{"type": "FeatureCollection", "features": [{"id": "10.1016/j.geoderma.2024.116862", "type": "Feature", "geometry": null, "properties": {"license": "Open Access", "updated": "2026-05-30T16:16:57Z", "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/10.1016/j.geoderma.2024.116862"}, {"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": "10.1016/j.geoderma.2024.116862", "name": "item", "description": "10.1016/j.geoderma.2024.116862", "href": "https://repository.soilwise-he.eu/cat/collections/metadata:main/items/10.1016/j.geoderma.2024.116862"}, {"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": "10.1111/gcb.15460", "type": "Feature", "geometry": null, "properties": {"updated": "2026-05-30T16:19:25Z", "type": "Journal Article", "created": "2020-11-29", "title": "Leaching of dissolved organic carbon from mineral soils plays a significant role in the terrestrial carbon balance", "description": "Abstract

The leaching of dissolved organic carbon (DOC) from soils to the river network is an overlooked component of the terrestrial soil C budget. Measurements of DOC concentrations in soil, runoff and drainage are scarce and their spatial distribution highly skewed towards industrialized countries. The contribution of terrestrial DOC leaching to the global\uffe2\uff80\uff90scale C balance of terrestrial ecosystems thus remains poorly constrained. Here, using a process based, integrative, modelling approach to upscale from existing observations, we estimate a global terrestrial DOC leaching flux of 0.28\uffc2\uffa0\uffc2\uffb1\uffc2\uffa00.07\uffc2\uffa0Gt\uffc2\uffa0C\uffc2\uffa0year\uffe2\uff88\uff921 which is conservative, as it only includes the contribution of mineral soils. Our results suggest that globally about 15% of the terrestrial Net Ecosystem Productivity (NEP, calculated as the difference between Net Primary Production and soil respiration) is exported to aquatic systems as leached DOC. In the tropical rainforest, the leached fraction of terrestrial NEP even reaches 22%. Furthermore, we simulated spatial\uffe2\uff80\uff90temporal trends in DOC leaching from soil to the river networks from 1860 to 2010. We estimated a global increase in terrestrial DOC inputs to river network of 35\uffc2\uffa0Tg\uffc2\uffa0C\uffc2\uffa0year\uffe2\uff88\uff921 (14%) from 1860 to 2010. Despite their low global contribution to the DOC leaching flux, boreal regions have the highest relative increase (28%) while tropics have the lowest relative increase (9%) over the historical period (1860s compared to 2000s). The results from our observationally constrained model approach demonstrate that DOC leaching is a significant flux in the terrestrial C budget at regional and global scales.The leaching of dissolved organic carbon (DOC) from soils to the river network is an overlooked component of the terrestrial soil C budget. Measurements of DOC concentrations in soil, runoff and drainage are scarce and their spatial distribution highly skewed towards industrialized countries. The contribution of terrestrial DOC leaching to the global\uffe2\uff80\uff90scale C balance of terrestrial ecosystems thus remains poorly constrained. Here, using a process based, integrative, modelling approach to upscale from existing observations, we estimate a global terrestrial DOC leaching flux of 0.28\uffc2\uffa0\uffc2\uffb1\uffc2\uffa00.07\uffc2\uffa0Gt\uffc2\uffa0C\uffc2\uffa0year\uffe2\uff88\uff921 which is conservative, as it only includes the contribution of mineral soils. Our results suggest that globally about 15% of the terrestrial Net Ecosystem Productivity (NEP, calculated as the difference between Net Primary Production and soil respiration) is exported to aquatic systems as leached DOC. In the tropical rainforest, the leached fraction of terrestrial NEP even reaches 22%. Furthermore, we simulated spatial\uffe2\uff80\uff90temporal trends in DOC leaching from soil to the river networks from 1860 to 2010. We estimated a global increase in terrestrial DOC inputs to river network of 35\uffc2\uffa0Tg\uffc2\uffa0C\uffc2\uffa0year\uffe2\uff88\uff921 (14%) from 1860 to 2010. Despite their low global contribution to the DOC leaching flux, boreal regions have the highest relative increase (28%) while tropics have the lowest relative increase (9%) over the historical period (1860s compared to 2000s). The results from our observationally constrained model approach demonstrate that DOC leaching is a significant flux in the terrestrial C budget at regional and global scales.