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Measurement(s)Abundance center dot Nematoda center dot environmental factorTechnology Type(s)Elutriative Centrifugation center dot computational modeling techniqueFactor Type(s)geographic locationSample Characteristic - OrganismNematodaSample Characteristic - Environmentsoil environment center dot climateSample Characteristic - LocationEarth (planet) Machine-accessible metadata file describing the reported data: 10.6084/m9.figshare.11925843 As the most abundant animals on earth, nematodes are a dominant component of the soil community. They play critical roles in regulating biogeochemical cycles and vegetation dynamics within and across landscapes and are an indicator of soil biological activity. Here, we present a comprehensive global dataset of soil nematode abundance and functional group composition. This dataset includes 6,825 georeferenced soil samples from all continents and biomes. For geospatial mapping purposes these samples are aggregated into 1,933 unique 1-km pixels, each of which is linked to 73 global environmental covariate data layers. Altogether, this dataset can help to gain insight into the spatial distribution patterns of soil nematode abundance and community composition, and the environmental drivers shaping these patterns.

Soil microbial diversity provides the cornerstone for support of soil ecosystem services by key roles in soil organic matter turnover, carbon sequestration and water infiltration. However, standardized methods to quantify the multitude of microbial functions in soils are lacking. Methods based on CO2 development by the microbes such as substrate induced respiration (SIR) on specific substrates have lead to the development of MicroResp™ and Community Level Physiological Profile (CLPP) with Biolog™ plates, and soil enzymatic activity assayed by Extracellular Enzyme Activity (EEA) based on MUF-substrates. These methods have been proposed to fill the gap. The techniques vary in how close they are to in situ functions; dependency on growth during incubation; and whether it is only bacteria or also fungi and /or extracellular enzymes. Also they vary in the functions tested and the number of functions. In addition to the lack of principle methods, the data obtained from these substitute methods are currently not used in classification and assessment schemes, making quantification of natural capital and ecosystems services of the soil a difficult venture. In this contribution, we compare and contrast the three techniques of assessing soil microbial functional diversity in a European transect consisting of 81 soil samples covering five Biogeograhical Zones and three land-uses and compare with the vast amount of data delivered in other projects (BISQ, RMQS-bioindicateur). Based on experimental results with these methods, microbiological reasoning and ecological theory, we will perform a qualitative comparison between the multi endpoint methods of determining soil microbial communities functional diversity, and will suggest standardized classification and assessment options for practical application and data assessment.

EASPEECOLDURGENOSOL; In contrast with plants and animals, biogeographical patterns of fungal assemblages have been little explored. Consequently, the factors driving the diversity and the composition of these communities are poorly understood. The EcoFINDERS project aimed at (i) characterizing the soil fungal diversity according to soil types, land uses and climate, and (ii) determining environmental variables explaining the fungal richness and community structure. Highthroughput sequencing of the ITS2 region was used to explore fungal assemblages in eleven countries along a latitudinal gradient in Europe. Parallel to the sequence based analyses, the fungal abundance was measured from the same DNA samples using qPCR targeting ITS2 region. We showed that the European soil fungal diversity varies in terms of richness, relative abundance and distribution according to land uses (forests, pastures, arable soils), soil and climatic parameters. Remarkably, fungal diversity increases from forest to arable soils and this richness pattern was also positively correlated with pH, CEC, Ca and Clay. These Highthroughput sequencing results have been partially confirmed by qPCR data. Indeed, also the fungal copy numbers in soils were affected by land-use and differed between climatic zones. The highest abundances were measured in (Boreal) forestry sites and the lowest in Mediterranean soils and in arable sites. However, the fungal abundance, unlike richness, was negatively correlated with pH, whereas the soil organic matter content seemed to have no affect on fungal abundance. Interestingly, along this large climatic gradient, we did not find relationship between richness and latitude, which could be a proxy of temperature. The usual ecological pattern between richness and thermic gradient did not appear transferable to soil fungi. Finally, the PCoA analysis revealed that the composition of fungi was largely explained by soil pH and climatic parameters. These results, with additional biogeographical studies, should help to predicting future distribution patterns of soil fungi.

The development focus of the design and implementation of the Soil Information System (SIS) is on the structured holding and maintenance of data arising from all other project activities, in addition to significant other legacy datasets. The SIS further represents the core source from which users and stakeholders will draw upon for their future use of the results of the overall project activities. The design and implementation must therefore not only be ‘fit for purpose’ for the immediate project requirements, be able to facilitate interoperability of the datasets, and must also be consistent with the principles of Directive 2007/2/EC, Infrastructure for Spatial Information in the European Community (INSPIRE). The resultant system will reside within a dedicated computer system suitable for the management and administration of the information, and which will enable the future provision of a range of packaged data-oriented services to end-users. Underpinning the SIS system will be a spatially-enabled relational database management system (RDBMS). This will serve to hold and manipulate the variety of data types, scales and sources required, including attribute characteristics tables to hold the descriptive property elements required in the data schema. Datasets elements held in the SIS will be grouped and identified for anticipated end-uses and user communities. Discovery-level Metadata will be collected for these groupings and published to appropriate ‘clearing house’ metadata servers, to ensure the widest possible appreciation of the data holdings as well as the most appropriate usage of the data. Metadata captured in this way will be consistent with the wider international standards emerging for such description and discovery resources.

The overall objective of this project is to conduct a programme of structured research into the distribution of soil types over the whole of Ireland and construct a soil map, at 1:250,000 scale, which will identify and describe the soils according to a harmonised national legend. This map will be in digital form and will form the basis for development of a new soil information system for Ireland. This is in response to national requirements to address the need to provide soil with a level of protection similar to that for water and air and, at international level, the recently adopted official ‘Communication on a Thematic Strategy for Soil Protection in Europe’ (European Commission, 2002, 2006a) which identifies eight threats to soil: erosion, loss of organic matter, contamination, sealing, compaction, loss of biodiversity, salinisation, and landslides and flooding, and is the foundation for the pending Soil Framework Directive – SFD – (European Commission, 2006b). The work being undertaken in this project moves a National soil classification system into a new digital generation. This work is ground-breaking, as no other country has adopted such a complimentary approach of combining novel digital techniques with groundtruthing using traditional soil survey methodologies at a National scale. An estimated 44% of Ireland was surveyed at a scale of 1:126,720 in the 1950s, 1960s and 1970s which was used as the basis for construction of a National Soil Map of Ireland in 1980. The National map therefore incorporates 56% of the country, which has only been surveyed at general reconnaissance scale, resulting in an existing National map (General Soil Map of Ireland) with a scale of 1:575,000. The proposed methodology of the new Irish soil map has several phases: (a) reappraisal, rationalisation and data capture for surveyed areas (terra cognita); (b) predictive mapping of unsurveyed areas (terra incognita), based on soil-landscape models and data from surveyed areas (terra cognita), including additional capture of new data for soils not previously encountered, using traditional soil survey techniques; and (c) construction of a soil information system for Ireland (SIS) that will provide a data infrastructure for organising, managing and disseminating soil information at national and international level. The resulting soil map of Ireland at 1:250,000 scale, and associated digital soil information system, will supersede the General Soil Map of Ireland that currently provides a generalised overview of soil distribution across the Country.

The SOIL Action (22004) of the Joint Research Centre’s Land Management and Natural Hazards Unit (H07) has just completed a comprehensive collaborative project focusing exclusively on life in the soil. One of the resulting outputs is the first ever European Atlas of Soil Biodiversity. This atlas is the result of a collaboration between the European Commission’s Joint Research Centre in Ispra, Italy and world leading experts in soil biodiversity from Europe and beyond. The atlas is a visually stunning publication of 128 pages, using striking photographs, informative texts and maps to explain and illustrate the great diversity of life in the across Europe. The atlas functions as a comprehensive guide to soil biology, allowing non-specialists to access information about this unseen world. The first part of the book provides an overview of the below ground environment, soil biota in general, the ecosystem functions that soil organism perform, the important value it has for human activities and relevance for global biogeochemical cycles. The second part is more of an 'Encyclopedia of Soil Biodiversity'. Starting with the smallest organisms such as the bacteria, this segment works through a range of taxonomic groups such as fungi, nematodes, insects and macro-fauna to illustrate the astonishing levels of heterogeneity of life in soil.