MOSYSS Project - Monitoring SYstem of Soils at multiScale. Monitoring system of physical, chemical and biological soil parameters in relation to forest and agricultural land management.

Abstract

MOSYSS is a project launched in June 2010 by the Agriculture, Forestation and Fisheries Department of the Marche Region in Italy. It has been coordinated by the Regional Soil Observatory as part of the assessment activities of the Rural Development Plan (RDP) Marche 2007-2013 as laid down in the Common Monitoring and Assessment Framework. Among the objectives there is the creation of a permanent soil monitoring system for the whole Marche territory, combining technical and scientific requirements (e.g. rigor and representativeness) whilst optimizing financial and organizational resources. The information obtainable from the monitoring system could potentially be upscale, on a functional basis, in other existing soil and biodiversity monitoring networks at national and European level. The main function of the project is to investigate soils starting from their intrinsic properties ( e.g. chemical, physical or biological) to obtain a detailed evaluation of their current "quality" status, and to monitor, over time, changes in these parameters by repeating the monitoring campaign at pre-established time intervals.