Digital Soil Health Assessment: Pedogenon Mapping and Unit‐Specific Thresholds for Basque Country Forest Plantations
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2025
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| author | Mercedes Román Dobarco Alex B. McBratney Sophie Cornu Jorge Curiel Yuste |
| author_facet | Mercedes Román Dobarco Alex B. McBratney Sophie Cornu Jorge Curiel Yuste Mercedes Román Dobarco Alex B. McBratney Sophie Cornu Jorge Curiel Yuste |
| collection | Wiley Open Access |
| contents | Digital Soil Health Assessment: Pedogenon Mapping and Unit‐Specific Thresholds for Basque Country Forest Plantations Mercedes Román Dobarco Alex B. McBratney Sophie Cornu Jorge Curiel Yuste Soil Use and Management ABSTRACT In Europe, rural landscapes and forests have been subjected to intensive anthropogenic transformations and uses since Antiquity. Since the early 20th century, many traditionally managed forests and mountain pastures were transformed into intensive forestry plantations. Hence, it is important to assess the effects of forest plantations on soil health. The European Soil Monitoring Law (SML) proposes the establishment of soil units for monitoring soil health and soil degradation processes using time‐series of several indicators: SOC:clay for soil organic carbon (SOC) loss, pH for acidification and bulk density for compaction, among others. Thresholds that may be local must be defined for these different indicators. We propose an approach in which: (1) we delineate soil units applying unsupervised classification to a set of environmental covariates, proxies of the soil‐forming factors (pedogenon mapping) and (2) use semi‐natural native forests (i.e., secondary forests of native species with lesser human interventions compared to past decades) as references for setting unit‐specific thresholds for soil indicators (reference approach) and (3) assessing and mapping the condition of forest plantations (intensively managed forests). We apply this approach to the Basque Country using soil data from the forest monitoring network Basonet. When considering the threshold suggested by the SML for SOC:clay (< 1/13), 61% of plots at 0–20 cm layer and 90% at 20–40 cm layer of plantations were in poor condition (unhealthy), while 37% of plots at 0–20 cm and 79% at 20–40 cm of semi‐natural forests would be considered unhealthy. When considering semi‐natural forest as references the proportion of plantation plots in poor condition for SOC:clay ranged between 14%–50% depending on the percentile used to set thresholds (5th and 25th percentiles). Forest plantations had lower soil pH compared to semi‐natural forests, with 15%–60% of plantation plots with pH lower than the unit‐specific thresholds (poor condition). Only 3% of topsoils and 2% of subsoils under plantations were considered unhealthy with a fixed pH threshold of 4.2. All plantation plots were in good condition (healthy) in terms of bulk density with the EU criteria, but 9.6% of semi‐natural plots had greater bulk density than the suggested thresholds. Our approach demonstrates the need of considering the context of soil‐forming factors when identifying thresholds for soil health indicators. 10.1111/sum.70133 http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/termsAndConditions#vor |
| doi_str_mv | 10.1111/sum.70133 |
| format | Artículo Open Access |
| id | wiley_oa_10_1111_sum_70133 |
| institution | Wiley Open Access |
| license_str_mv | http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/termsAndConditions#vor |
| publishDate | 2025 |
| publisher | Wiley |
| record_format | wiley_oa |
| spellingShingle | Digital Soil Health Assessment: Pedogenon Mapping and Unit‐Specific Thresholds for Basque Country Forest Plantations Mercedes Román Dobarco Alex B. McBratney Sophie Cornu Jorge Curiel Yuste Soil Use and Management Digital Soil Health Assessment: Pedogenon Mapping and Unit‐Specific Thresholds for Basque Country Forest Plantations Mercedes Román Dobarco Alex B. McBratney Sophie Cornu Jorge Curiel Yuste Soil Use and Management ABSTRACT In Europe, rural landscapes and forests have been subjected to intensive anthropogenic transformations and uses since Antiquity. Since the early 20th century, many traditionally managed forests and mountain pastures were transformed into intensive forestry plantations. Hence, it is important to assess the effects of forest plantations on soil health. The European Soil Monitoring Law (SML) proposes the establishment of soil units for monitoring soil health and soil degradation processes using time‐series of several indicators: SOC:clay for soil organic carbon (SOC) loss, pH for acidification and bulk density for compaction, among others. Thresholds that may be local must be defined for these different indicators. We propose an approach in which: (1) we delineate soil units applying unsupervised classification to a set of environmental covariates, proxies of the soil‐forming factors (pedogenon mapping) and (2) use semi‐natural native forests (i.e., secondary forests of native species with lesser human interventions compared to past decades) as references for setting unit‐specific thresholds for soil indicators (reference approach) and (3) assessing and mapping the condition of forest plantations (intensively managed forests). We apply this approach to the Basque Country using soil data from the forest monitoring network Basonet. When considering the threshold suggested by the SML for SOC:clay (< 1/13), 61% of plots at 0–20 cm layer and 90% at 20–40 cm layer of plantations were in poor condition (unhealthy), while 37% of plots at 0–20 cm and 79% at 20–40 cm of semi‐natural forests would be considered unhealthy. When considering semi‐natural forest as references the proportion of plantation plots in poor condition for SOC:clay ranged between 14%–50% depending on the percentile used to set thresholds (5th and 25th percentiles). Forest plantations had lower soil pH compared to semi‐natural forests, with 15%–60% of plantation plots with pH lower than the unit‐specific thresholds (poor condition). Only 3% of topsoils and 2% of subsoils under plantations were considered unhealthy with a fixed pH threshold of 4.2. All plantation plots were in good condition (healthy) in terms of bulk density with the EU criteria, but 9.6% of semi‐natural plots had greater bulk density than the suggested thresholds. Our approach demonstrates the need of considering the context of soil‐forming factors when identifying thresholds for soil health indicators. 10.1111/sum.70133 http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/termsAndConditions#vor |
| title | Digital Soil Health Assessment: Pedogenon Mapping and Unit‐Specific Thresholds for Basque Country Forest Plantations |
| topic | Soil Use and Management |
| url | https://bsssjournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/sum.70133 |