Physical soil quality indicators for monitoring British soils

The condition or quality of soils determines its ability to deliver a range of functions that support ecosystem services, human health and wellbeing. The increasing policy imperative to implement successful soil monitoring programmes has resulted in the demand for reliable soil quality indicators (SQIs) for physical, biological and chemical soil properties. The selection of these indicators needs to ensure that they are sensitive and responsive to pressure and change e.g. they change across space and time in relation to natural perturbations and land management practices. Using a logical sieve approach based on key policy-related soil functions, this research assessed whether physical soil properties can be used to indicate the quality of British soils in terms of its capacity to deliver ecosystem goods and services. The resultant prioritised list of physical SQIs were tested for robustness, spatial and temporal variability and expected rate of change using statistical analysis and modelling. Six SQIs were prioritised; packing density, soil water retention characteristics, aggregate stability, rate of erosion, depth of soil and soil sealing. These all have direct relevance to current and likely future soil and environmental policy and are appropriate for implementation in soil monitoring programs

Segmenting consumers of meat and dairy products from five European countries: Implications for promoting sustainable food choices

Accelerating the transition of agri-food systems towards higher sustainability requires greater understanding of consumers’ decision-making related to sustainable food choices, together with competing drivers which may result in unsustainable food choice demand. Meat and dairy production systems negatively contribute to greenhouse gas targets, unless sustainable production methods are applied, and these are understood by consumers and used in food choices. The psychological factors determining consumers’ attitudes towards sustainably produced meat and dairy products were assessed. Data were collected through an online survey across five European countries (Czechia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, and the United Kingdom) (n = 2,490) in November 2021. The results showed consumers perceived food sustainability to be less important than sensory and healthiness attributes. UK consumers showed the strongest intentions to increase consumption of sustainably produced meat and dairy products. In contrast, Swiss consumers demonstrated the weakest intentions. A twostage cluster analysis based on consumers’ perceived attribute importance identified four distinct segments: low food involvement (19.6%), high food involvement (31.9%), price-sensitive (23.2%), and health- and sustainability-involved (25.3%) consumer segments. Respondents in low food involvement and price-sensitive consumer segments tended to be younger and have lower environmental preservation attitudes and were more prevalent in Switzerland and Czechia. Those in high food involvement and health- and sustainability-involved consumer segments perceived higher importance of food sustainability and were more prevalent in Spain and Sweden. These respondents expressed greater intentions to increase consumption of sustainably produced meat and dairy products, at the same time being more likely to recognise the utility of sustainability labelling information. Animal welfare information was perceived to be most important for respondents in all the segments with the exception of those in the price-sensitive consumer segment. Building on the results, recommendations for promoting consumer sustainable food choices are propose

Use of late-night salivary cortisol to monitor response to medical treatment in Cushing’s disease

Objective Monitoring of patients with Cushing’s disease on cortisol-lowering drugs is usually performed with urinary free cortisol (UFC). Late-night salivary cortisol (LNSC) has an established role in screening for hypercortisolism and can help to detect the loss of cortisol circadian rhythm. Less evidence exists regarding the usefulness of LNSC in monitoring pharmacological response in Cushing’s disease. Design Exploratory analysis evaluating LNSC during a Phase III study of long-acting pasireotide in Cushing’s disease (clinicaltrials.gov: NCT01374906). Methods Mean LNSC (mLNSC) was calculated from two samples, collected on the same days as the first two of three 24-h urine samples (used to calculate mean UFC [mUFC]). Clinical signs of hypercortisolism were evaluated over time. Results At baseline, 137 patients had evaluable mLNSC measurements; 91.2% had mLNSC exceeding the upper limit of normal (ULN; 3.2 nmol/L). Of patients with evaluable assessments at month 12 (n = 92), 17.4% had both mLNSC ≤ULN and mUFC ≤ULN; 22.8% had mLNSC ≤ULN, and 45.7% had mUFC ≤ULN. There was high variability in LNSC (intra-patient coefficient of variation (CV): 49.4%) and UFC (intra-patient CV: 39.2%). mLNSC levels decreased over 12 months of treatment and paralleled changes in mUFC. Moderate correlation was seen between mLNSC and mUFC (Spearman’s correlation: ρ = 0.50 [all time points pooled]). Greater improvements in systolic/diastolic blood pressure and weight were seen in patients with both mLNSC ≤ULN and mUFC ≤ULN. Conclusion mUFC and mLNSC are complementary measurements for monitoring treatment response in Cushing’s disease, with better clinical outcomes seen for patients in whom both mUFC and mLNSC are controlled

A method-centric 'User Manual' for the mitigation of diffuse water pollution from agriculture

We describe the development of a manual of methods for mitigating diffuse water pollution from agriculture and its important influence on policy and practice in England and Wales. The objective of the ‘User Manual’ was to provide policy makers and those implementing policies with information about the cost, effectiveness and applicability of potential methods in a form that would be readily understood by non-specialists. The ‘User Manual’ was based on earlier reports synthesizing available research data and, where data were unavailable, used expert elicitation. The outcome generated 44 potential methods (under the broad categories of land use, soil management, livestock management, fertilizer management, manure management and farm infrastructure) and described the simultaneous impact of applying each method on losses of nitrate, phosphorus and faecal indicator organisms relative to baseline losses. Estimates of cost and effectiveness were presented at the whole-farm level for seven model farm types. Methods differed widely in their cost-effectiveness and applicability to the different model farms. Advantages and limitations of the approach are discussed and subsequent developments of the original ‘User Manual’ are described, together with the opinions of catchment officers who have used the ‘User Manual’ to implement mitigation methods on farms

European Permanent Grasslands: A Systematic Review of Economic Drivers of Change, Including a Detailed Analysis of the Czech Republic, Spain, Sweden, and UK

\ua9 2024 by the authors. Permanent grasslands (PG) feature in the European rural landscape and represent a major agricultural production resource. They support multiple non-provisioning ecosystem services (ES), including climate regulation, flood control, biodiversity, and pollination. PG are at risk of loss or degradation due to agricultural land use and land management changes. The objective of this systematic review is to identify the main economic influences shaping management and maintenance of PG, and the risks and opportunities for delivery of a range of ES. A total of 51 papers were included. Relevant policy interventions and economic drivers are identified in relation to how they shape the management of EU grasslands over time and across farming systems, countries, or biogeographic zones. A high reliance on public payments from the EU Common Agricultural Policy (CAP), with uneven impact on mitigating PG losses and associated ES provisions, was identified, which needs to be considered in relation to ongoing CAP reform. There is a gap in the literature regarding economic tipping points for change. Future research needs to identify and map ES provisions by PG along with trade-offs and synergies, and link this to policy. There are substantive challenges to maintaining Europe’s PG area and management, which must be addressed through EU-wide instruments

Home administration of lanreotide Autogel® by patients with acromegaly, or their partners, is safe and effective

Summary. Objective The introduction of ready-to-use lanreotide Autogel® has presented the possibility of patients receiving their acromegaly treatment at home. The objective of this study was to assess the ability of patients (or their partners) to administer repeat, unsupervised, injections of lanreotide Autogel without compromising efficacy or safety. Design Multicentre (10 UK regional endocrine centres), open-label, nonrandomised, controlled study. Patients elected either to receive/administer unsupervised home injections after injection technique training (Test group) or continued to receive injections from a healthcare professional (Control group). Patients received monthly injections of lanreotide Autogel® at their established dose. Effects were monitored for up to 40 weeks. Patients Thirty patients (15 per treatment group) with acromegaly treated with a stable dose of lanreotide Autogel® (60, 90 or 120 mg) for ≥ 4 months before screening. Measurements The main outcome measure was the proportion of patients/partners who successfully administered injections throughout the study. Results All Test group patients/partners qualified to administer injections. Fourteen of 15 patients fulfilled all criteria for successful administration of unsupervised injections (95% confidence interval, 70%–99%). Fourteen of 15 Test and 14/15 Control patients maintained growth hormone and IGF-1 control. Local injection tolerability was good for both treatment groups, and safety profiles were similar. All Test group patients continued with unsupervised injections after the study. Conclusions Patients with acromegaly or their partners were able to administer lanreotide Autogel® injections with no detrimental effect on efficacy and safety; therefore, unsupervised home injections are a viable alternative to healthcare professional injections for suitably motivated patients

Consumers across five European countries prioritise animal welfare above environmental sustainability when buying meat and dairy products

Food production systems, especially meat and dairy supply chains, contribute to greenhouse gas emissions. An important question emerges as to whether consumers care about environmental sustainability when buying food products, as this can determine their consumption practices. Further, if sustainability labels are available, identifying information that is relevant to consumers is important. This research therefore aimed to identify the attributes that are most important for consumers when buying meat or dairy products and the perceived helpfulness of sustainability labels for meat and dairy products and important label properties. An online survey was conducted in five European countries (i.e. Czechia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, and the UK). Consumers valued similar attributes when buying meat and dairy products across all countries. Freshness, quality/taste and animal welfare emerged as the most important attributes, while environmental attributes such as food miles, carbon footprint, and organic production were the least important. Sustainability labels for meat and dairy products were perceived as helpful. Regression analysis identified similar patterns within all five countries regarding the predictors of the perceived helpfulness of sustainability labels. Attitudes towards sustainable food consumption, environmental attitudes, and food production and policies emerged as significant positive predictors in most models. Most importantly, information regarding animal welfare, food safety, and health and nutrition was perceived as being more important than environmental sustainability. This suggests that food choice decisions are unlikely to be made based on the environmental sustainability of a food product’s production alone

Indicators of soil quality - Physical properties (SP1611). Final report to Defra

The condition of soil determines its ability to carry out diverse and essential functions that support human health and wellbeing. These functions (or ecosystem goods and services) include producing food, storing water, carbon and nutrients, protecting our buried cultural heritage and providing a habitat for flora and fauna. Therefore, it is important to know the condition or quality of soil and how this changes over space and time in response to natural factors (such as changing weather patterns) or to land management practices. Meaningful soil quality indicators (SQIs), based on physical, biological or chemical soil properties are needed for the successful implementation of a soil monitoring programme in England and Wales. Soil monitoring can provide decision makers with important data to target, implement and evaluate policies aimed at safeguarding UK soil resources. Indeed, the absence of agreed and well-defined SQIs is likely to be a barrier to the development of soil protection policy and its subsequent implementation. This project assessed whether physical soil properties can be used to indicate the quality of soil in terms of its capacity to deliver ecosystem goods and services. The 22 direct (e.g. bulk density) and 4 indirect (e.g. catchment hydrograph) physical SQIs defined by Loveland and Thompson (2002) and subsequently evaluated by Merrington et al. (2006), were re-visited in the light of new scientific evidence, recent policy drivers and developments in sampling techniques and monitoring methodologies (Work Package 1). The culmination of these efforts resulted in 38 direct and 4 indirect soil physical properties being identified as potential SQIs. Based on the gathered evidence, a ‘logical sieve’ was used to assess the relative strengths, weaknesses and suitability of each potential physical SQI for national scale soil monitoring. Each soil physical property was scored in terms of: soil function – does the candidate SQI reflect all soil function(s)? land use - does the candidate SQI apply to all land uses found nationally? soil degradation - can the candidate SQI express soil degradation processes? does the candidate SQI meet the challenge criteria used by Merrington et al. (2006)?This approach enabled a consistent synthesis of available information and the semi-objective, semi-quantitative and transparent assessment of indicators against a series of scientific and technical criteria (Ritz et al., 2009; Black et al., 2008). The logical sieve was shown to be a flexible decision-support tool to assist a range of stakeholders with different agenda in formulating a prioritised list of potential physical SQIs. This was explored further by members of the soil science and soils policy community at a project workshop. By emphasising the current key policy-related soil functions (i.e. provisioning and regulating), the logical sieve was used to generate scores which were then ranked to identify the most qualified SQIs. The process selected 18 candidate physical SQIs. This list was further filtered to move from the ‘narrative’ to a more ‘numerical’ approach, in order to test the robustness of the candidate SQIs through statistical analysis and modelling (Work Package 2). The remaining 7 physical SQIs were: depth of soil; soil water retention characteristics; packing density; visual soil assessment / evaluation; rate of erosion; sealing; and aggregate stability. For these SQIs to be included in a robust national soil monitoring programme, we investigated the uncertainty in their measurement; the spatial and temporal variability in the indicator as given by observed distributions; and the expected rate of change in the indicator. Whilst a baseline is needed (i.e. the current state of soil), it is the rate of change in soil properties and the implications of that change in terms of soil processes and functioning that are key to effective soil monitoring. Where empirical evidence was available, power analysis was used to understand the variability of indicators as given by the observed distributions. This process determines the ability to detect a particular change in the SQI at a particular confidence level, given the ‘noise’ or variability in the data (i.e. a particular power to detect a change of ‘X’ at a confidence level of ‘Y%’ would require ‘N’ samples). However, the evidence base for analysing the candidate SQIs is poor: data are limited in spatial and temporal extent for England and Wales, in terms of a) the degree (magnitude) of change in the SQI which significantly affects soil processes and functions (i.e. ‘meaningful change’), and b) the change in the SQI that is detectable (i.e. what sample size is needed to detect the meaningful signal from the variability or noise in the signal). This constrains the design and implementation of a scientifically and statistically rigorous and reliable soil monitoring programme. Evidence that is available suggests that what constitutes meaningful change will depend on soil type, current soil state, land use and the soil function under consideration. However, when we tested this by analysing detectable changes in packing density and soil depth (because data were available for these SQIs) over different land covers and soil types, no relationships were found. Schipper and Sparling (2000) identify the challenge: “a standardised methodology may not be appropriate to apply across contrasting soils and land uses. However, it is not practical to optimise sampling and analytical techniques for each soil and land use for extensive sampling on a national scale”. Despite the paucity in data, all seven SQIs have direct relevance to current and likely future soil and environmental policy, because they can be related (qualitatively) to soil processes, soil functions and delivery of ecosystem goods and services. Even so, meaningful and detectable changes in physical SQIs may be out of time with any soil policy change and it is not usually possible to link particular changes in SQIs to particular policy activities. This presents challenges in ascertaining trends that can feed into policy development or be used to gauge the effectiveness of soil protection policies (Work Package 3). Of the seven candidate physical SQIs identified, soil depth and surface sealing are regarded by many as indicators of soil quantity rather than quality. Visual soil evaluation is currently not suited to soil monitoring in the strictest sense, as its semi-qualitative basis cannot be analysed statistically. Also, few data exist on how visual evaluation scores relate to soil functions. However, some studies have begun to investigate how VSE might be moved to a more quantified scale and the method has some potential as a low cost field technique to assess soil condition. Packing density requires data on bulk density and clay content, both of which are highly variable, so compounding the error term associated with this physical SQI. More evidence is needed to show how ‘meaningful’ change in aggregate stability affects soil processes and thus soil functions (for example, using the limited data available, an equivocal relationship was found with water regulation / runoff generation). The analysis of available data has given promising results regarding the prediction of soil water retention characteristics and packing density from relatively easy to measure soil properties (bulk density, texture and organic C) using pedotransfer functions. Expanding the evidence base is possible with the development of rapid, cost-effective techniques such as NIR sensors to measure soil properties. Defra project SP1303 (Brazier et al., 2012) used power analyses to estimate the number of monitoring locations required to detect a statistically significant change in soil erosion rate on cultivated land. However, what constitutes a meaningful change in erosion rates still requires data on the impacts of erosion on soil functions. Priority cannot be given amongst the seven SQIs, because the evidence base for each varies in its robustness and extent. Lack of data (including uncertainty in measurement and variability in observed distributions) applies to individual SQIs; attempts at integrating more than one SQI (including physical, biological and chemical SQIs) to improve associations between soil properties and processes / functions are only likely to propagate errors. Whether existing monitoring programmes can be adapted to incorporate additional measurement of physical SQIs was explored. We considered options where one or more of the candidate physical SQIs might be implemented into soil monitoring programmes (e.g. as a new national monitoring scheme; as part of the Countryside Survey; and as part of the National Soil Inventory). The challenge is to decide whether carrying out soil monitoring that is not statistically robust is still valuable in answering questions regarding current and future soil quality. The relationship between physical (and other) SQIs, soil processes and soil functions is complex, as is how this influences ecosystem services’ delivery. Important gaps remain in even the realisation of a conceptual model for these inter-relationships, let alone their quantification. There is also a question of whether individual quantitative SQIs can be related to ecosystem services, given the number of variables