Soil biodiversity data: Actual and potential use in European and national legislation

• Existing legal requirements for soil biodiversity monitoring in the EU are listed.
• Examples for using soil biodiversity in soil protection policies are provided.
• Further applications of soil biodiversity monitoring in EU legislation are identified.
• Important issues of soil biodiversity monitoring are highlighted.

In the EU-FP7 project EcoFINDERS 81 sites located across Europe were sampled in a standardized way in order to determine and evaluate the local soil biodiversity and associated ecosystem function. The results of this sampling activity give a broad overview on the structure and functions of soil biological communities at European arable, grassland and forest sites. Probably more importantly, a set of indicators (i.e., organism groups and measurement endpoints) were identified, fulfilling criteria such as ecological relevance, practicability, or cost efficiency. In this contribution we want to address two issues: firstly, we review current legalization in the European Union and selected member states that relates to monitoring of soil biodiversity as well as selected individual Member States. Secondly, we discuss which legal tools could benefit from applying the set of soil biology indicators identified in the EcoFINDERS project. Since the withdrawal of the proposed Soil Framework Directive in 2014 there is no common legal approach on how to protect soils – and specifically its ecological functions – in Europe. However, assuming that such a general framework will be in shape in the foreseeable future, we will discuss how the new knowledge of soil biodiversity and in particular its monitoring as identified in the EcoFINDERS project would fit into such a potential legal approach.