Antibiotic resistance (AR) is recognized by the World Health Organization as a major threat to human health, and recent studies highlight the role of microplastics (MPs) in its spread. MPs in the environment may act as vectors for antibiotic-resistant bacteria (ARB) and antibiotic resistance genes (ARGs). Bacterial communities on the plastisphere, the surface of MPs, are influenced by plastic properties, allowing ARB to colonize and form biofilms. These biofilms facilitate the transfer of ARGs within microbial communities. This study analyzed data from the LUCAS soil dataset (885 soil samples across EU countries) using the Emu tool to characterize microbial communities at the genus/species level. Functional annotation via PICRUSt2, supported by a custom tool for Emu output formatting, revealed significant correlations between the genera Solirubrobacter, Bradyrhizobium, Nocardioides, and Bacillus with pathways linked to microplastic degradation and antibiotic resistance. These genera were consistently present in various soil types (woodland, grassland, and cropland), suggesting their potential as bioindicators of soil health in relation to MP pollution. The findings underscore MPs as hotspots for ARB and ARGs, offering new insights into the identification of bioindicators for monitoring soil health and the ecological impacts related to MP contamination.
", "keywords": ["microplastics; antibiotic resistance genes; soil microbiome; LUCAS soil"], "contacts": [{"organization": "Andrea Visca, Luciana Di Gregorio, Manuela Costanzo, Elisa Clagnan, Lorenzo Nolfi, Roberta Bernini, Alberto Orgiazzi, Arwyn Jones, Francesco Vitali, Stefano Mocali, Annamaria Bevivino,", "roles": ["creator"]}]}, "links": [{"href": "https://air.unimi.it/bitstream/2434/1142151/2/sustainability-17-01093.pdf"}, {"href": "https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/17/3/1093/pdf"}, {"href": "https://doi.org/10.3390/su17031093"}, {"rel": "related", "href": "https://repository.soilwise-he.eu/cat/collections/metadata:main/items/Sustainability", "name": "related record", "description": "related record", "type": "application/json"}, {"rel": "self", "type": "application/geo+json", "title": "10.3390/su17031093", "name": "item", "description": "10.3390/su17031093", "href": "https://repository.soilwise-he.eu/cat/collections/metadata:main/items/10.3390/su17031093"}, {"rel": "collection", "type": "application/json", "title": "Collection", "name": "collection", "description": "Collection", "href": "https://repository.soilwise-he.eu/cat/collections/metadata:main"}], "time": {"date": "2025-01-29T00:00:00Z"}}, {"id": "10.2139/ssrn.4681574", "type": "Feature", "geometry": null, "properties": {"updated": "2026-06-24T16:21:06Z", "type": "Journal Article", "created": "2024-03-27", "title": "Is the organic carbon-to-clay ratio a reliable indicator of soil health?", "description": "Climate action plans under the Paris Climate Agreement and other national commitments aimed at improving soil-based ecosystem services require the operational monitoring of soil carbon (C). The European Union is aiming to enhance soil health, and as part of the proposed Soil Monitoring Law, the European Commission recommends the monitoring of the soil C loss indicator among other soil health indicators. In this study, we evaluate the feasibility of the proposed soil C loss indicator by assessing its performance using the EU-wide 2009 LUCAS soil survey data. The proposed indicator is the soil organic carbon (SOC) to clay ratio, with a threshold value of 1:13. The results are also compared with the C stock changes reported by countries to the climate convention (UNFCCC). Our results reveal that the variation in SOC and clay content at European scale exceeds that of the data used to develop the proposed indicator. We also found that the variation in the SOC content was influenced not only by clay content but also by climate and land-use reflecting C input levels. Therefore, the defined threshold is inadequate for detecting degraded soils if the SOC and clay content are beyond the conditions used to establish the criteria. Furthermore, major discrepancies were observed between the soil carbon stock changes reported by the national greenhouse gas (GHG) inventories and the proportions of degraded soils identified by using the soil C loss indicator. We conclude that employing a single indicator such as SOC:Clay ratio with one threshold value for all soils across various land covers, management practices, and climatic conditions, as defined by the European Commission for the Soil Monitoring Law, is inappropriate for monitoring soil C loss.", "keywords": ["2. Zero hunger", "agricultural soil", "550", "Forest soil", " agricultural soil", "Science", "Q", "Soil organic carbon (SOC)", "Soil monitoring", "04 agricultural and veterinary sciences", "SOC:Clay ratio", "15. Life on land", "forest soil", "01 natural sciences", "630", "6. Clean water", "12. Responsible consumption", "soil organic carbon", "13. Climate action", "soil monitoring", "LUCAS soil survey", "11. Sustainability", "soc:clay ratio", "0401 agriculture", " forestry", " and fisheries", "European mineral soils", "0105 earth and related environmental sciences"]}, "links": [{"href": "https://doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.4681574"}, {"rel": "related", "href": "https://repository.soilwise-he.eu/cat/collections/metadata:main/items/Geoderma", "name": "related record", "description": "related record", "type": "application/json"}, {"rel": "self", "type": "application/geo+json", "title": "10.2139/ssrn.4681574", "name": "item", "description": "10.2139/ssrn.4681574", "href": "https://repository.soilwise-he.eu/cat/collections/metadata:main/items/10.2139/ssrn.4681574"}, {"rel": "collection", "type": "application/json", "title": "Collection", "name": "collection", "description": "Collection", "href": "https://repository.soilwise-he.eu/cat/collections/metadata:main"}], "time": {"date": "2024-01-01T00:00:00Z"}}, {"id": "10.5281/zenodo.14037350", "type": "Feature", "geometry": null, "properties": {"updated": "2026-06-24T16:23:17Z", "type": "Report", "title": "Indicators-based economic evaluation of soil policies", "description": "The internal EJP SOIL project\u00a0SERENA contributed to the evaluation of soil multifunctionality aiming at providing assessment tools for land planning and soil policies at different scales. By co-working with relevant\u00a0stakeholders, the project provided co-developed indicators and associated cookbooks to assess and map them, to report both on soil degradation, soil-based ecosystem services and their bundles, under actual conditions and for climate and land-use changes, at\u00a0the regional, national, and European scales This reports investigates soil organic carbon (SOC) response to land-use changes (LUC)across Europe by integrating field data from the LUCAS survey with satellite-basedCorine Land Cover (CLC) data. Employing a dynamic approach, we observe thatSOC accumulation following conversions from cropland to grassland or forest is gradual(10\u201320 years) yet substantial, whereas SOC losses due to conversions to cropland aremore immediate (63% occurs within the first 1.5 years). We provide country-specificemission factors that enhance the precision of national greenhouse gas inventories. Ouranalysis of SOC changes since 1990 reveals significantly greater carbon sequestrationcompared to current national greenhouse gas inventory. These findings illustrate theneed for region-specific parameters to estimate SOC changes and provide a ready-madesolution for EU member states to comply with the LULUCF regulation on this aspect.", "keywords": ["Europe", "[SDE] Environmental Sciences", "SERENA project' 'EJPSOIL'; 'Grant n 862695'; D4.2/ WP4 /Task 4.2", "Corine land cover", "Soil carbon", "LUCAS Soil", "Land-use and land-cover change", "SERENA project' 'EJPSOIL'; 'Grant\u00a0 n 862695'; D4.2/ WP4 /Task 4.2"], "contacts": [{"organization": "Ay, Jean-Sauveur, Bellassen, Valentin, Diao, Liang,", "roles": ["creator"]}]}, "links": [{"href": "https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.14037350"}, {"rel": "self", "type": "application/geo+json", "title": "10.5281/zenodo.14037350", "name": "item", "description": "10.5281/zenodo.14037350", "href": "https://repository.soilwise-he.eu/cat/collections/metadata:main/items/10.5281/zenodo.14037350"}, {"rel": "collection", "type": "application/json", "title": "Collection", "name": "collection", "description": "Collection", "href": "https://repository.soilwise-he.eu/cat/collections/metadata:main"}], "time": {"date": "2024-01-01T00:00:00Z"}}, {"id": "10261/368118", "type": "Feature", "geometry": null, "properties": {"updated": "2026-06-24T16:25:35Z", "type": "Journal Article", "created": "2024-09-14", "title": "Comparing LUCAS Soil and national systems: Towards a harmonized European Soil monitoring network", "description": "A recent assessment states that 60\u201370% of soils in Europe are considered degraded. Protecting such valuable resource require knowledge on soil status through monitoring systems. In Europe, different types of monitoring networks currently exist in parallel. Many EU Member states (MS) developed their own national soil information monitoring system (N-SIMS), some being in place for decades. In parallel in 2009, the European Commission extended the periodic Land Use/Land Cover Area Frame Survey (LUCAS) led by EUROSTAT to sample and analyse the main properties of topsoil in EU in order to develop a homogeneous dataset for EU.Both sources of information are needed to support European policies on soil health evaluation. However, a question remains whether the assessment obtained by using soil properties from both monitoring programs (N-SIMS and LUCAS Soil) are comparable, and what could be the limitations of using either one dataset or the other.Conducted in the context of European Joint Programme (EJP) SOIL, this study shows the results of a comparison between N-SIMS and LUCAS Soil programs among 12 different EU member states including BE, DE, DK, EE, ES, FR, DE, HU, IT, NL, PL, SE and SK. The comparison was done on: (i) the sampling strategies including site densities, land cover and soil type distribution; (ii) the statistical distribution of three soil properties (organic carbon, pH and clay content); (iii) two potential indicators of soil quality (i.e. OC/Clay ratio and pH classes). The results underlined substantial differences in soil properties statistical distributions between N-SIMS and LUCAS Soil in many member states, particularly for woodland and grassland soils, affecting the evaluation of soil health using indicators. Such differences might be explained by both the monitoring strategy and sampling or analytical protocols exposing the potential effect of data source on European and national policies. The results demonstrate the need to work towards data harmonization and in the light of the Soil Monitoring Law, to carefully design the future of soil monitoring in Europe taking into account both LUCAS Soil and N-SIMS considering the significant impact of the monitoring strategies and protocols on soil health indicators.", "keywords": ["Europe", "Soil health", "Science", "Q", "Soil monitoring", "Soil monitoring ; Soil health ; Policies ; Europe ; LUCAS Soil", "[SDV.SA.SDS]Life Sciences [q-bio]/Agricultural sciences/Soil study", "[SDV.SA.SDS] Life Sciences [q-bio]/Agricultural sciences/Soil study", "Policies", "630", "LUCAS Soil"]}, "links": [{"href": "https://doi.org/10261/368118"}, {"rel": "related", "href": "https://repository.soilwise-he.eu/cat/collections/metadata:main/items/Geoderma", "name": "related record", "description": "related record", "type": "application/json"}, {"rel": "self", "type": "application/geo+json", "title": "10261/368118", "name": "item", "description": "10261/368118", "href": "https://repository.soilwise-he.eu/cat/collections/metadata:main/items/10261/368118"}, {"rel": "collection", "type": "application/json", "title": "Collection", "name": "collection", "description": "Collection", "href": "https://repository.soilwise-he.eu/cat/collections/metadata:main"}], "time": {"date": "2024-09-01T00:00:00Z"}}, {"id": "2434/1142151", "type": "Feature", "geometry": null, "properties": {"license": "Open Access", "updated": "2026-06-24T16:26:42Z", "type": "Journal Article", "created": "2025-01-29", "title": "Microbial Bioindicators for Monitoring the Impact of Emerging Contaminants on Soil Health in the European Framework", "description": "Antibiotic resistance (AR) is recognized by the World Health Organization as a major threat to human health, and recent studies highlight the role of microplastics (MPs) in its spread. MPs in the environment may act as vectors for antibiotic-resistant bacteria (ARB) and antibiotic resistance genes (ARGs). Bacterial communities on the plastisphere, the surface of MPs, are influenced by plastic properties, allowing ARB to colonize and form biofilms. These biofilms facilitate the transfer of ARGs within microbial communities. This study analyzed data from the LUCAS soil dataset (885 soil samples across EU countries) using the Emu tool to characterize microbial communities at the genus/species level. Functional annotation via PICRUSt2, supported by a custom tool for Emu output formatting, revealed significant correlations between the genera Solirubrobacter, Bradyrhizobium, Nocardioides, and Bacillus with pathways linked to microplastic degradation and antibiotic resistance. These genera were consistently present in various soil types (woodland, grassland, and cropland), suggesting their potential as bioindicators of soil health in relation to MP pollution. The findings underscore MPs as hotspots for ARB and ARGs, offering new insights into the identification of bioindicators for monitoring soil health and the ecological impacts related to MP contamination.
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