Key messages on forest soils for multiple audiences
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.
3. Forest management impacts soil health
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.
4. Advanced forest soil monitoring is needed
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.
Results and resources
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.
