{"type": "FeatureCollection", "features": [{"id": "10.1111/ejss.13470", "type": "Feature", "geometry": null, "properties": {"updated": "2026-06-24T16:19:19Z", "type": "Journal Article", "created": "2024-03-14", "title": "Participatory soil citizen science: An unexploited resource for European soil research", "description": "Abstract<p>Soils are key components of our ecosystems and provide 95%\uffe2\uff80\uff9399% of our food. This importance is reflected by an increase in participatory citizen science projects on soils. Citizen science is a participatory research method that actively involves and engages the public in scientific enquiry to generate new knowledge or understanding. Here, we review past and current citizen science projects on agricultural soils across Europe. We conducted a web\uffe2\uff80\uff90based survey and described 24 reviewed European citizen science projects in the light of the 10 principles of citizen science and identified success factors for citizen science. Over 66% of the projects generated soil biodiversity data; 54% and 42% of the projects generated data on vegetation cover and soil organic carbon, respectively. Our findings show that soil citizen science projects aligned with the 10 principles of citizen science offer an unexploited resource for European soil health research. We conclude that promoting co\uffe2\uff80\uff90creation, fostering knowledge\uffe2\uff80\uff90sharing networks and enabling long\uffe2\uff80\uff90term communication and commitment with citizens are success factors for further development of citizen science on soils.</p", "keywords": ["0301 basic medicine", "2. Zero hunger", "570", "web-based survey", "soil health", "soil biodiversity", "[SDV.SA.SDS]Life Sciences [q-bio]/Agricultural sciences/Soil study", "15. Life on land", "01 natural sciences", "333", "12. Responsible consumption", "03 medical and health sciences", "13. 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Sustainability", "European agroecosystems", "participatory research", "[SDV.SA.SDS] Life Sciences [q-bio]/Agricultural sciences/Soil study", "0105 earth and related environmental sciences"]}, "links": [{"href": "https://iris.cnr.it/bitstream/20.500.14243/469825/1/2024_European%20J%20Soil%20Scienc_Mason.pdf"}, {"href": "https://doi.org/10.1111/ejss.13470"}, {"rel": "related", "href": "https://repository.soilwise-he.eu/cat/collections/metadata:main/items/European%20Journal%20of%20Soil%20Science", "name": "related record", "description": "related record", "type": "application/json"}, {"rel": "self", "type": "application/geo+json", "title": "10.1111/ejss.13470", "name": "item", "description": "10.1111/ejss.13470", "href": "https://repository.soilwise-he.eu/cat/collections/metadata:main/items/10.1111/ejss.13470"}, {"rel": "collection", "type": "application/json", "title": "Collection", "name": "collection", "description": "Collection", "href": "https://repository.soilwise-he.eu/cat/collections/metadata:main"}], "time": {"date": "2024-03-01T00:00:00Z"}}, {"id": "10.1371/journal.pone.0180442", "type": "Feature", "geometry": null, "properties": {"updated": "2026-06-24T16:20:10Z", "type": "Journal Article", "created": "2017-07-13", "title": "Organic farming enhances soil microbial abundance and activity\u2014A meta-analysis and meta-regression", "description": "Population growth and climate change challenge our food and farming systems and provide arguments for an increased intensification of agriculture. A promising option is eco-functional intensification through organic farming, an approach based on using and enhancing internal natural resources and processes to secure and improve agricultural productivity, while minimizing negative environmental impacts. In this concept an active soil microbiota plays an important role for various soil based ecosystem services such as nutrient cycling, erosion control and pest and disease regulation. Several studies have reported a positive effect of organic farming on soil health and quality including microbial community traits. However, so far no systematic quantification of whether organic farming systems comprise larger and more active soil microbial communities compared to conventional farming systems was performed on a global scale. Therefore, we conducted a meta-analysis on current literature to quantify possible differences in key indicators for soil microbial abundance and activity in organic and conventional cropping systems. All together we integrated data from 56 mainly peer-reviewed papers into our analysis, including 149 pairwise comparisons originating from different climatic zones and experimental duration ranging from 3 to more than 100 years. Overall, we found that organic systems had 32% to 84% greater microbial biomass carbon, microbial biomass nitrogen, total phospholipid fatty-acids, and dehydrogenase, urease and protease activities than conventional systems. Exclusively the metabolic quotient as an indicator for stresses on microbial communities remained unaffected by the farming systems. Categorical subgroup analysis revealed that crop rotation, the inclusion of legumes in the crop rotation and organic inputs are important farming practices affecting soil microbial community size and activity. Furthermore, we show that differences in microbial size and activity between organic and conventional farming systems vary as a function of land use (arable, orchards, and grassland), plant life cycle (annual and perennial) and climatic zone. In summary, this study shows that overall organic farming enhances total microbial abundance and activity in agricultural soils on a global scale.", "keywords": ["Crops", " Agricultural", "2. Zero hunger", "Organic Agriculture", "Science", "Climate", "Microbiota", "Environmental aspects", "Q", "R", "Fabaceae", "04 agricultural and veterinary sciences", "15. Life on land", "Soil quality", "Systems research and participatory research", "13. Climate action", "Life Science", "Medicine", "0401 agriculture", " forestry", " and fisheries", "Biomass", "Soil Microbiology", "Research Article"]}, "links": [{"href": "https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0180442"}, {"rel": "related", "href": "https://repository.soilwise-he.eu/cat/collections/metadata:main/items/PLOS%20ONE", "name": "related record", "description": "related record", "type": "application/json"}, {"rel": "self", "type": "application/geo+json", "title": "10.1371/journal.pone.0180442", "name": "item", "description": "10.1371/journal.pone.0180442", "href": "https://repository.soilwise-he.eu/cat/collections/metadata:main/items/10.1371/journal.pone.0180442"}, {"rel": "collection", "type": "application/json", "title": "Collection", "name": "collection", "description": "Collection", "href": "https://repository.soilwise-he.eu/cat/collections/metadata:main"}], "time": {"date": "2017-07-12T00:00:00Z"}}, {"id": "20.500.14243/469825", "type": "Feature", "geometry": null, "properties": {"updated": "2026-06-24T16:26:26Z", "type": "Journal Article", "created": "2024-03-14", "title": "Participatory soil citizen science: An unexploited resource for European soil research", "description": "Abstract                   <p>Soils are key components of our ecosystems and provide 95%\uffe2\uff80\uff9399% of our food. This importance is reflected by an increase in participatory citizen science projects on soils. Citizen science is a participatory research method that actively involves and engages the public in scientific enquiry to generate new knowledge or understanding. Here, we review past and current citizen science projects on agricultural soils across Europe. We conducted a web\uffe2\uff80\uff90based survey and described 24 reviewed European citizen science projects in the light of the 10 principles of citizen science and identified success factors for citizen science. Over 66% of the projects generated soil biodiversity data; 54% and 42% of the projects generated data on vegetation cover and soil organic carbon, respectively. Our findings show that soil citizen science projects aligned with the 10 principles of citizen science offer an unexploited resource for European soil health research. We conclude that promoting co\uffe2\uff80\uff90creation, fostering knowledge\uffe2\uff80\uff90sharing networks and enabling long\uffe2\uff80\uff90term communication and commitment with citizens are success factors for further development of citizen science on soils.</p", "keywords": ["0301 basic medicine", "2. Zero hunger", "570", "web-based survey", "soil health", "soil biodiversity", "[SDV.SA.SDS]Life Sciences [q-bio]/Agricultural sciences/Soil study", "15. Life on land", "01 natural sciences", "333", "12. Responsible consumption", "03 medical and health sciences", "13. Climate action", "EJPSOIL", "EJPSOIL", " European agroecosystems", " participatory research", " soil biodiversity", " soil health", " web-based survey", "11. 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