Impact of Agriculture on Soil Degradation II, A European Perspective, Volume 121, The Handbook of Environmental Chemistry By Paulo Pereira, Miriam Muñoz-Rojas, Igor Bogunovic, Wenwu Zhao (eds.), Cham: Springer International Publishing, 2023. 347 pp. €291.19 (hardcover). ISBN: 3031320514, 978-3-03-132051-4

The book “Impact of Agriculture on Soil Degradation II: A European Perspective,” edited by Paulo Pereira, Miriam Muñoz-Rojas, Igor Bogunovic, and Wenwu Zhao (2022), presents a comprehensive examination of soil threats that impact the properties and functioning of agricultural soils in Europe. It is crucial for readers to understand the context of these threats, particularly by considering the definition of land degradation provided by the United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD): “Land degradation is the result of human-induced actions which exploit land, causing its utility, biodiversity, soil fertility, and overall health to decline.”

This definition captures both known and emerging soil threats and underscores a topic of growing concern amid the intensification of climate extremes, increasing food demand, and land sealing due to logistics and urbanization. These factors have escalated over recent decades and demand attention as critical components affecting densely populated territories and rural areas that tend to be abandoned. Unlike unmanaged soils formed through natural processes, agricultural soils exhibit much higher spatial variability due to human management practices, which can, in turn, exacerbate soil threats. Across its 12 chapters, the book provides detailed analyses of soil degradation threats in 10 single countries and two multicountry case studies, offering a comprehensive perspective on the most critical issues facing soil sustainability.

The book covers the most crucial soil threats at present times. In the majority of cases, the chapters are supported by relevant (country-related) peer-review literature, including the primary driver of climatic conditions, tillage, land use changes, loss of organic carbon, erosion, compaction, overgrazing, salinity, contamination by chemicals and microplastics, structure loss, fire, acidification, flooding, and landslides (Figure 1).

FIGURE 1

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Soil threats in agricultural land taken from the chapter's outlines. [Colour figure can be viewed at wileyonlinelibrary.com]

A substantial portion of the book is dedicated to elaborating on general concepts of soil degradation, including erosion caused by water and wind, as well as policies aimed at mitigating these effects. It also delves into the changes in soil physicochemical properties and their change over time due to cultivation practices, which are crucial for understanding soil degradation as a significant threat and for developing strategies to adapt and remediate, where possible, to halt further soil degradation.

The book is well-presented, featuring informative and helpful diagrams, plots, and figures that succinctly summarize results from scientific peer-reviewed literature. Policy reports and directives are thoroughly referenced, adding to the resource's reliability. Each chapter begins with an introduction that provides a historical overview of agriculture, land conditions, and their impacts on soil traits within a specific country. These introductions highlight the most prominent or well-documented soil threat in the country under discussion. While the structure of each chapter is consistent, which aids the reader's comprehension, there is room for improvement in harmonization. Introducing the concept of each specific soil threat within the broader context of European soils could be advantageous before delving into country-specific research and remediation efforts on agricultural soils. The chapters cover a wide range of soil degradation issues, with diverse examples and in-depth analyses of soil processes, such as salinization in Croatia, Italy, and Hungary, erosion in Germany, Greece, and Portugal. In the Czech Republic, specific processes like soil structure loss, the impact of wildfire, flooding and waterlogging are examined. In Hungary, landslides are discussed, and Iceland presents a country-scale model to assess and monitor anthropogenic degradation. However, a comprehensive quantitative overview of the overall impact on the main physical and chemical properties of soils across Europe and their variability would have been a valuable addition.

Several chapters offer detailed explanations of the methodologies used to model soil erosion, measure soil compaction, and assess the impact of inorganic fertilizer loads. They describe the potential effects of soil degradation and include data collection methods for monitoring, spatial representation, and presentation of results with aggregated statistics using NUTS2 level regions. These regions serve as units for policy application and are governed by Regulation (EC) No. 1059/2003, which ensures the consistency of regional statistics over time.

The joint chapter on Greece and Portugal exemplifies how experts from multiple countries can collaborate using the same dataset for regional assessments. Out of 10 chapters, soil contamination from chemicals (critical issue in agro-ecosystems) is addressed extensively. The chapter on Germany discusses diffuse pollution from heavy metals, while those in Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania focus on organic pollutants. Slovenia's chapter delves into industrial pollution aspects. These sections cover the primary pollutants of concern, their sources, dynamics in soils, and the factors influencing their concentrations, as well as methodological and legal/regulatory aspects. A summary table of typical concentrations for the most common pollutants in each chapter would be a beneficial supplement. Furthermore, two chapters present zonal statistics derived from the European Soil Data Centre (ESDAC) dataset, based on LUCAS soil module, illustrating pan-European studies adapted from the ESDAC database (esdac.jrc.ec.europa.eu).

The loss of organic carbon is a recurring theme throughout the book, yet it is only examined in depth in two chapters. Overall, there seems to be a limited focus on soil biological properties, which could be attributed to the scarcity of data available at the time of publication. Consequently, these biological aspects of soil degradation are not as prominently represented as other threats. Soil erosion is explored in several chapters from different perspectives.

The chapter on Ukraine addresses fewer soil threats compared to others, and the ongoing conflict's impact on agricultural soil risk assessment is noted as a topic that would deserve a dedicated sub-chapter in future editions. Chapter 3 underscores the significance of soils in achieving the UN Sustainable Development Goals SDGs, and then narrows its focus to the interplay between agricultural production and economic factors. There is, however, further potential for integrating soil threats monitoring within the framework of the SDGs. Chapter 11 provides a thorough review of the issues associated with overgrazing and the challenges that may arise from the cessation of grazing, such as bush encroachment. This chapter goes beyond agricultural soils, offering clear explanations of remediation processes and techniques. Although the focus is not exclusively on urban soils, a few relevant examples are mentioned. The chapter also discusses regulatory issues concerning contaminated soils, drawing comparisons across different countries.

Each chapter of the book concludes by addressing key topics of importance for both urban and societal challenges, including urban agriculture, climate change, soil protection, and land planning. The inclusion of a final glossary of terms is a thoughtful touch that enhances the book's utility. The comprehensive incorporation of peer-reviewed articles and national monitoring initiatives across all chapters positions the book as a valuable resource for environmental managers. While many publications of this nature claim to be accessible to students, certain sections of this book are highly technical and depend on a solid understanding of soil physics, chemistry, and scientific methodology. Despite this, the book provides a detailed overview of soil science aspects pertinent to the recognition and analysis of soil threats, in alignment with cutting-edge scientific literature.

Although some sections may lack country-specific information, often relying on EU datasets to summarize soil conditions, this could reflect a broader need for research in these areas rather than a limitation of the book itself. In summary, the book appeals to a diverse readership, including early career researchers, soil science students, and specialists from other disciplines involved in environmental monitoring.

In the context of the book review introductory chapter, it is worth mentioning the legacy of the methodologies developed for the assessment of land degradation, the MEDALUS (Mediterranean Desertification and Land Use) project. MEDALUS started in the late 1980's as part of the European Union's research programs to address environmental challenges in the Mediterranean region; being developed in the early 1990's, the input data needed for both natural and socioeconomic factors can now be easily retrieved. But it is still not used for country and continental scales (European Commission 1994; European Commission Directorate-General for Research and Innovation 1999).

Several other books and book sections investigate the land degradation and desertification topic either as monographic volumes (Imeson 2011) “Desertification, Land Degradation, and Sustainability” which can provide a technical overview of the phenomena at a global, regional, and local scale with a focus on human component mainly for scholars and professionals, and (Barrow 1994) with “Land Degradation, Development, and Breakdown of Terrestrial Environments” in which land degradation is characterized in the major biomes and processes are presented for university classes and technicians. Or as a compilation of several case studies and various topics for a large audiences (Zdruli et al. 2010) “Land Degradation and Desertification: Assessment, Mitigation, and Remediation,” or by specifically targeting assessment of land degradation in a land cover system (Panwar et al. 2022) “Land Degradation Neutrality: Achieving SDG 15 by Forest Management,” to mention a few. Additionally, a recent perspective paper by Chaplot (Chaplot 2021) highlights that the mining of nutrients by soil bacteria, contributes to the depletion of soil organic matter and multifunctionality, exacerbating land degradation and climate warming.

Regarding the decision of the authors to focus on some particular threats, although soil sealing is a threat that affects all the countries considered in the book, given the agricultural context, should have taken into account the expansion of agricultural facilities and related infrastructures that, given the context in which we live, grow in a very limited way, the same applies to floods and landslides. As a further remark, in an island, land cover change has been considered since the settlement (second half of the ninth century). Sweden's paragraph on the prohibition of slash-and-burn agriculture sounds a bit odd in the present-day EU configuration, but it is still a land degradation process in place that serves as a monitor for the EU and nearby regions; the landscape we have inherited has been highly shaped by these practices and the protection of natural remnant and extensive complex vegetation communities must not be seen as a high sensibility to the environment conservation or hyper protection but just as the right start to offset climate trends.

For future editions, it may be beneficial to consider each country individually. It would also be advantageous to clarify terms such as “unsustainable practices” and to base the quantification of the impact of agricultural practices on meta-analytic findings, as opposed to localized studies that may only depict specific, extreme conditions. While the book briefly mentions SDG 15, Target 3.1., which has been investigated at the EU level by (Schillaci et al. 2022), it does include essential discussions on chemical pollution and microplastics in each chapter. This approach broadens the analytical scope and emphasizes these issues significance and societal implications for human health.