OOS 1
Weaving the Soil Biodiversity Food Web: Advancements in Understanding on a Global Scale

Monday, August 10, 2015: 1:30 PM-5:00 PM
310, Baltimore Convention Center
Organizer:
Tandra Fraser
Co-organizer:
Diana H. Wall
Moderator:
Tandra Fraser
The Earth’s soils are living, dynamic interfaces that are habitats for millions of microbial and animal species. Soil biota are a key natural resource since their actions support soil resource availability and the delivery of major ecosystem services, from nutrient cycling to food production. Despite the numerous ecosystem services provided by the life in soil, soil biodiversity has received little international policy attention in both managed and natural systems. The goal of this session is to facilitate a discussion of soil biodiversity and ecosystem services on a global-scale and the importance of synthesizing soil biodiversity datasets across global ecosystems. The advent of new technologies allowing sequencing of species in environmental samples has greatly increased the collection of data, but has posed new challenges in synthesizing this data, including morphological data, natural history and ranges of organisms and determining the link to ecosystem services. Changes to soil biodiversity and ecosystem functioning are occurring, especially in the context of land use and climate change. Presentations by international experts in soil ecology, soil biodiversity education, data synthesis, ecosystem functioning and global change will provide the basis for these discussions. Examples of large-scale soil biodiversity projects will be presented. The session will showcase examples of current collaborations contributing to the Global Soil Biodiversity Initiative (GSBI), an international scientific effort. The GSBI is developing a coherent platform for promoting the translation of expert knowledge on soil biodiversity into environmental policy and sustainable land management for the protection and enhancement of ecosystem services.
1:30 PM
Plant communities drive belowground responses to drought
Franciska T. de Vries, University of Manchester; Mark Bailey, CEH Wallingford; Tom Bolger, UCD; MIchael Bonkowski, University of Colonge; Helene Bracht-Jorgensen, Lund University; Tara Dirilgen, UCD; Stefan Geisen, University of Cologne; Mariangela Girlanda, University of Turin; Robert I Griffiths, Centre for Ecology and Hydrology; Sara Hallin, Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences Uppsala; Katarina Hedlund, Lund University; Aurore Kaisermann, University of Manchester; Aidan Keith, CEH Lancaster; Erica Lumini, University of Turin; Kelly Mason, Centre for Ecology and Hydrology; Nick Ostle, Lancaster University; Jim Prosser, University of Aberdeen; Cecile Thion, University of Aberdeen; Bruce Thomson, CEH Wallingford; Richard D. Bardgett, University of Manchester
1:50 PM
Macroinvertebrate community modulates the influence of land use change to the functioning of tropical soils
André Franco, University of São Paulo; Carlos Eduardo Cerri, University of São Paulo; Carlos Clemente Cerri, University of São Paulo
2:30 PM
Local and global patterns of urban soil biodiversity
Katalin Szlavecz, Johns Hopkins University
2:50 PM
Null models reveal three-way interactions are significant predictors of ecological interactions in microbiome abundance data
Nora Connor, University of Colorado; Albert Barberan, University of Colorado; Aaron Clauset, University of Colorado Boulder
3:10 PM
3:20 PM
TerraGenome: Supporting soil metagenomics to inform soil biodiversity
David D. Myrold, Oregon State University; Janet K. Jansson, Pacific Northwest National Laboratory
3:40 PM
A platform for soil biodiversity data synthesis
Kelly Ramirez, Netherlands Institute of Ecology (NIOO-KNAW); Diana H Wall, Colorado State University; Wim Van der Putten, Netherlands Institute of Ecology; Tandra Fraser, Colorado State University
4:20 PM
Ecology of the underworld and why it matters for human health
Diana H. Wall, Colorado State University; Johan Six, ETH Zurich