National Soil Monitoring Network:
Review and Assessment Study
LQ09
December 2006
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
Project funders/partners: SNIFFER, Environment Agency, Defra, Scottish
Environment Protection Agency, Scottish Natural Heritage, Scottish
Executive
Background and
objectives to research
The ultimate aims of the UK-Soil Indicators Consortium (UK-SIC) are to
identify indicators of soil quality for soil monitoring and to develop
a UK monitoring scheme that:
- better establishes the state of UK soils
- can be tailored to available resources and individual
organisational needs
- will be designed to pick up statistically significant
changes in soil quality
- builds upon previously funded research on the design of
monitoring schemes.
SNIFFER Project LQ09 sits mid-way between these two stages
with the objective of informing the development of a subsequent project
whose purpose will be to design a UK soil monitoring scheme. The
primary objectives of Project LQ09 were to carry out a stocktaking
exercise of all environmental monitoring schemes currently in place (UK
and EU) which might be useful in the context of soil monitoring and to
assess whether these existing monitoring schemes could fit into a UK
network for soil monitoring, highlighting data and spatial gaps and
recommending improvements that could be made.
The main activities of LQ09 were to construct a catalogue of existing
schemes and to code these against standardised criteria reflecting the
scheme’s potential value for a soil monitoring scheme able to
report at a UK and devolved administration level. Of particular
interest was whether schemes included indicators of soil quality
currently being considered by the UK-Soil Indicators Consortium (UK-SIC
indicators). An analysis of the strengths and weaknesses of
each scheme was undertaken and generic weaknesses / gaps were
identified. The potential for adapting and/or combining current schemes
to deliver a UK soil monitoring scheme was also investigated.
Key findings and
recommendations
1. A total of 29 schemes were considered of relevance to these
objectives and were included in the catalogue. Scheme entries were
analysed using a coding scheme to provide an overview of current scheme
attributes and to identify possible opportunities to integrate or adapt
schemes to deliver a UK soil monitoring scheme. Attributes considered
were; soil parameters, analytes and functions covered; ability to
report and assess trends; statistical design; coverage spatially,
vertically and temporally; data quality; availability of reports, data
and samples and integration issues.
2. Key findings were: (i) Current schemes could be divided into three
broad categories: spatial surveys (e.g. Countryside Survey (CS) and the
National Soil Inventories (NSIs)), networks (e.g. Environmental Change
Network (ECN), Level II Intensive Monitoring of Forest Ecosystems
(Level II)) and long term experimental or monitoring sites (e.g. the
Rothamsted experiment). (ii) Only four schemes included urban areas.
(iii) The majority of schemes started in the 1990s and for this reason,
very few spatial surveys (except the NSIs, CS and the Representative
Soil Sampling Scheme (RSSS)) have a repeat cycle of measurements. (iv)
All schemes hold data in digital form and most have free or licensed
access (with or without a fee) (v) All schemes have data available on
one or more of the 15 UK-SIC indicators currently being considered for
a minimum dataset while most GB or devolved administration level
schemes have data available for 9 or more of the minimum dataset (vi)
Major gaps in current schemes were identified as; relatively few or no
data for three UK-SIC indicators currently being considered for a
minimum datset; a lack of consistency in type and depth of sample taken
and sampling procedure; a lack of consistency in methods of analysis;
and a limited number of soil physical measurements. (vii) Some schemes,
whilst having a statistical design appropriate for their purpose, do
not have a design appropriate for a UK monitoring scheme
3. The consortium concluded that whilst the UK is rich in soils data at
a range of relevant spatial and temporal scales, it is not possible to
integrate and/or combine existing schemes to deliver the full
requirements of a UK soil monitoring scheme due to problems with
differences in methodology and timing of sampling. However, current
schemes could provide a framework to establish a new scheme whilst
providing information on indicators of soil quality during a transition
period. Existing schemes could also provide data to help interpret and
understand any changes observed whilst running alongside a new UK
scheme. A second option would be to select one of the existing schemes
operating at devolved administration or GB level with the recommended
statistical design and to expand it to report for all soil indicators
at UK and devolved administration levels with the required contextual
information. Whatever approach is taken, the exact purpose and required
outcomes of a UK-scale soil monitoring scheme will need to be carefully
specified to ensure that the design meets all expectations and needs.
4. The consortium recommends that any new UK scheme should contain two
distinct elements. Firstly, a surveillance element with broad
spatial coverage would need to be designed to allow changes of specific
sizes in specific regions to be detected with known
power. This element would have to be statistically
robust and be capable of detecting changes as a result of changing land
use / cover patterns. Sampling locations could either be
grid-based or random but in either case a known sampling frame would be
required. One option in any new UK monitoring scheme might be to adopt
a rotating panel design in which sampling locations are dropped after a
period of time to ensure representativeness of the population for which
inferences are required. Secondly, contextual information
would be required to allow changes measured by the surveillance element
to be understood and interpreted. Without this second
element, the causes and hence policy implications of changes detected
by the surveillance element would be open to challenge.
Key words: soil, monitoring, indicators, soil carbon, UK-SIC, soil
function, soil threats
Copies of this report are available from the Foundation, in electronic
format on CDRom at £20.00 + VAT or hard copy at
£25.00, less 20% to FWR members.
N.B.
The report is available for download from the SNIFFER Website.