Remote Sensing Based Soil Microbiome Analysis
This innovative technology leverages Earth Observation data, metabarcoding, and causal Machine Learning models to predict the impacts of various anthropogenic inputs—such as fertilisers, pesticides, metal contaminants, and soil physio-chemical properties—on soil microbial diversity, ecosystem services, and microbial pests. The pilot implementation is taking place on farms in Greece and Spain.
The solution integrates diverse data sources and scales, combining molecular-level insights with global observations. It employs advanced methodologies such as bioinformatics, soil sampling, on-field sensors, and satellite imagery, all within a causal AI framework. This approach enables robust and transparent estimations of how anthropogenic, environmental, and climatic factors influence soil health, offering insights into a broad range of soil and ecosystem parameters.
The primary focus is on understanding and predicting specific aspects of the crop-soil-microbiome relationship, including fungal and bacterial microbial diversity (alpha and beta diversity), ecosystem services like carbon sequestration and symbiotic interactions, and the prevalence and abundance of pests such as Fusarium and Pythium.


This framework integrates diverse datasets—microbial diversity from metabarcoding, soil properties from sampling and sensors, meteorological data, and satellite imagery—to provide precise, spatially and temporally resolved predictions of the crop-soil-microbiome nexus. The technology is currently being piloted in Cartagena, Spain, and Thessaly, Greece, with the aim of scaling it across Europe.
The applications of this technology address a critical gap in understanding soil microbiomes, which are the Earth’s largest microbial reservoir and play a pivotal role in supporting plant, animal, and human health. By identifying how anthropogenic pressures—such as fertiliser and pesticide use or heavy metal contamination—affect soil microbiomes and their ecosystem functions, this solution offers valuable insights for sustainable agriculture. It aims to empower stakeholders across the farm-to-fork value chain with tools for informed decision-making and improved soil health management.
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