Managing Mediterranean soil resources under global change: expected trends and mitigation strategies

The soils of the Mediterranean basin are the products of soil processes that have beengoverned by a unique convergence of highly differentiated natural and anthropogenicdrivers. These soils are expected to be dramatically affected by future climate andsocietal changes. These changes imply that suitable adaptive management strategiesfor these resources cannot simply be transposed from experiments that are performedin other regions of the world.Following a framework that considers the chain of "drivers - soil process - soil capital -Ecosystem Services/Disservices" the paper review the research undertaken in theMediterranean area on three types of Mediterranean soil degradation than can beexpected under Global Change i) soil losses due to the increase of drought andtorrential rainfall, ii) soil salinization due the increase of droughts, irrigation and sealevel and iii) soil carbon stocks depletion with the increase of temperature anddroughts. The possible strategies for mitigating each of these degradations have been largely addressed and are still studied in current research projects. They shouldinclude changes in agricultural practices, soil-water management and vegetal material.As a pre-requisite for the site-specific adaptations of such mitigation strategies withinviable Mediterranean agro-systems, it is highlighted that methodological advances arenecessary in integrated assessment of agricultural systems and in finer resolution soilmapping.JRC.D.3-Land Resource