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Ectomycorrhizal fungi are a type of fungi that develops a mutually beneficial relationship with plant roots. These fungi form ancient and extremely successful partnerships with forest trees worldwide. The trees and their associated fungi have developed a trading partnership: the fungi help the plants reach hard-to-get nutrients, and, in return, the fungi get constant and uninterrupted access to carbohydrates (such as sugars) from the plant. This largely invisible interaction affects the storage and cycling of carbon in soil and benefits plant health and nutrition. Ectomycorrhizal fungi are also important for breaking down dead plants and animals. These fungi contribute to soil biodiversity and can help us to protect our forests in the face of environmental stresses, such as climate change and excessive land use.

Here we introduce the Soil BON Foodweb Team, a cross-continental collaborative network that aims to monitor soil animal communities and food webs using consistent methodology at a global scale. Soil animals support vital soil processes via soil structure modification, consumption of dead organic matter, and interactions with microbial and plant communities. Soil animal effects on ecosystem functions have been demonstrated by correlative analyses as well as in laboratory and field experiments, but these studies typically focus on selected animal groups or species at one or few sites with limited variation in environmental conditions. The lack of comprehensive harmonised large-scale soil animal community data including microfauna, mesofauna, and macrofauna, in conjunction with related soil functions, microbial communities, and vegetation, limits our understanding of biological interactions in soil systems and how these interactions affect ecosystem functioning. To provide such data, the Soil BON Foodweb Team invites researchers worldwide to use a common methodology to address six long-term goals: (1) to collect globally representative harmonised data on soil micro-, meso-, and macrofauna communities, (2) to describe key environmental drivers of soil animal communities and food webs, (3) to assess the efficiency of conservation approaches for the protection of soil animal communities, (4) to describe soil food webs and their association with soil functioning globally, (5) to establish a global research network for soil biodiversity monitoring and collaborative projects in related topics, (6) to reinforce local collaboration networks and expertise and support capacity building for soil animal research around the world. In this paper, we describe the vision of the global research network and the common sampling protocol to assess soil animal communities and advocate for the use of standard methodologies across observational and experimental soil animal studies. We will use this protocol to conduct soil animal assessments and reconstruct soil food webs at sites associated with the global soil biodiversity monitoring network, Soil BON, allowing us to assess linkages among soil biodiversity, vegetation, soil physico-chemical properties, climate, and ecosystem functions. In the present paper, we call for researchers especially from countries and ecoregions that remain underrepresented in the majority of soil biodiversity assessments to join us. Together we will be able to provide science-based evidence to support soil biodiversity conservation and functioning of terrestrial ecosystems. Made available in DSpace on 2022-04-05T05:00:35Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 George-SO-Global.pdf: 4233169 bytes, checksum: 9faad657460c5d69e137289ebd0e4488 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2022

Here we introduce the Soil BON Foodweb Team, a cross-continental collaborative network that aims to monitor soil animal communities and food webs using consistent methodology at a global scale. Soil animals support vital soil processes via soil structure modification, consumption of dead organic matter, and interactions with microbial and plant communities. Soil animal effects on ecosystem functions have been demonstrated by correlative analyses as well as in laboratory and field experiments, but these studies typically focus on selected animal groups or species at one or few sites with limited variation in environmental conditions. The lack of comprehensive harmonised large-scale soil animal community data including microfauna, mesofauna, and macrofauna, in conjunction with related soil functions, microbial communities, and vegetation, limits our understanding of biological interactions in soil systems and how these interactions affect ecosystem functioning. To provide such data, the Soil BON Foodweb Team invites researchers worldwide to use a common methodology to address six long-term goals: (1) to collect globally representative harmonised data on soil micro-, meso-, and macrofauna communities, (2) to describe key environmental drivers of soil animal communities and food webs, (3) to assess the efficiency of conservation approaches for the protection of soil animal communities, (4) to describe soil food webs and their association with soil functioning globally, (5) to establish a global research network for soil biodiversity monitoring and collaborative projects in related topics, (6) to reinforce local collaboration networks and expertise and support capacity building for soil animal research around the world. In this paper, we describe the vision of the global research network and the common sampling protocol to assess soil animal communities and advocate for the use of standard methodologies across observational and experimental soil animal studies. We will use this protocol to conduct soil animal assessments and reconstruct soil food webs at sites associated with the global soil biodiversity monitoring network, Soil BON, allowing us to assess linkages among soil biodiversity, vegetation, soil physico-chemical properties, climate, and ecosystem functions. In the present paper, we call for researchers especially from countries and ecoregions that remain underrepresented in the majority of soil biodiversity assessments to join us. Together we will be able to provide science-based evidence to support soil biodiversity conservation and functioning of terrestrial ecosystems.

Increasing carbon (C) storage in soil is a key aspect of climate change mitigation strategies and requires an understanding of the impacts of land management on soil C cycling. The primary aim of this study is to investigate how land management impacts key soil organic matter stabilization and cycling processes affecting soil C storage. Soil sampling was undertaken across seven transects crossing the boundary between agriculture and forestry. The transects covered 3 pasture (AP) and 4 arable (AA) fields combined with 3 young secondary woodlands (50-60 years old - WY) and 4 mature/ancient semi-natural woodlands (110 to >400 years old - WM). Physical fractionation of soil organic matter pools was performed, together with pH, carbon and nitrogen content, as well as activity of four enzymes associated with C transformation in the soil. Woodland soils were associated with significantly higher content of light fraction C and greater enzyme activity in comparison to agricultural soils. Enzyme activity and soil organic C decreased with soil depth regardless of land-use type. We did not, however, observe any effect of the distance from the land use boundary on either enzyme activity and soil C pools. Our results indicate that analysis of soil organic matter (SOM) fractions can act as an indicator of decomposition rates of SOM in forest and agricultural ecosystems.

Woodland restoration is underway globally, to counter the negative soil quality and ecological impacts of agricultural expansion and woodland fragmentation, and restore or enhance biodiversity, ecosystem functions and services. However, we lack information about the long‐term effects of woodland restoration on agricultural soils, particularly at temporal scales meaningful to woodland and soil development. This study utilised soil and earthworm sampling across a chronosequence of sites transitioning from ‘agricultural land’ to ‘secondary woodland’ (50‐110 years) and ‘ancient woodland’ (>400 years), with the goal of quantifying the effects of woodland restoration on agricultural land, on key soil quality parameters (soil bulk density, pH, carbon and nitrogen stocks, and earthworm abundance, biomass, species richness and diversity). Broad‐leaved woodland restoration led to significantly greater soil organic carbon (SOC) stocks compared to arable land, and young (50‐60 years) secondary woodland increased earthworm species and functional diversity compared to both arable and pasture agricultural land. SOC stocks in secondary broad‐leaved woodlands (50‐110 years) were comparable to those found in long‐term ancient woodlands (>400 years). Our findings show that broad‐leaved woodland restoration of agricultural land can lead to meaningful soil ecological improvement and gains in SOC within 50 to 110 years, and provide intel on how restoration activities may be best targeted to maximise soil quality and functions.