measures necessary to address the decline

… ENERGY NOT JUST FOR HUMANS ???

?

ACCUMULATION

KEEPING

EXPLOITATION

• MOER OF DEAD ORGANIC MATTER (DOM) (INPUT>USAGE)
• BETTER SOIL STRUCTURE
• HIGHER WATER CAPACITY
• MORE NUTRIENTS KEPT
• C ACCUMULATION - CAPTURE
• SOIL ORGANISMS MORE DIVERSE AND ABUNDANT

• DOM MISSING (INPUT<< NEED)
• DEGRADED SOIL (STRUCTURE LOSS)
• LOW WATER CAPACITY, HIGH EROSION
• BIG NUTRIENT LOSSES
• C RELEASEd - EMISSIONS
• SOIL FAUNA MISSING, MICROFLORA SIMPLIFIED

• LITTLE DOM INPUT (INPUT=USAGE)
• WORSENED SOIL STRUCTURE
• LOWER WATER CAPACITY SOME EROSION
• NUTRIENT, C LOSSES
• SIMPLIFIED SOIL ORGANISM COMMUNITIES, RESILIENT SPECIES

SOIL ECOSYSTEM SERVICES

DEFICIT

TO BE

COMPLE-

MENTED

BY HUMAN

ARTEFICIAL CONDITIONS, MOSTLY

HUMAN INPUTS , „HYDROPONICS“

NATURAL CONDITIONS,

NO INTERVENTIONS/SPONTANEOUS

OR SIMULATED

COMBINATION OF NATURAL

AND HUMAN IMPACTS

SUSTAINABLE

AGROTECHNICS

FERTILISING

IRRIGATION

ANTI-EROSION

MEASURES

ARTIFICIAL SUBSTRATE

ENERGIE

(PRECISION AGRICULTURE)

​

Soil and geoparks: opportunities

• Space of functional soils and soil processes
• Variability, habitats, microhabitats
• Biodiversity, „normal“, + rare, specialised
• History (cultural, paleontological, evolutionary)

​

• Opportunities for:
• Science and research
• Education, presentation, popularisation
• Cultural and historical identity understanding/study
• Enjoyment

​

Thank you for awareness!