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European soils are under increasing pressure, making it difficult to maintain the provision of soil ecosystem services (SESs). A better understanding of soil processes is needed to counteract soil threats (STs) and to promote sustainable soil management. The EJP SOIL programme of the EU provides a framework for the necessary research. However, different definitions of soil‐related terms potentially lead to varied understandings of concepts. Furthermore, there are numerous indicators available to quantify STs or SESs. As unclear communication is a key barrier that hinders the implementation of research results into practice, this study aimed to answer the question about whether the terminology of large‐scale initiatives is adequately understood within the soil‐science community and non‐research stakeholders. An online questionnaire was used to provide definitions for 33 soil‐related terms in both scientific and plain language, as well as indicators for seven SESs and 11 STs. Participants were asked to rate their agreement with the definitions and indicators on a seven‐grade Likert scale. The level of agreement was calculated as the percentage of ratings above 4, the neutral position. The survey was available from June to September 2023 and was distributed by a snowball approach. More than 260 stakeholders assessed the survey; 70% of respondents were researchers, and 15% were practitioners. Mean agreement levels for the definitions and indicators were generally high, at 85% and 78% respectively. However, it was apparent that the lowest agreement was found for terms that are relatively new, such as Ecosystem Services and Bundle, or unfamiliar for certain subgroups, such as ecological terms for stakeholders working at the farm scale. Due to their distinct majority, the results of this study primarily reflect the opinions of scientists. Thus, broad conclusions can only be drawn by comparing scientists with non‐scientists. In this regard, the agreement was surprisingly high across all types of questions. The combined outcomes indicate that there is still a need to facilitate communication between stakeholders and to improve knowledge distribution strategies. Nevertheless, this study can support and be used by future projects and programmes, especially regarding the harmonization of terminology and methods. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The study involved an in-depth analysis of the main land cover and land use data available nationwide for the Italian territory, in order to produce a reliable cartography for the evaluation of ecosystem services. In detail, data from the land monitoring service of the Copernicus Programme were taken into consideration, while at national level the National Land Consumption Map and some regional land cover and land use maps were analysed. The classification systems were standardized with respect to the European specifications of the EAGLE Group and the data were integrated to produce a land cover map in raster format with a spatial resolution of 10 m. The map was validated and compared with the CORINE Land Cover, showing a significant geometric and thematic improvement, useful for a more detailed and reliable evaluation of ecosystem services. In detail, the map was used to estimate the variation in carbon storage capacity in Italy for the period 2012–2020, linked to the increase in land consumption [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]