Soil stores the largest terrestrial pool of organic carbon (C), and can act as a source and/or filter for water pollutants like nitrogen (N), phosphorus (P), and suspended solids (SS). Fine soil particles (clays, Fe, Al and Mn (hydr)oxides, carbonates) play a crucial role in the stability of carbon and nutrients in soil. Previous studies have found that even a few decades of increased drainage, due to subsurface drainage installation, can substantially change the proportion and composition of fine soil particles closest to the drain. This raises questions regarding increased precipitation, and thus increased soil water flux, effects on the mineral composition and C and nutrient stability in soil. By studying soils on a water flux gradient perpendicular to subsurface drainage pipes, the IDESoWa project will calculate soil element fluxes within soil, and their losses with drainage water. It will determine relationships between between drainage water chemistry and soil properties. By jointly analysing published literature, weather records, precipitation chemistry, drain flow quantity, and soil and drainage water properties, the IDESoWa project will develop a conceptual framework for soil development in two common European agricultural soils (Cambisol and Luvisol), and under two agricultural practices (tilled soil vs. pasture).

The NORDBALT-ECOSAFE project involves eight partners in the Nordic-Baltic region and includes seven work packages and a cross-cutting issue on climate change. The project aims to develop new standards for setting safe ecological boundaries in water bodies and novel nutrient regulations using models, mitigation and policy tools and governance schemes. We will make an in-depth assessment of nutrient reference conditions and establish harmonised safe ecological boundaries for various biological indicators in water bodies, including climate change impacts. We will apply a state-of-the-art catchment model (SWAT+) to the project’s six river basins to demonstrate to stakeholders how to estimate nutrient concentrations, loads, sources and pathways, followed by a comparison of our findings with existing national models to assess model credibility. The water body status after adoption of the new ecological boundaries will be investigated using the SWAT+ output and an analysis of a large-scale river dataset on the entire Nordic-Baltic region. In NORDBALT-ECOSAFE we will produce guidance for the use of high frequency sensors in nutrient monitoring and their pros and cons compared to standard monitoring techniques. An analysis of trends in river stoichiometry (CNP) in the region will be made and the outcome compared with that of historical policies. We will develop novel indicators for balancing GHG emissions with nutrient loadings to water bodies and a framework for novel nature-based solutions (NBSs) and mitigation measures (MMs), including guidance for optimum efficiency for nutrient reduction and side effects. Finally, a River Basin Management Support System for implementing NBSs and MMs in river basins to meet nutrient reduction targets will be developed and demonstrated. Stakeholders and policy makers will be involved at all project stages.

Honeybees are important pollinators and support various important ecosystems with their ecological services. Rapid anthropogenic changes cause disruptive disturbances of their habitats which are currently endangering honeybee colonies around the world and incurring an immense financial toll. We aim to help the bees in coping with these adverse environmental factors by establishing technologies in and around a futuristic honeybee colony that allow the colony to perform well in very challenging environments, for example within high-precision farming, including monocultural agriculture involving pesticide, within smart cities of the future and within highly industrialized areas. We aim to make technologies available to honeybees that are naturally inaccessible for them (internet, databases, satellite data, robots...) and to feed information collected by bees through these channels back to humans and other hives. This collection of hives, technologies and humans is called HIVEOPOLIS in our concept. HIVEOPOLIS technology will be integrated in a way that it provides a synergistic added value to the colony, to its owner and to society in general. It will be sustainable from the ecological point of view and also from the intellectual point of view (open software, open hardware, open data, citizen scientists). Our society will benefit from the pollination services and other bee-derived services and products, in a more stable and controllable way, even in harsher ecological conditions of the future. The emphasis on community-forming activities of the project will bring together makers, beekeepers, farmers, programmers, environmentalists, educators and many other stakeholders. Ultimately, HIVEOPOLIS will bring honeybee societies into a new future and will integrate them into the hearts of our own future smart cities.

Oper8 will set-up a self-sustainable, multi-actor, EU-wide Thematic Network to support and promote solutions for non-chemical weed control by building upon the knowledge and outcomes of 8 Operational Groups 7 countries, and stimulate knowledge exchange among all relevant actors and stakeholders. With the ambition to achieve a high impact and improve the sustainability of the European agricultural sector, the synthesis of partner OGs is based on their expertise, geographical location, novelty of solutions, as well as the established connections with the AKIS actors. Special emphasis has been placed on collaboration schemes among these OGs that progress at a different pace providing the opportunity to learn from the ‘early birds’, which will bring hands-on experience. The project will follow a multi-actor approach, implement a bottom up and top down model and build upon co-creation & cross fertilisation activities to help farmers access up-to-date knowledge, tools and techniques, applicable to specific conditions and needs.To this end, Oper8 will: (i) establish a stakeholder engagement processes to assemble the 7 National Networks (NNs); (ii) capture the drivers, barriers, and root causes of lack of non-chemical weed control adoption as part of a bottom-up approach; (iii) establish cross-fertilisation activities within and between the NNs to co-create, showcase, and evaluate non-chemical weed control methods; and (iv) deploy knowledge transfer tools and techniques (workshops, demo farms, CAP Measures) to adapt and scale up alternative weed control solutions and ensure their diffusion across EU. A series of actions (e.g., demonstration activities, policy recommendations and training sessions) for integrating project results into the CAP National strategic plans will be implemented, strengthening the AKIS and, ultimately, paving the way towards a transition to a sustainable agriculture in adherence to the Green Deal and its Farm to Fork strategy.