Soil Quality Index According to Diverse Land Use Systems Across the Europe
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 21649401 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Baig Abdullah Al Shoumik (0000-0003-0847-0739, Department of Soil Science and Plant Nutrition Ondokuz Mayis University Turkiye, corresponding author), Ewa Błońska (0000-0001-7731-1673, Department of Ecology and Silviculture, Faculty of Forestry University of Agriculture in Krakow Poland), Jarosław Lasota (0000-0003-2069-3476, Department of Ecology and Silviculture, Faculty of Forestry University of Agriculture in Krakow Poland) |
| Year | 2025 |
| Volume | 36 |
| Issue | 5 |
| Pages | 1467-1482 |
| Publication date | 2025-03-01 |
| Open Access | Yes |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Land Degradation and Development (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 1085-3278 • E-ISSN: 1099-145X |
| Publisher | Wiley (PUBLISHER • GB) |
| DOI | 10.1002/ldr.5438 |
| OpenAlex | W4405655497 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 1 |
| References cited | 64 |
Soil quality index (SQI) can be an effective parameter to evaluate soil quality based on plant growth and ecosystem services at a large scale. According to the European Commission, around 60%–70% of the European soil is not healthy due to degradation and rapid conversion of land uses; however, detailed studies on soil quality according to different land uses in the entire Europe are very limited. We aimed to develop an SQI using the Land Use and Coverage Area Frame Survey (LUCAS) database for the existing croplands (230 samples), grasslands (53 samples), and woodlands (36 samples) to evaluate the overall soil quality across the continent. A total of five soil variables (sand, organic carbon, electrical conductivity, bacteria, and fungi) were selected for the minimum dataset based on principal component analysis from all 13 variables to avoid redundancy. The relationship between the developed SQI and climatic variables (precipitation and temperature) was also analyzed. We found that croplands had higher SQI (0.45 ± 0.09) than grasslands (0.44 ± 0.09) and woodlands (0.43 ± 0.1), with no significant differences among the land uses ( p > 0.05). The spatial analysis revealed higher SQI (> 0.46) in the central part of the EU and lower (
Civil engineering · Land use · Soil Quality · Soil water · World Wide Web · Agriculture, Soil, Plant Science · Computer Science · Engineering · Environmental Science · Soil and Land Suitability Analysis · Soil Carbon and Nitrogen Dynamics · Soil Science
| Citations per year | 1 |
|---|---|
| Citation span | 2026 - 2026 (1) |
| Highly cited | No |