The ecosystem service (ES) approach usually addresses soil erosion as the regulating service control of erosion rates or soil retention. In addition to the assessment of this regulating ES, mitigated impacts on soil-related ES by preventing soil erosion can be assessed. This study presents a scenario-based approach for the assessment of the impact of soil erosion on soil-related ES. The assessment approach was tested in agricultural landscapes in Northern Germany, combining mapping and assessment of soil-related ES. In six scenarios, the degradation of soils due to soil erosion was simulated by the calculation of soil profile reductions. The scenarios represent two levels of impact with three time steps (+50, +100, +150 years). In the scenarios for the structural impact, the potential soil erosion rates were extrapolated into the future to generate spatially explicit information on degraded soils. In the scenarios for the mitigated impact, the actual soil erosion rates were extrapolated. Four soil-related ES were assessed for the initial state and the scenarios crop provision, water filtration, water flow regulation and fresh water provision. The comparison of the potential service supply of the four soil-related ES in the scenarios enabled the assessment of the long-term effect of the ES control of erosion rates. The mitigated reduction in the potential service supply for three of the considered ES (crop provision, water filtration, water flow regulation) is large and highlights the importance of sustainable soil management. Contrary to this, the ES fresh water provision benefits of erosion-induced soil profile reductions.

The European Union (EU) Horizon 2020 Coordination and Support Action ESMERALDA aimed at developing guidance and a flexible methodology for Mapping and Assessment of Ecosystems and their Services (MAES) to support the EU member states in the implementation of the EU Biodiversity Strategy’s Target 2 Action 5. ESMERALDA’s key tasks included network creation, stakeholder engagement, enhancing ecosystem services mapping and assessment methods across various spatial scales and value domains, work in case studies and support of EU member states in MAES implementation. Thus ESMERALDA aimed at integrating various project outcomes around four major strands: i) Networking, ii) Policy, iii) Research and iv) Application. The objective was to provide guidance for integrated ecosystem service mapping and assessment that can be used for sustainable decision-making in policy, business, society, practice and science at EU, national and regional levels. This article presents the overall ESMERALDA approach of integrating the above-mentioned project components and outcomes and provides an overview of how the enhanced methods were applied and how they can be used to support MAES implementation in the EU member states. Experiences with implementing such a large pan-European Coordination and Support Action in the context of EU policy are discussed and recommendations for future actions are given.

Rainfall erosivity exhibits a high spatiotemporal variability. Rain gauges are not capable of detecting small-scale erosive rainfall events comprehensively. Nonetheless, many operational instruments for assessing soil erosion risk, such as the erosion atlas used in the state of Hesse in Germany, are still based on spatially interpolated rain gauge data and regression equations derived in the 1980s to estimate rainfall erosivity. Radar-based quantitative precipitation estimates with high spatiotemporal resolution are capable of mapping erosive rainfall comprehensively. In this study, radar climatology data with a spatiotemporal resolution of 1 km² and 5 min are used alongside rain gauge data to compare erosivity estimation methods used in erosion control practice. The aim is to assess the impacts of methodology, climate change and input data resolution, quality and spatial extent on the R-factor of the Universal Soil Loss Equation (USLE). Our results clearly show that R-factors have increased significantly due to climate change and that current R-factor maps need to be updated by using more recent and spatially distributed rainfall data. Radar climatology data show a high potential to improve rainfall erosivity estimations, but uncertainties regarding data quality and a need for further research on data correction approaches are becoming evident.

Soils, just like all other ecosystem compartments, change over time and, consequently, conditions for soil‐inhabiting organisms are also changing, affecting their composition and diversity. Soil biodiversity is a critical component of ecosystems that supports many essential ecosystem functions and services, such as nutrient cycling, carbon sequestration, water regulation and biomass production for food, fodder, fibre and energy. However, and despite the importance of soil biodiversity for ecosystem health and human well‐being, neither current state, drivers, potential consequences for ecosystem services nor options for sustainable governance of soil biodiversity are well understood. Here, we provide a framework for and argue that conducting a national assessment of soil biodiversity, albeit being a complex endeavour, is fundamental to building a baseline to understand the current state and trends of soil biodiversity, but also to identify the main drivers of change, the impacts of soil biodiversity loss and the potential pathways for conservation and sustainable governance of soil biodiversity.

Ecosystems provide multiple services that are necessary to maintain human life. Agroecosystems are very productive suppliers of biomass-related provisioning ecosystem services, e.g. food, fibre, and energy. At the same time, they are highly dependent on good ecosystem condition and regulating ecosystem services such as soil fertility, water supply or soil erosion regulation. Assessments of this interplay of ecosystem condition and services are needed to understand the relationships in highly managed systems. Therefore, the aim of this study is twofold: First, to test the concept and indicators proposed by the European Union Working Group on Mapping and Assessment of Ecosystems and their Services (MAES) for assessing agroecosystem condition at a regional level. Second, to identify the relationships between ecosystem condition and the delivery of ecosystem services. For this purpose, we applied an operational framework for integrated mapping and assessment of ecosystems and their services. We used the proposed indicators to assess the condition of agroecosystems in Northern Germany and regulating ecosystem service control of erosion rates. We used existing data from official databases to calculate the different indicators and created maps of environmental pressures, ecosystem condition and ecosystem service indicators for the Federal State of Lower Saxony. Furthermore, we identified areas within the state where pressures are high, conditions are unfavourable, and more sustainable management practices are needed. Despite the limitations of the indicators and data availability, our results show positive, negative, and no significant correlations between the different pressures and condition indicators, and the control of erosion rates. The idea behind the MAES framework is to indicate the general condition of an ecosystem. However, we observed that not all proposed indicators can explain to what extent ecosystems can provide specific ecosystem services. Further research on other ecosystem services provided by agroecosystems would help to identify synergies and trade-offs. Moreover, the definition of a reference condition, although complicated for anthropogenically highly modified agroecosystems, would provide a benchmark to compare information on the condition of the ecosystems, leading to better land use policy and management decisions.