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BioSoil project - soil component set-up
BioSoil is a demonstration project, part of the programme of the International Cooperative Programme on the Assessment and Monitoring of Air Pollution Effects on Forests (ICP Forests). The project will be a test for the development of operational soil monitoring at a large scale. In order to achieve the required objectives of the soil component of this project, the following main requirements have been implemented. Soil samplingThe basis for the BioSoil implementation is in principle the current version (updated 6/2003) of the ICP Forests manual:  ICP manual on methods and criteria for harmonised sampling, assessment, monitoring and analysis of the effects of air pollution on forests (External PDF-1560K)
The sampling strategy adopted for this project will include all sites of the 16 km by 16 km Level I network of the EU Member States which participate in the project. Measurements and analyses Measurements and analyses performed on BioSoil plots include all parameters (mandatory and optional parameters according to the ICP Forests soil manual) for organic soil horizons and the mineral soil layers 0 to 10 cm, 10 to 20 cm, 20 to 40 cm and 40 to 80 cm according to the revised manual of procedures. Analyses will be performed at National level by laboratories that performed well in interlaboratory comparison exercises following the analytical procedures described in the manual. A subset of the samples from benchmark BioSoil plots (corresponding to ca. 10% to 15% of the total sites) are being analysed in parallel by a central laboratory. The central and the national laboratories will participate in future interlaboratory comparison exercises organised within the framework of this project. Soil profileFollowing the ICP Forests soil manual, a full soil profile description according to the FAO guidelines (1990) and classified according to the World Reference Base WRB (1998) shall be provided. This pedological information will be centrally stored in a newly developed soil profile database.
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