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Building on the Assessment of the Dutch Human Environment 2018 and 2020, efforts are now focused on the transition to sustainable, nature-inclusive agriculture. The binding concept that links nature, people and economy and serves as the basis for shaping the transition is the ecosystem services approach. The aim of this study is to investigate, describe and, as far as possible, quantify (and evaluate) the effects of agricultural practices on ecosystem services in land-based agriculture and offer insights into the (potential) contributions that government and the retail sector can make towards the transition. The aspects investigated include sustainable use of ecosystem services by farmers, the role of the retail sector and government, and the driving forces that can speed up or obstruct system change, such as finance (market, subsidies) and rules (legislation). The information obtained has been assembled into a coherent narrative that can be used as a background document for evaluations by the Environmental Assessment Agency (PBL) in the field of nature, agriculture and food., Voortbouwend op de Balans van de Leefomgeving 2018 en 2020 staat de benodigde transitie naar een duurzame natuurinclusieve landbouw centraal. Als handvat voor het ontwerp van de beoogde transitie is gekozen voor de ecosysteemdiensten-invalshoek als een verbindend concept tussen natuur, mensen en economie. Het doel is uit te zoeken, te beschrijven en zoveel mogelijk te kwantificeren (waarderen) van het effect van landbouwkundige keuzes op ecosysteemdiensten in de grondgebonden landbouw en het bieden van inzicht in de (potentiële) bijdrage van verschillende partijen in de keten en van de overheid aan de transitie. We kijken daarbij naar aspecten zoals duurzaam gebruik van ecosysteemdiensten door boeren, de rol van ketenpartijen en de overheid, en de drijvende krachten die een verandering van het systeem kunnen versnellen of belemmeren zoals geld (markt, subsidies) en regels (recht). Van de verzamelde informatie is een samenhangend verhaal gemaakt, dat bruikbaar is als achtergronddocument voor PBL-beleidsevaluaties op het thema natuur, landbouw en voedsel.

Ethiopia is a predominantly agrarian country where about 85% of the country’s population is engaged in the agricultural sector. The sector has enjoyed substantial growth during the last two decades. To increasing crop production and productivity to achieve high agricultural growth and alleviate food security problems in the growing population through, for example, intensive use of agricultural inputs such as fertilizers and pesticides are priorities for the Ethiopian government. As a result of this agricultural intensification policy of the Ethiopian government, the use of pesticides and fertilizers has increased year to year and will be expected to further increase in the years to come. The central Ethiopian rift valley region, particularly in the vicinity of Lake Ziway, is amongst the regions where agrochemicals (pesticides and fertilizers) are most intensively used by smallholder farmers producing vegetables and fruits (e.g., tomato, onion, cabbage, green bean and pepper) and by large-scale farms producing horticulture crops (e.g., cut-flowers and grape). Residual concentrations of pesticides and nutrients used by the small- and large-scale farmers may enter Lake Ziway through several routes such as agricultural land runoff, effluent discharge, drift during spraying, and inadequate handling of remnant pesticides and empty pesticide containers. Currently, there is high concern about the pollution of Lake Ziway by residuals of agrochemicals (e.g., pesticide) and their ecological effects. In addition, Lake Ziway is under threat of pollution by urban wastes (solid and liquid wastes) sourced from the fast-growing Batu and Meki towns found at the south-west and north-west side of the lake, respectively. Therefore, a systemic investigation that assesses the ecological impacts of pollutants to Lake Ziway (e.g., pesticides, trace metals and microplastics, and nutrients) due to agricultural and urbanization in the catchment area of the lake is needed to support its conserv

The SIREN project has made an inventory of indicator systems for assessing soil quality and ecosystem services derived from agricultural soils, as currently used by Member States associated in the EJP SOIL program and beyond. The project aimed to identify and review the national approaches to make use of soil data in the assessment of soil-related ecosystem services, and has surveyed the knowledge gaps and needs for development hindering policy implementation as experienced in the 20 countries participating in the SIREN consortium. A comprehensive conceptual framework linking soil quality to ecosystem services has been collated from earlier proposals in the scientific literature, unifying various concepts associated with soil quality and ecosystem services, and providing a glossary of consistent terminology. SIREN has also taken stock of evaluation criteria for indicators of soil quality as implemented in national soil monitoring schemes. Based on reviews of literature, international policy, international stakeholder views, wide application in national soil monitoring and application in EU projects contributing to agricultural soil quality assessment, a synthesis was produced of policy-relevant soil quality indicators with high potential for harmonised application in national and European monitoring. A tiered approach is proposed for implementation of such a minimum dataset.

Aquatic ecosystems contribute to human well-being by delivering ecosystem services, but their protection has been given low priority in Africa. Lake Ziway in the Ethiopian Rift Valley basin provides services including irrigation, drinking water and fish food in the region. This paper reviews the biological resources and spatio- temporal variation of water quality of the lake focussing on nutrients, metals and pesticides. Lake Ziway is under increasing agricultural and urban pressure and is exhibiting deteriorating trends in several water quality and ecological parameters. Nutrients and trace metals, including PO43−, NO3−, NH4+, Ca2+, Cu and Ni of the lake have shown increasing temporal trends in concentration. Spatially, higher values of major parameters (e.g. NO3−, NH4+, K, Na and electrical conductivity) were observed at shoreline sites near floriculture farming. The water quality of the lake exceeded guideline values for drinking water (alkalinity and Fe) and for aquatic life (NH +, Fe, Cr, Cu and Se). The recently reported pesticides in the lake possibly cause ecological and human health effect. Accordingly, agriculture and urbanisation are affecting water quality of Lake Ziway, with likely negative effects on human health and the lake ecosystem function unless appropriate interventions are taken. Our results may be useful in assessing other African lakes subject to similar anthropogenic pressures in their catchments.

Earthworms play key roles in cropping systems and thereby contribute to nutrient cycling, soil organic matter formation and decomposition, soil structure formation and water infiltration. Although a considerable amount of research has focussed on earthworm communities of arable fields, many knowledge gaps remain. This thesis investigated how earthworm communities in arable land are affected by the composition of the surrounding landscape and by the management of arable fields, with particular attention to crop residue management at the field level. The first study consisted of a landscape level field survey focussed on quantifying the relative contribution of three environmental filters, i.e. soil properties, management practices, and composition of the surrounding landscape on earthworm communities of arable fields and adjacent field margins. Furthermore, two experiments were carried out to study the effects of crop residue management on earthworms. One of those took place under controlled conditions in the laboratory, and focussed on the effects of crop residue placement on the performance of earthworm species, each belonging to a different earthworm ecological group, as well as the subsequent effects on soil structure formation. The other experiment consisted of manipulating the placement and amounts of crop residues in arable fields under different tillage intensities, and studying the effects of those manipulations on earthworm communities after introducing an anecic species in those arable fields. The latter ecological group is rarely found in arable fields, and the feasibility for its introductions was also assessed. Generally, the findings demonstrate the relevance of management practices in shaping earthworm communities of arable fields, while no effects of the surrounding landscape were found for the communities inhabiting the intensively managed arable fields. Regarding crop residue management, the results show that crop residue amounts and placement affect

The ecosystem services approach has gained broad interest in regulatory and policy circles for use in ecological risk assessment. Whilst identifying several challenges, scientific experts from European regulatory authorities,the chemical industry and academia considered the approach applicable to all chemical sectors and potentially contributing to greater ecological relevance for setting and assessing environmental protection goals compared to current European regulatory frameworks for chemicals. These challengeswere addressed in workshops to develop a common understanding across stakeholders on how the ecosystem services concept might be used in chemical risk assessment and what would need to be done to implement it. This paper describes the consensusoutcome of those discussions. Knowledge gaps and research needs were identified and prioritised, exploring the use of novel approaches from ecology, ecotoxicology and ecological modelling. Where applicable, distinction ismade between prospective and retrospective ecological risk assessment. For prospective risk assessment the development of environmental scenarios accounting for chemical exposure and ecological conditions was designatedas a top priority. For retrospective risk assessment the top priority research need was development of reference conditions for key ecosystem services and guidance for their derivation. Both prospective and retrospectiverisk assessment would benefit from guidance on the taxa and measurement endpoints relevant to specific ecosystem services and from improved understanding of the relationships between measurement endpointsfromstandard toxicity tests and the ecosystemservices of interest (i.e. assessment endpoints). The development of mechanistic models, which could serve as ecological production functions, was identified as a priority.A conceptual framework for future chemical risk assessment based on an ecosystem services approach is presented.presented.©

Soil organisms have an important role in aboveground community dynamics and ecosystem functioning in terrestrial ecosystems. However, most studies have considered soil biota as a black box or focussed on specific groups, whereas little is known about entire soil networks. Here we show that during the course of nature restoration on abandoned arable land a compositional shift in soil biota, preceded by tightening of the belowground networks, corresponds with enhanced efficiency of carbon uptake. In mid- and long-term abandoned field soil, carbon uptake by fungi increases without an increase in fungal biomass or shift in bacterial-to-fungal ratio. The implication of our findings is that during nature restoration the efficiency of nutrient cycling and carbon uptake can increase by a shift in fungal composition and/or fungal activity. Therefore, we propose that relationships between soil food web structure and carbon cycling in soils need to be reconsidered.

Soils provide many ecosystem services that are ultimately dependent on the local diversity and below ground abundance of organisms. Soil biodiversity is affected negatively by many threats and there is a perceived policy requirement for the effective biological monitoring of soils at the European level. The aim of this study was to evaluate and recommend policy relevant, cost-effective soil biological indicators for biodiversity and ecosystem function across Europe. A total of 18 potential indicators were selected using a logical-sieve based approach. This paper considers the use of indicators from the 'top down' (i.e. concerned with the process of indicator selection), rather than from the 'bottom up' detail of how individual indicators perform at specific sites and with specific treatments. The indicators assessed a range of microbial, faunal and functional attributes, newer nucleic acids based techniques, morphological approaches and process based measurements. They were tested at 6 European experimental sites already in operation and chosen according to land-use, climatic zone and differences in land management intensity. These were 4 arable sites, one each in Atlantic, Continental, Mediterranean and Pannonian climate zones, and 2 grassland sites, one each in Atlantic and Continental zones. At each site we sampled three replicated plots of contrasting management intensity and, while the treatments varied from site to site, their disturbance effects were quantified in terms of land use intensity. The field sampling and laboratory analysis were standardised through a combination of ISO protocols, or standard operating procedures if the former were not available. Sites were sampled twice, in autumn 2012 and spring or autumn 2013, with relative costs of the different indicators being determined each time. A breakdown of the cost effectiveness of the indicators showed the expected trade-off between effort required in the field and effort required in the laboratory. A

By living in permanent burrows and incorporating organic detritus from the soil surface, anecic earthworms contribute to soil heterogeneity, but their impact is still under-studied in natural field conditions. We investigated the effects of the anecic earthworm Lumbricus centralis on fresh carbon (C) incorporation, soil organic matter composition, protists, and nematodes of a Cambisol under grassland. We used plant material labelled with stable isotope tracers to detect fresh C input around earthworm-occupied burrows or around burrows from which the earthworm had been removed. After 50 days, we sampled soil (0–10 cm depth) in concentric layers around the burrows, distinguishing between drilosphere (0–8 mm) and bulk soil (50–75 mm). L. centralis effectively incorporated fresh C into the drilosphere, and this shifted soil organic matter amount and chemistry: total soil sugar content was increased compared to unoccupied drilosphere and bulk soil, and the contribution of plant-derived sugars to soil organic matter was enhanced. Earthworms also shifted the spatial distribution of soil C towards the drilosphere. The total abundance of protists and nematodes was only slightly higher in earthworm-occupied drilosphere, but strong positive effects were found for some protist clades (e.g. Stenamoeba spp.). Additional data for the co-occurring anecic earthworm species Aporrectodea longa showed that it incorporated fresh C less than L. centralis, suggesting that the two species may have different effects on soil C distribution and organic matter quality.

Soil mites (Acari) are ubiquitous in soil ecosystems and show a vast taxonomic diversity with a wide range of life history characteristics and feeding strategies. Various taxa contribute directly or indirectly to soil processes, including nutrient cycling, soil formation and pest control. Mites thus support important ecosystem services of soils. Yet, their community composition, and therewith service provisioning, may differ between for instance intensively managed agricultural soils and extensively managed grassland soils. We therefore hypothesized that successional changes in the abundance and diversity of soil mite functional groups (feeding types) will occur following a conversion of arable land to grassland, affecting their contribution to ecosystem services. To test this, we studied the succession of mite communities on two Long Term Observatories (LTOs) in Lusignan (France) and Veluwe (the Netherlands). At Lusignan, sampling involved four combinations of recent and historic land use types. At the Veluwe, samples were taken in a secondary succession chronosequence in grasslands, representing a time frame up to 29 years after the conversion from arable land to grassland. Biodiversity and biomass were higher in grassland than in arable land, especially for the total mite community, the predators and the main taxa aiding in decomposition. After conversion of grassland to arable land, or vice versa, both taxon richness and biomass rapidly developed towards the prevailing conditions. Our results indicated that the taxon richness and biomass of the total mite community in grassland still continued to increase up to 29 years after the conversion from arable land to grassland. Total taxon richness increased with time since conversion, which was mainly due to the immigration of decomposers and predators. The biomass of different feeding guilds increased at variable speeds. The observed changes imply an increase in nutrient cycling and in the suppression of some potenti

Soil organic matter (SOM) is key to maintaining soil fertility, mitigating climate change, combatting land degradation, and conserving above- and below-ground biodiversity and associated soil processes and ecosystem services. In order to derive management options for maintaining these essential services provided by soils, policy makers depend on robust, predictive models identifying key drivers of SOM dynamics. Existing SOM models and suggested guidelines for future SOM modelling are defined mostly in terms of plant residue quality and input and microbial decomposition, overlooking the significant regulation provided by soil fauna. The fauna controls almost any aspect of organic matter turnover, foremost by regulating the activity and functional composition of soil microorganisms and their physical–chemical connectivity with soil organic matter. We demonstrate a very strong impact of soil animals on carbon turnover, increasing or decreasing it by several dozen percent, sometimes even turning C sinks into C sources or vice versa. This is demonstrated not only for earthworms and other larger invertebrates but also for smaller fauna such as Collembola. We suggest that inclusion of soil animal activities (plant residue consumption and bioturbation altering the formation, depth, hydraulic properties and physical heterogeneity of soils) can fundamentally affect the predictive outcome of SOM models. Understanding direct and indirect impacts of soil fauna on nutrient availability, carbon sequestration, greenhouse gas emissions and plant growth is key to the understanding of SOM dynamics in the context of global carbon cycling models. We argue that explicit consideration of soil fauna is essential to make realistic modelling predictions on SOM dynamics and to detect expected non-linear responses of SOM dynamics to global change. We present a decision framework, to be further developed through the activities of KEYSOM, a European COST Action, for when mechanistic SOM models i

In de Krimpenerwaard liggen slootdempingen die in veel gevallen verontreinigd zijn. Het gebied wordt momenteel gesaneerd door de dempingen af te dekken met schone grond om risico’s voor landbouw en natuur te beperken. Het afdekken van dempingen was eind vorige eeuw een nieuwe vorm van omgaan met bodemverontreiniging in landelijk gebied die in de Krimpenerwaard op grote schaal als pilotproject Beleidsvernieuwing Bodem is toegepast.

Urban soils are major sinks that provide the services of attenuating and detoxifying environmental pollutants. This significant ecosystem service of urban soil can be evaluated by the natural attenuation capacity (NAC). In this research, we develop a method to calculate the natural pollutant attenuation capacity of urban soils on the basis of 5 chemical and physical measurements. By selecting municipal parks soils for reference, we assessed the spatial and temporal changes of NAC in Beijing city soils under influences of rapid urbanization. Results indicated that NAC was increasingly impacted by land use in the order: parks

Background and aims - Intense rains are becoming more frequent. By causing waterlogging, they may increase soil erosion and soil surface compaction, hamper seedling establishment, and reduce plant growth. Since anecic earthworms make vertical burrows that improve water infiltration, we hypothesised that they can counteract such disturbance. Methods - In a field experiment, intact soil mesocosms with ryegrass (Lolium multiflorum), with or without introduced adult Lumbricus terrestris, underwent either a precipitation regime with two intense rain events (36 mm, at beginning and end of spring), or a control regime with the same cumulative rainfall but no intense events. Short-term response of soil moisture and lagged response of plant growth were measured, and soil macroporosity was quantified. Results - Intense rains reduced ryegrass shoot biomass (by 16–21 % on average) only in the absence of earthworms. Waterlogging duration aboveground was not affected, whereas soil moisture contents after intense rainfall tended to drop faster with earthworms present. Continuous vertical macropores were found only in the mesocosms to which earthworms had been added. The number of such macropores was 2.4 times higher under the intense precipitation regime, despite similar earthworm survival. Conclusions - We found that anecic earthworms can offset negative effects of intense rainfall on plant growth aboveground. Underlying mechanisms, such as macropore formation and enhanced nutrient cycling, are discussed. We also observed that altered precipitation patterns can modify earthworm burrowing behaviour, as earthworms had produced more burrows under the intense regime

Eind 2013 heeft de SZH met de blaarkopbestuurders een strategiedag gehouden. Daaruit kwam onder meer naar voren dat er behoefte is aan een goed en doelgericht fokplan. Onlangs is de Landelijke (Fok)-Commissie begonnen het fokplan uit te werken.

2000-2003, microarthropod fauna inventory of arable land and grassland on sandy soil using pF-cores. Points of interest are biodiversity, nutrients and disease suppression

1996 till 2000, entomofauna inventory on clay digged off riversides and on reference site in The Netherlands using pyramidtraps