The soil sampling is done within the framework of a European-wide survey entitled LUCAS (Land Use/Land Cover Area Frame Survey), which is coordinated by the EU Statistical Office, EUROSTAT, and aims to assess changes in land cover and land use across the EU every three years.
LUCAS SOIL is the first ever pan-European assessment of soil biodiversity and one of the largest continental assessments of soil life at global scale. It represents a unique opportunity to develop baseline maps of soil biodiversity at European scale.
Call for tenders
In order to complete the assessment, the JRC has launched a call for tenders for laboratory analyses of topsoil samples collected in the context of the LUCAS 2018.
The call covers three types of services:
- Lot 1: the objective of the service contract for Lot 1 is to analyse basic soil physical and chemical parameters and heavy metals on topsoil samples as indicated in the tender documents. The topsoil samples are collected in mineral and organic soils in natural and semi-natural environments (i.e. agricultural land, woodland and grassland). Lot 2: the objective of the service contract for
- Lot 2 is to carry out DNA analysis on 1,050 topsoil samples collected in the context of LUCAS 2018 Topsoil Survey in order to assess soil biodiversity and antibiotic resistance genes.
- Lot 3: the objective of the service contract for Lot 3 is to analyse Plant Protection Products (PPPs) and antibiotics.