Soil quality index (SQI) can be an effective parameter to evaluate soil quality based on plant growth and ecosystem services at a large scale. According to the European Commission, around 60%–70% of the European soil is not healthy due to degradation and rapid conversion of land uses; however, detailed studies on soil quality according to different land uses in the entire Europe are very limited. We aimed to develop an SQI using the Land Use and Coverage Area Frame Survey (LUCAS) database for the existing croplands (230 samples), grasslands (53 samples), and woodlands (36 samples) to evaluate the overall soil quality across the continent. A total of five soil variables (sand, organic carbon, electrical conductivity, bacteria, and fungi) were selected for the minimum dataset based on principal component analysis from all 13 variables to avoid redundancy. The relationship between the developed SQI and climatic variables (precipitation and temperature) was also analyzed. We found that croplands had higher SQI (0.45 ± 0.09) than grasslands (0.44 ± 0.09) and woodlands (0.43 ± 0.1), with no significant differences among the land uses (p > 0.05). The spatial analysis revealed higher SQI (> 0.46) in the central part of the EU and lower (< 0.46) in the northern and southwestern EU. The sub‐categorical assessment of land uses showed that broadleaved and mixed woodland had better soil quality than the coniferous counterparts. The SQI showed a weak relationship with precipitation and temperature in all land uses, and it differs depending on climatic zones. Our findings also suggested that the agricultural management practices in cropland and better soil quality in grassland might buffer the influences of short‐term variations in temperature and precipitation. We conclude that this EU‐scale study of SQI provides a clear view of the soil quality status, which can also be effective for the policymakers to adopt sustainable management practices for improving soil quality.

中文翻译：

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根据欧洲不同土地利用系统的土壤质量指数


土壤质量指数 （SQI） 可以成为基于植物生长和生态系统服务大规模评估土壤质量的有效参数。根据欧盟委员会的数据，由于土地用途的退化和快速转换，大约 60%-70% 的欧洲土壤不健康;然而，根据整个欧洲的不同土地用途对土壤质量进行的详细研究非常有限。我们的目标是使用土地利用和覆盖面积框架调查 （LUCAS） 数据库为现有农田（230 个样本）、草原（53 个样本）和林地（36 个样本）开发 SQI，以评估整个大陆的整体土壤质量。根据所有 13 个变量的主成分分析，总共选择了 5 个土壤变量（沙子、有机碳、电导率、细菌和真菌）作为最小数据集，以避免冗余。还分析了开发的 SQI 与气候变量 （降水和温度） 之间的关系。我们发现，农田的 SQI （0.45 ± 0.09） 高于草地 （0.44 ± 0.09） 和林地 （0.43 ± 0.1），土地利用之间没有显著差异 （p > 0.05）。空间分析显示，欧盟中部的SQI较高（> 0.46），而欧盟北部和西南部的SQI较低（< 0.46）。土地利用的次分类评估表明，阔叶林地和混交林地的土壤质量优于针叶林。在所有土地利用中，SQI 与降水和温度的关系较弱，并且因气候带而异。我们的研究结果还表明，农田的农业经营实践和草地土壤质量的改善可能会缓冲温度和降水短期变化的影响。 我们得出的结论是，这项欧盟规模的 SQI 研究提供了土壤质量状况的清晰视图，这也有助于政策制定者采用可持续管理实践来改善土壤质量。