Soil Restoration and Monitoring Guidelines

4.2 Monitor soil condition before and after restoration using scalable indicators

Post-restoration mapping enables the tracking of vegetation regrowth, soil recovery, carbon sequestration, and biodiversity returns over time, providing evidence of restoration success or highlighting areas needing additional support.

The actual monitoring guidelines presented in the table below outline the scalable indicators for monitoring, including recommended sampling frequency, sampling time, sampling and analysing methodologies and costs.

	Carbon (%)	Nitrogen (%)	pH	Bulk density (g/cm³)	Biomass fine roots (g/cm³)	Functional catabolic diversity	Metabolic activity (ppm)
Soil property	Chemical	Chemical	Chemical	Physical	Biological	Biological	Biological
Importance	Soil organic matter	Plant growth	Nutrient availability, microbial communities and decomposition rate	It reflects soil compaction, influencing multiple soil functions	Nutrient and water uptake	Microbial functional capacity	Living component of soil organic matter
Sampling before every intervention?	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
Sampling after every intervention?	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
Long-term sampling frequency	Every 10 years	Every 10 years	Every 10 years	Every 5 years	Every 5 years	Every 5 years	Every 5 years
Sampling depths	OL+OF+OH 0-5 cm 5-15 cm 15-40 cm 40-80 cm	OL+OF+OH 0-5 cm 5-15 cm 15-40 cm 40-80 cm	OL+OF+OH 0-5 cm 5-15 cm 15-40 cm 40-80 cm	OL+OF+OH 0-5 cm 5-15 cm 15-40 cm 40-80 cm	OL+OF+OH 0-5 cm 5-15 cm 15-40 cm 40-80 cm	OL+OF+OH 0-5 cm 5-15 cm	OL+OF+OH 0-5 cm 5-15 cm
Sampling time (3 augerings per site) *	~1 hour					~30 minutes
Sampling method	Sampling for soil carbon stocks	Sampling for soil carbon stocks	Sampling for soil carbon stocks	Manual on methods for harmonized sampling, assessment, monitoring and analysis	Sampling for soil carbon stocks	Sampling for microorganisms	Sampling for microorganisms
Analysed depths	OL+OF+OH 0-5 cm 5-15 cm 15-40 cm 40-80 cm	OL+OF+OH 0-5 cm 5-15 cm 15-40 cm 40-80 cm	OL+OF+OH 0-5 cm 5-15 cm 15-40 cm 40-80 cm	OL+OF+OH 0-5 cm 5-15 cm 15-40 cm 40-80 cm	OL+OF+OH 0-5 cm 5-15 cm	OL+OF+OH 0-5 cm 5-15 cm	0-5 cm
Analysing method	Standard Soil Methods for Long-Term Ecological research	Standard Soil Methods for Long-Term Ecological research	Manual for the Soil Chemistry and Fertility Laboratory	Manual on methods for harmonized sampling, assessment, monitoring and analysis	Likulunga et al., 2022 Magalhães et al., 2020	An indicator for Microbial Biodiversity in Forest Soils (p115-117)	Potential Carbon Mineralization
Cost per sample (per fixed depth)	100 euros	100 euros	100 euros	50 euros	200 euros	200 euros	150 euros