Helping stakeholders select and apply appraisal tools to mitigate soil threats: Researchers' experiences from across Europe.

Soil improvement measures need to be ecologically credible, socially acceptable and economically affordable if they are to enter widespread use. However, in real world decision contexts not all measures can sufficiently meet these criteria. As such, developing, selecting and using appropriate tools to support more systematic appraisal of soil improvement measures in different decision-making contexts represents an important challenge. Tools differ in their aims, ranging from those focused on appraising issues of cost-effectiveness, wider ecosystem services impacts and adoption barriers/opportunities, to those seeking to foster participatory engagement and social learning. Despite the growing complexity of the decision-support tool landscape, comprehensive guidance for selecting tools that are best suited to appraise soil improvement measures, as well as those well-adapted to enable participatory deployment, has generally been lacking. We address this gap using the experience and survey data from an EU-funded project (RECARE: Preventing and REmediating degradation of soils in Europe through land CARE). RECARE applied different socio-cultural, biophysical and monetary appraisal tools to assess the costs, benefits and adoption of soil improvement measures across Europe. We focused on these appraisal tools and evaluated their performance against three broad attributes that gauge their differences and suitability for widespread deployment to aid stakeholder decision making in soil management. Data were collected using an online questionnaire administered to RECARE researchers. Although some tools worked better than others across case studies, the information collated was used to provide guiding strategies for choosing appropriate tools, considering resources and data availability, characterisation of uncertainty, and the purpose for which a specific soil improvement measure is being developed or promoted. This paper provides insights to others working in practical soil improvement contexts as to why getting the tools right matters. It demonstrates how use of the right tools can add value to decision-making in ameliorating soil threats, supporting the sustainable management of the services that our soil ecosystems provide.

Concentration- and time-dependent effects of isothiocyanates produced from Brassicaceae shoot tissues on the pea root rot pathogen Aphanomyces euteiches.

Isothiocyanates (ITCs) hydrolyzed from glucosinolates (GSLs) in Brassicaceae tissue are toxic to soil organisms. In this study, the effect of aliphatic and aromatic ITCs from hydrated dry Brassicaceae shoot tissues on the mycelium and oospores of the pea root rot pathogen Aphanomyces euteiches was investigated. The profile and concentrations of GSLs in two test Brassicaceae species, Sinapis alba and Brassica juncea, and the ITCs from the dominant hydrolyzed parent GSLs were monitored. The concentrations of dominant ITCs and pathogen exposure time were evaluated in in vitro experiments. The greatest effect on the pathogen was observed from aliphatic ITCs hydrolyzed from B. juncea tissue, and the effect depended on the ITC concentration and exposure time. ITCs were more effectively hydrolyzed from B. juncea GSLs than from S. alba GSLs; i.e., the ITC/GSL ratio was higher in B. juncea than in S. alba tissue, giving a different release pattern. The release of phenylethyl isothiocyanate, which was common to both species, followed a pattern similar to that of the dominant ITC in each crop species. This suggests that traits other than GSL content, e.g., plant cell structure, may affect the release of ITCs and should therefore influence the choice of species used for biofumigation purposes.