The goals of phase II of the BIOindicateurs program are to implement all the biological tools selected after phase I, on the same workshop sites (agricultural, forest, contaminated sites), and to validate their use depending on the issue under scrutiny (monitoring, biological characterisation, risk analysis..).
This validation consisted in:
calibrating the tool (the bioindicator), i.e. graduating the tool: knowing the response magnitude to the presence of toxic substance or soil modification such as compaction, use change, acidification…,
knowing the degree of sensitivity of the tool: distinguishing between responses related to natural variations and responses related to specific toxic substance or soil modification,
knowing the operating limitations of the tools: some will be more adapted to highlight an impact related to the presence of pollutants, others, related to a change in use…,
developing a first frame of reference to facilitate data interpretation,
evaluating the opportunity to use the results stemming from soil biomonitoring for the modelling of contaminant transfers and risk evaluation.
The biological parameters shortlisted in the aftermath of the first phase of the program have therefore been implemented on the same workshop sites in order to facilitate subsequent comparison by adapted statistical treatments.