Within the One Health approach, soil health plays a central role in sustaining ecosystem functioning, environmental quality, biodiversity conservation, and human well-being. Several of these functions are driven by soil microbial community, mediating nutrient cycling, plant productivity, carbon sequestration and pollutant biodegradation.

This research investigates the potential of innovative vermicomposts as sustainable strategies for the amendment of agricultural and urban soils. Overall, the project aims to provide scientific evidence supporting the use of waste-derived vermicompost as a nature-based solution in a framework of circular economy. To this aim, five different vermicomposts produced from Posidonia oceanica residues (66%) mixed with different other organic matrices (33%), namely buffalo slurry, digestate derived from buffalo slurry, buffalo manure, digestate derived from buffalo manure, and buffalo whey, will be tested. These treatments, together with untreated controls, will be evaluated in two experimental sites in the Campania region (Southern Italy): an agricultural field, in order to assess soil fertility and functionality, and an urban soil, to evaluate soil restoration processes and spontaneous establishment of vegetation following vermicompost applications. Changes in soil physico-chemical and biological properties will be seasonally monitored following amendment applications. Furthermore, complementary experiments will be conducted under controlled environmental conditions in a climate chamber.

The preliminary characterization of the two soils, based on the measurement of several physico-chemical and biological parameters, including organic matter, pH, water holding capacity, microbial community (investigated through the analyses of several enzyme activities linked to biogeochemical cycles, as well as through DNA extraction) provides a baseline framework for evaluating the effectiveness of the innovative vermicomposts along the time. The obtained information will be employed to assess the improvement of soil quality, in terms of enhanced microbial biodiversity and functionality (in relation to nutrient cycling and carbon dynamics), while supporting crop productivity in agricultural soils and vegetation establishment in urban soils.