• The NEIKER technology centre has presented the initial findings from the LURNET regional monitoring network, which comprises 400 monitoring points 

• During the technical conference, the latest developments, tools and active monitoring networks aimed at preserving this strategic resource in the Basque Country were presented 

• The event forms part of the European Union’s Green Week, aimed at raising awareness of EU environmental policies and initiatives relating to soil

 

With 60% of European land degraded – according to the EU Soil Observatory (EUSO) – and following the recent adoption of European legislation on soil monitoring, the protection of soil health has become a cornerstone of agri-food sustainability and climate change mitigation. Within this framework, the NEIKER technology centre, an entity under the Basque Government’s Department of Food, Rural Development, Agriculture and Fisheries, held a technical conference this morning at its headquarters in Arkaute (Álava) aimed at highlighting the progress, tools and active monitoring networks in place to preserve this strategic resource in the Basque Country.

This event took place as part of the European Union’s Green Week, an annual campaign focused on raising awareness of EU environmental policies and initiatives. On this occasion, the event brought together a wide range of stakeholders working with or around soils, from farmers to public policy makers.

The opening session featured a speech by the Director General of NEIKER, Olatz Unamunzaga, who outlined the current regulatory framework and noted that “the protection and restoration of soil resources are directly aligned with the conservation strategies of the European Union and the Basque Country, as well as with the new Soil Monitoring and Resilience Directive”.

Management monitoring and evaluation networks

In response to these regulatory guidelines, researchers Ainara Artetxe and Mercedes Román from the centre have presented the initial findings of the LURNET network. This initiative, led by NEIKER, systematically assesses the physical, chemical and biological properties of the soil using a stratified randomised design — based on climatic, edaphic and landscape covariates — which defines nine soil units and incorporates 400 sampling points.

Although the pilot sampling covers just one-sixth of the final network, the results obtained are already revealing. As regards soil health, the concentration of organic carbon is below the targets set by the European directive, a finding that was to be expected given that the study covers exclusively agricultural land and vineyards. However, the biological indicators offer a very positive outlook: Basque soils exhibit high microbial richness, with clearly differentiated interaction patterns between vineyards and arable crops. Finally, the most significant finding relates to chemical safety: all heavy metals are below risk thresholds, and the 24 varieties of PFAS or highly persistent substances analysed are undetectable in all samples.

The analysis has also been scaled down to the local level to measure the direct impact of specific agricultural practices. In this section, NEIKER researcher Ana Aizpurua has demonstrated that spontaneous ground cover in Rioja Alavesa vineyards reduces erosion and increases organic matter after five years of maintenance, whilst Haritz Arriaga has broken down the effects of cereal and legume rotations under organic and conventional systems evaluated between 2023 and 2025.

For her part, Nerea Mandaluniz, a researcher in the technology centre’s Department of Animal Science, presented evidence on regenerative grazing in dairy sheep—a line of research launched in 2013 that has demonstrated improvements in grass production, microbial activity, carbon sequestration and water retention.

In this vein, in the forestry sector, Ander Arias, head of NEIKER’s Forest Science Department, demonstrated the effectiveness of a rapid and cost-effective visual assessment methodology for accurately characterising the physical and nutritional disturbances caused by incorrect operations in intensively managed plantations.

 

Digital solutions

Technology transfer took centre stage in the second half of the event with the presentation of “Soil Health Viewer”, a digital platform developed as part of the European AI4SoilHealth project. “This tool combines artificial intelligence and soil indicators to predict changes in soil health, and aims to facilitate decision-making geared towards more sustainable management,” emphasised Lur Epelde, a researcher at NEIKER. In this vein, the session allowed the audience to offer suggestions for adapting the software to the real needs of the agricultural sector.

In addition, the event included a field demonstration of alternative methods that avoid the need for laboratory analysis. Specifically, the session showcased the use of mobile apps to measure aggregate stability, microbial biomass kits and echoacoustic microphones to analyse fauna, as well as other solutions linked to the LURZAIN participatory science platform.

The event, organised in collaboration with HAZI, facilitated the exchange of knowledge within the agricultural sector to advance the conservation of soil health in the Basque Country and to support decision-making aimed at its restoration, based on sound scientific knowledge.