Mesofauna, observation networks and ecogenomics

As body size decreases, delimitation of species and physiological functioning becomes disproportionally challenging. Coupled with the ”taxonomic impediment”, detailed and comparable soil biodiversity assessments across large spatial scales have heretofore been thought nearly intractable. Recent technological and analytical developments for sequencing nucleic acids from soil samples offers encouraging solutions. Coupled with terrestrial observation networks that monitor important physical drivers of ecosystem change, these advances stand to significantly increase the utility and explanatory power of soil biodiversity assessments.