Researchers and forest managers can now simulate the impacts of climate change and management practices on soil carbon stocks and greenhouse gas emissions using the open-source me4soc tool.
A new web application developed within HoliSoils is making advanced soil carbon modelling accessible to non-specialists. Called me4soc (Multi-model Ensemble Interface for Soil Organic Carbon Predictions), it enables researchers, forest managers, and greenhouse gas (GHG) inventory teams to simulate how forest soil carbon stocks and GHG fluxes may evolve under different climate, land-use, and management scenarios.
Forest soils store more carbon than vegetation and the atmosphere combined, yet this carbon is vulnerable to losses caused by climate change, disturbances, and intensive management. The tool, which is free and open-source, brings together six established models, namely Century, RothC, ICBM, Yasso07, Yasso20, and an empirical GHG flux model. This allows users to compare outputs and assess the uncertainty associated with model structure, rather than relying on a single prediction.
The me4soc tool can use either user-supplied data or information automatically retrieved from open-access databases for European sites. It helps users explore the potential impacts of management practices, such as thinning, clear-cutting, and residue retention, under different climate scenarios. According to its developers, me4soc is intended to support scenario exploration rather than provide calibrated forecasts, and its outputs should be validated using site-specific data.
A new study by the HoliSoils project shows that the way forests growing on peatlands are managed influences the amount of CO₂ they release into the atmosphere.
Peatlands store enormous amounts of carbon. When they are drained to make way for tree planting, that carbon begins to decompose and is released as CO₂. In Finland, where peatlands cover around 9 million hectares, this poses a significant challenge for the climate.
To better understand this process, a team comprising Vince Chukwu and Marta Dondini from the University of Aberdeen (UK), alongside Qian Li, Aleksi Lehtonen and Raisa Mäkipää from the Natural Resources Institute Finland (Luke), and Mika Korkiakoski from the Finnish Meteorological Institute, used a computer model called ECOSSE. Using this model, they simulated how emissions would evolve over 50 years in two forests under two logging methods: clear-cutting, in which almost all trees are felled, and selective logging, in which only a portion is removed.
The results indicate that both methods can reduce CO₂ emissions in the long term, although the effect depends heavily on site-specific conditions, such as soil moisture and temperature. The study provides valuable information for designing more climate-friendly forest management practices in the context of global warming.
A new paper from the HoliSoils project, published in the journal Geoderma, shows that soil disturbances associated with windthrow and forest management can alter greenhouse gas dynamics, carbon stability, and microbial communities in forests on drained peatlands.
Based on a field experiment in southern Finland, the team led by Qian Li (Natural Resources Institute Finland – LUKE) simulated two types of disturbance: litter accumulation (branches and needles) and the removal of the topsoil layer, in both forested and clear-felled areas. Litter accumulation increased CO₂ and N₂O emissions, whilst topsoil removal raised N₂O emissions and reduced the soil’s capacity to absorb methane, in some cases turning it into a source of this gas. Root-associated fungi and tannins were found to play a key role in stabilising carbon. The responses were more pronounced in forested areas than in clear-felled sites.
The study highlights the importance of minimising disturbances and maintaining soil structure to preserve the climate mitigation potential of these forests.
The HoliSoils project ended in October 2025 after 4.5 years of bringing experts and stakeholders to work together for forest soils across Europe and beyond.
The fruits of this collaboration included identification and testing of forest soil management practices aiming to mitigate climate change and sustain provision of ecosystem services, advances in the understanding of soil properties and dynamics, and better access to data about soil vulnerability and recovery potential.
The project also developed new methodologies and furthered knowledge on analytical techniques, data sharing, and model development, proposing ways to harmonise soil monitoring across Europe, and providing guidance on good management practices to optimise forest soil health.
HoliSoils partners distilled the findings generated by the project into several key messages which set the project’s scientific results into a broader context for forest soils, demonstrating how the work carried out in HoliSoils can support recommendations that could be taken up by various stakeholders for implementation in practice, policy, industry, or for use in education.
The key messages are presented according to four main topics, with three recommendations offered for each topic.
1. Forest soil health impacts ecosystem services
Forest soils provide crucial services to people – from timber production to carbon sequestration and storage to mitigate climate change. Soils across European forest ecosystems contain vast amounts of carbon but they are regionally vulnerable to carbon loss. Forest management practices can be optimised to prevent carbon loss and enhance uptake.
2. Forest soils contribute to reaching environmental goals
Forest management practices and forest use impact soil health in different ways. Climate-Smart Forestry (CSF) practices and sustainable post-disturbance recovery activities are beneficial for soil health, including biodiversity and carbon retention, as well as long-term productivity.
Forest soils are complex systems consisting of biotic and abiotic components engaged in physical, chemical and biological processes. Improved conceptual and simulation models have been developed that help to further understanding of soil functioning, vulnerability, recovery potential and to inform management decisions that promote and preserve soil health.
Soils have been degraded and are vulnerable to degradation across Europe and the world. The EU Soil Monitoring Law aims to improve, maintain and safeguard soil health. Harmonised sampling and assessment methodologies are now available that help capture the particular considerations relevant to forest soils to ensure consistent reporting, balanced funding allocation and effective remedial action for the health of all soils across the EU.
HoliSoils’ results are also synthesised and tailored for various audiences, and the project has produced a number of hands-on tools that can be used by stakeholders including policy makers, practitioners, sector representatives, experts, learners and teachers in relevant disciplines, and lay audiences. These tailored HoliSoils results can be found in the resources section of the HoliSoils website, while the data, maps and models can be found directly in the HoliSoils toolkit.
Looking to the future
Though HoliSoils project has ended, its legacy lives on, and future investment could usefully be targeted towards further investigation into management impacts on soils, from the starting point offered by the advances made in the project. Additional research on soil function, biodiversity, and soil modelling would also be welcome to further inform policies, impact assessments, future predictions, and guide management practices for resilient forests. It is certainly the wish of all partners that stakeholders touched by HoliSoils can continue to work together for the health of our forest soils.
The wellbeing of our planet, its ecosystems, and its people is deeply connected to soils. In the HoliSoils project we are very familiar with how forests, soils enable the growth of trees, host rich biodiversity, help mitigate climate change, and provide countless other ecosystem services. However, the importance of soils holds true across all landscapes. In cities, beneath asphalt, buildings, and streets lies soil that (when permeable and vegetated) absorbs rainwater, regulates temperature, stores carbon, and improves air quality.
On 5 December, we celebrate World Soil Day 2025 under the theme “Healthy Soils for Healthy Cities.” Urban soils deliver essential ecosystem services: they support food production; filter water; store carbon; regulate temperatures; and sustain biodiversity. This day is a call to action, inviting policymakers, scientists, city leaders, civil society, and citizens everywhere to reimagine urban spaces through their soils, ensuring that people and nature thrive together in healthy, green cities.
Seize the opportunity of this World Soil Day to explore HoliSoils’ key messages and discover what the project has learned about forest soils in the past 4.5 years!
HoliSoils introduced a new Marteloscope extension that models soil carbon changes after silvicultural interventions, supporting holistic, climate smart forest management alongside other training tools presented at the webinar.
A recent webinar on “Further Developing Marteloscopes”, hosted by FROST Brandenburg, featured a contribution from HoliSoils researchers Sergey Zudin and Andreas Schuck from the European Forest Institute. Although not officially part of the HoliSoils project, the online workshop held on 22 October 2025 brought together experts and institutions from across Central Europe to share updates on technical improvements to Marteloscope tools.
Marteloscopes function as virtual forest plots used for silvicultural training and decision making. They are located across Europe and information on their exact locations, along with details on how to take part in a training session, can be found on the INTEGRATE Network website: https://integratenetwork.org/
During the webinar, HoliSoils colleagues from the European Forest Institute presented a new extension to the Marteloscope software developed within the project. The added functionality predicts soil carbon stocks in forest stands before and after silvicultural interventions such as thinning. This improvement highlights that forest management involves more than trees and helps explore the wider effects of interventions on the forest system. It is particularly relevant in the context of climate smart forestry and the assessment of ecosystem services.
The workshop also included presentations from other initiatives. Dr Benoit Courbaud introduced the SimInForest project in his talk “SimInForest: Combining field exercises and simulations on Marteloscopes to develop integrative and sustainable silvicultural approaches”.
The HoliSoils team was pleased to contribute to the development and wider use of Marteloscopes as valuable training tools that support learning about sustainable forest management and, now, soil health.
Long-term nitrogen fertilisation enhances tree growth and soil carbon retention in boreal forests
The HoliSoils Webinar Series continues this December with a new session exploring the effects of long-term nutrient management on forest productivity and soil health.
Sustained nitrogen fertilisation has been practiced in Finnish forests for more than six decades, offering unique insights into how nutrient inputs shape tree growth, soil processes and carbon dynamics. This webinar presents findings from long-term field experiments that reveal how moderate, repeated nitrogen additions influence forest productivity and soil carbon retention.
We are delighted to welcome:
Anni Palvi Natural Resources Institute Finland (Luke) Tree growth and productivity responses to long-term nitrogen fertilisation in Scots pine forests
Boris Tupek Natural Resources Institute Finland (Luke) Soil carbon and microbial responses to sustained nitrogen input in boreal ecosystems
The session is moderated by Aleksi Lehtonen (Luke).
A HoliSoils field workshop in Catalonia connected science and policy, showing how healthy soils and closer-to-nature forest management can strengthen Europe’s climate and biodiversity goals.
A soft autumn mist hung over the hills of Solsonès in central Catalonia on a chilly October morning, as a small group of forest engineers, researchers, public administration technicians and environmental officers gathered at the Castell de Llobera estate, one of the HoliSoils Mediterranean test sites, where scientists have been studying how thinning and prescribed burning affect soil carbon dynamics and forest resilience. Around a dozen participants from various institutions had come together to explore how Europe’s new vision of “closer-to-nature” forestry and forest soil health can be applied to Mediterranean landscapes.
The event, organised by the Catalan Forest Ownership Centre (CPF) and the Forest Science and Technology Centre of Catalonia (CTFC) within the HoliSoils project, aimed to do exactly that: bring science to the field and compare ideas with reality. Targeted specifically at public administration technicians, the workshop was part of the CPF’s ongoing “train the trainers” initiative to build technical capacity and promote knowledge exchange in sustainable forest management.
“Forest soils are the great forgotten element in forestry,” said Patrícia Campdelacreu, biodiversity officer at the Central Catalonia Environmental Office. “We often look upwards, at trees and timber, but forget that their strength comes from below ground.”
The Solsonès landscape, where HoliSoils researchers study how soil health supports climate-smart forestry in Central Catalonia, Spain. Photo: HoliSoils / Gerard Fernández
Castell de Llobera: fire, water and soil
At Llobera, CTFC researchers explained that the black pine (Pinus nigra) forest surrounding the group is part of a network of demonstration sites where, a decade ago, they began testing different fuel-management treatments to improve forest resistance to wildfires and drought.
“Here we applied thinning of different intensities, with and without prescribed burning,” explained Pere Casals from the CTFC, pointing towards different sections of the stand. “We wanted to see how these practices affect soil health, tree growth and the forest’s ability to cope with climate stress.”
The HoliSoils experiments at Llobera, together with those at Secanella and Madrona, form one of the project’s key case studies on climate-smart forestry. Five years after the treatments, results show that thinning increases tree growth and drought resistance, especially when combined with prescribed burning of slash. Although burning temporarily reduces organic carbon in the surface layers, it also leads to greater soil carbon stability and stronger forest resilience. Importantly, no significant carbon losses were detected in the mineral horizons, confirming that smart fuel management can reduce wildfire risk without degrading soils.
“These findings show that reducing competition for water makes trees stronger and soils more stable,” summarised Casals. “The forest responds better when we manage it proactively.”
These results, published in the project’s Empirical analysis on Climate-Smart Forestry impacts on soils (HoliSoils Deliverable 4.4), demonstrate how management adapted to regional realities can protect both productivity and soil carbon in a warming climate.
CTFC researcher Pere Casals explains how thinning and prescribed burning influence soil carbon and forest resilience at the HoliSoils test site in Llobera. Photo: HoliSoils / Gerard Fernández
As the group moved between soil pits and carbon-profile samples, participants discussed how these findings challenge the long-standing “fire suppression” paradigm. In Mediterranean regions, avoiding fire altogether often allows fuel to accumulate, increasing the likelihood of intense wildfires that cause far greater soil damage. Controlled burning, by contrast, can restore more natural fire regimes and maintain soil function, provided it is carried out under safe conditions.
“Soil has long been part of forest management,” added Teresa Cervera, Head of the Sustainable Forest Management Promotion Area at CPF. “But now we can quantify what happens and improve decisions. What we need is a long-term strategy for soil monitoring that goes beyond individual research projects.”
The HoliSoils team has therefore installed long-term sensors and sampling points at these Mediterranean sites to monitor soil respiration and carbon stability over time: data that feed into the project’s European soil health observatory and contribute to future soil policies under the EU Soil Deal for Europe.
The discussion soon turned to a recurring challenge: the role of private forest ownership. Over 70% of Catalonia’s forests are privately owned, which deeply shapes forest policy and the practical implementation of sustainable management. “Without involving landowners, we lose part of the picture,” said Francesca Famadas, Head of the Forest Management Area at CPF. “We can produce excellent science, but if it does not reach the people managing the land, nothing will change.”
Participants visiting the HoliSoils experimental site in Llobera, where long-term trials test thinning and prescribed burning effects on soil carbon. Photo: HoliSoils / Gerard Fernández
Ribera Salada: what ‘closer-to-nature’ means in Mediterranean forests
After the first field visit, the group travelled to the Ribera Salada Forest Training Area, where another black pine forest provided the backdrop for a discussion on a concept gaining traction across Europe: closer-to-nature forestry. This approach, promoted through the EU Forest Strategy for 2030, aims to bring management closer to natural processes, enhancing forest resilience to climate change while promoting biodiversity and maintaining productive functions.
HoliSoils was not the only project represented during the visit. The INFORMA project was also mentioned for its work on promoting closer-to-nature forest management across Europe, complementing HoliSoils by linking sustainable practices to carbon sequestration and biodiversity goals.
“Closer-to-nature forestry is not something entirely new for us,” said Teresa Baiges from the CPF. “In the Mediterranean, we have long applied practices that respect natural regeneration, structural diversity, and mixed species stands. What is new now is that EU institutions are finally recognising the value of this approach and giving it a stronger framework.”
During the discussion, CTFC researchers emphasised that, unlike in Central and Northern Europe’s intensively managed forests, the main challenge in Catalonia is under-management. Maintaining open landscapes and reducing fuel loads are essential to prevent large wildfires.
Discussion on closer-to-nature management approaches between CTFC and CPF representatives and participants at the Ribera Salada’s forest training area. Photo: HoliSoils / Gerard Fernández
Participants used the Marteloscope I+ app, a training tool that visualises how different thinning decisions affect biodiversity, productivity and soil indicators. The exercise illustrated how digital tools developed within HoliSoils can support forest managers in balancing ecological and economic objectives through evidence-based decisions.
“We are often compared to northern forests where clear-cutting is common,” added Famadas. “But here our forests are dense and fire-prone, and sometimes the best way to restore them is to open them up. We need policies that recognise that difference.” Campdelacreu brought the reflection back to the human scale: “If management decisions are made far from the territory, rural life and forest management will fade away,” she warned. “We need to listen to the land again.”
Participants used the HoliSoils Marteloscope I+ app to visualise how different thinning choices affect soils, biodiversity and productivity. Photo: HoliSoils / Gerard Fernández
Beyond projects: from research to practice
The day ended with a clear message shared among all participants: science must be translated into practice. European projects like HoliSoils generate valuable knowledge, yet results often remain within research circles, far from forest technicians and practitioners. “We need clear, shared messages,” said Cervera. “To know what has already been proven and can be applied. If every project starts from zero, we will never move forward.”
To bridge this gap, HoliSoils has produced a wide range of resources, such as policy briefs and synthesis reports, tailored to forest managers, policymakers and educators. These materials summarise how adaptive thinning, prescribed burning and continuous-cover management can strengthen both forest soil health and climate resilience in regions facing increasing drought and wildfire risk.
Representatives from the CPF agreed that one of the keys lies in building long-term demonstration networks and ensuring continuity of soil monitoring. These living laboratories and workshops are essential to communicate evidence-based results that can convince both landowners and policymakers that sustainable management is a long-term investment, not a cost.
By late afternoon, as the mist lifted over the Solsonès valleys, the group reflected on what had been learned: that the future of Catalonia’s forests lies beneath our feet. It depends on the health of their soils, on understanding the invisible processes that sustain them, and on learning from nature not to imitate it but to coexist with it. “When we understand the soil,” said Cervera, “we understand the whole system. It is the foundation that connects productivity, biodiversity and resilience.”
With that reminder, HoliSoils closed its workshop in Catalonia, leaving behind not only dialogue but also tangible data and long-term monitoring plots that will continue informing Europe’s soil and climate strategies. The takeaway was simple yet powerful: without healthy soils, there can be no climate-smart forestry or resilient forests in Europe.
Representatives from CPF, CTFC and Catalonia’s public administration during the HoliSoils field workshop on forest soil health in Solsonès, Catalonia. Photo: HoliSoils / Gerard Fernández
The text and photographs in this article were produced by Gerard Fernández, Communications Officer at the European Forest Institute (EFI) and member of the HoliSoils project’s Communication and Dissemination Work Package.
HoliSoils held a workshop in southern France exploring how climate change and forest management affect soil health. Participants visited experimental sites simulating drought and warming, highlighting soil’s central role in forest resilience.
A couple of hours’ drive from Marseille, in the beautiful southeast of France, one of the final HoliSoils practitioner workshops took place. This event was organised in partnership with the Mediterranean Institute of Biodiversity and Marine and Continental Ecology of Aix-Marseille University (IMBE-AMU).
On Tuesday, 14 October, a total of 52 practitioners, researchers, PhD and Master’s students, and other representatives of the public forestry sector gathered for the workshop, which focused on the effects of climate change and forest management practices on forest soils in the mediterranean region.
In the field, participants observe instruments and hear explanations on how simulated drought and heat conditions help scientists study soil responses to climate change. Photo: HoliSoils / Raghav Sharma
From the stars to the soil: a unique experimental setting
The first part of the day, organised at the O3HP experimental site, began with a surprising stop at the Haute-Provence Observatory site, a renowned hub for astrophysics research. After learning more about the impressive two-meter diameter telescope and the astronomical observations conducted there, including the discovery of the first exoplanet, the discussions continued in the surrounding Quercus pubescens forests, very common in the region.
However, this Q. pubescens forest has a unique feature: it is equipped with quite special instruments that simulate the effects of climate change. Already facing three months of summer drought annually, these forests are expected, according to IPCC projections, to experience 30% less rainfall and significant warming by the end of the century. At this experimental site, researchers are already simulating future climate conditions. A 300 m² roof above the canopy has been blocking rainfall since 2010, and in spring 2025 they added spirals of electric resistance wires on the soil surface to raise the temperature by +2 °C. What is the tipping point? That’s exactly what the researchers are aiming to find out.
Visitors also had the chance to explore part of the forest by walking along footbridges, at canopy level or just above the ground. Along the footbridges, various instruments are sometimes installed to take all kinds of measurements, from stem growth and gas exchanges to the release of volatile organic compounds, litter decomposition, and more.
Participants were also very curious about the eco-acoustic monitoring. The site will be indeed equipped soon with sensors that track soil organism activity combined with DNA analysis to study the present biodiversity.
View of the experimental roof that excludes rainfall, allowing researchers to examine how water scarcity affects soil health and biodiversity in Mediterranean forests. Photo: HoliSoils / Raghav Sharma
Management practices under the microscope
In the afternoon, the group headed to the HoliSoils experimental site in Saint-Christol d’Albion. Visitors took a long and pleasant walk through this 5-hectare fenced forest stand, which had not been managed for 60 years before the studies began. This site includes several experimental setups to study the effects of different forest management practices on soils, such as thinning gradients, clear-cutting, and the removal of logging residues. The site is also equipped with temperature and humidity sensors that are monitored in real time.
Mathieu Santonja, an associate professor at Aix-Marseille University, explained how he has observed the structure of soil fauna changing dramatically after just one year following a clear-cut. However, they also observed on the site that with thinning up to 28%, soil communities change relatively little.
After spending the day discussing diverse effects on soils — and, for some, getting their hands in the dirt to study their different organic components up close — participants left with a clear takeaway. As Noémie Pousse, a soil scientist at the French National Forest Office, emphasised: “In forest management, the soil is the foundation of everything.”
By Louisa Bouri-Saouter · Photos by Raghav Sharma Communications trainees at the European Forest Institute (EFI)
As part of the SOB4ES project and its ongoing efforts to test the cost-effectiveness of published indicators for Soil Biodiversity, the project developed two surveys to gather insights from key stakeholders, including land managers, researchers, policy makers, industry representatives, retailers, and advisors. The SOB4ES project we has already collected cost estimates from all SOB4ES partners involved in the field sampling for the whole range of indicators sampled, and now needs your input to assess the “effectiveness”-side of soil biodiversity structural indicators.
Your expertise and perspective are invaluable to this work. SOB4ES would be very grateful if you could take a few minutes to complete the survey and share your views.
Are you a scientific expert in the area of soil biodiversity indicators?
Help SOB4ES to identify the technical characteristics of different indicators and how well they are applied to different land uses and ecosystem services. Completing this survey requires some scientific knowledge regarding different SOB indicators.
The survey should take less than 20 minutes to complete.
Are you someone who might implement or use soil biodiversity indicators in monitoring programmes to support decision making?
Help us to identify the importance of different criteria that relate to the use of indicators in cross-land use/biome/country measuring and monitoring programmes
The survey should take less than 10 minutes to complete.
Contributions are possible until December 1, 2025.
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