World Soil Day 2016

rtemagicc_wsdlogo_upd_en_02-jpgWorld Soil Day (5th December) is the one day in the year that the United Nations asks us all to think about the role of soil in our daily lives and how it protects us from many environmental problems. If we look to the problems of food supply, flooding, and climate change, many of the answers lie in the soil. This fragile crust of soil is complex and still mysterious, but every year scientific research reveals more about its importance to supporting our lives on earth.

As part of that scientific research, the RECARE project has gathered scientists from across Europe to find practical answers to sustaining healthy soil.  From Iceland to Cyprus, at 17 study sites across Europe, the research teams are testing solutions to urgent problems of soil management, these trials are devised by the scientists working with local farmers and land managers.

Across Europe, test plots are being used to find practical solutions to soil-based problems as diverse as the impacts of wildfire on soil erosion to how to reclaim the soil from the deserts created by arctic winds in Iceland.  Through to cleaning up polluted soils in Romania and Spain through planting trees and using plants to mop up toxic metals.

Researchers of the IRNAS-CSIC and Evenor-Tech are evaluating the best measures to remediate contaminated soils in the Guadiamar Green Corridor (Seville, Spain), after a severe mine spill occurred on April 25 1998.

We know that answering practical questions about soil contamination is critical not only to people who live in the area, but also to those who are impacted more widely. Once we have results from our trials, we will then share these not only across Spain but throughout Europe. Work done here in collaboration with local people is going to have international importance as well as solving our problems through better management of the soil.

More information about the RECARE activities at the Guadiamar sudy site can be consulted at the RECARE-Hub-Guadiamar, and at the Facebook page, or in Twitter.

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