MOSYSS Project - Monitoring SYstem of Soils at multiScale : monitoring system of physical, chemical and biological soil parameters in relation to forest and agricultural land management

MOSYSS is a project launched in June 2010 by the Agriculture, Forest and Fisheries Department [Servizio Agricoltura Forestazione e Pesca] of the Marche Region in Italy. It has been coordinated by the Regional Soil Observatory [Osservatorio Regionale Suoli] as part of the assessment activities of the Rural Development Plan (RDP) Marche 2007-2013 [Piano di Sviluppo Rurale - PSR] as described in the Common Monitoring and Assessment Framework [Quadro Comune di Monitoraggio e valutazione - QCMV]. Among the objectives is the creation of a permanent soil monitoring system for the whole Marche territory, combining technical and scientific requirements (e.g. rigour and representativeness) while at the same time optimising financial and organisational resources. The information obtainable from the monitoring system could potentially be upscaled, on a functional basis, to other existing soil and biodiversity monitoring networks at national and EU level. The main function of the project is to investigate soils starting from their intrinsic properties (e.g. chemical, physical or biological) in order to obtain a detailed evaluation of their current "quality" status, and to monitor, over time, changes in these parameters by repeating the monitoring campaign at pre-established time intervals.