Conservation of Soil Organism Diversity under Global Change - CONSIDER
		Simon Mortimer CONSIDER evaluates methods for conserving soil biodiversity The soil represents one of the most species rich environments on earth. Soil organisms underlie the sustainable functioning of terrestrial ecosystems, the development of plant communities, and associated organisms The impact of anthropogenic activities on soil biodiversity is poorly understood. Moreover, little is known of the impact of European Directives and Action Plans, such as the Habitat Directive and Natura 2000, on soil biodiversity Changes in soil biodiversity may be the result of bottom-up or top-down processes, each with a spatio-temporal component. These involve interactions with vegetation, effects on organic matter, and the interactions between organisms of different trophic levels The restoration and conservation of soil biodiversity enhances ecosystem structure and function, resulting in attractive landscapes that encourage tourism and local economy. OVERALL OBJECTIVE CONSIDER addresses the effect of four anthropogenic activities, regarded as important for soil biodiversity (two representing threats and two mitigation activities), namely: 1. Effects of global climate change 2. Habitat fragmentation 3. Environmental friendly agriculture 4. Restoration of biodiversity on ex-agricultural land. The ultimate goal of CONSIDER is, in direct interaction with end-users, to assess threats and mitigation strategies with respect to their importance for soil biodiversity in the European Community Results of the work will be directly related to agricultural, environmental, conservation, environmental, soil protection and restoration policies. APPROACH The core activities of CONSIDER are six workshops to define methodologies for the assessment of soil biodiversity, based on previously-established experiments Different soil biodiversity assessment techniques are evaluated. These include methods at the molecular, genetic, species and functional group level The first four workshops focus on major EU-policies and aim to restore and conserve biodiversity. End-users from relevant public sectors (e.g. environmental regulators and agricultural managers) will participate fully. The fifth workshop will include a pre-synthesis of the derived information and experiments, for exposure to the wider research community in the EU The sixth workshop will be a final synthesis of results, and again involve end-users from the various sectors Each workshop is structured in ‘workpackages’, reflecting the scientifically important features of soil that directly affect soil biodiversity In April 2003, the first workshop at Wageningen, The Netherlands, took place, focusing on the interaction between above- and below-ground organisms. The associated field work will emphasise the restoration of biodiversity on ex-agricultural land, as a means of mitigating anthropogenic changes, and uses some of the experimental sites being studied in TLinks and its predecessor CLUE. OUTPUTS Recommendations to EU policy makers for future strategies on soil biodiversity An integrated view on the most important threats to soil biodiversity A series of multi-authored scientific papers on the comparison and evaluation of biodiversity assessment A multi-authored synthesis article A web page Research Partners CONSIDER adopts a multidisciplinary approach, bringing together soil biologists, including, taxonomists, soil ecologists and ecologists. The main participants are: Prof Søren Christensen Department of Terrestrial Ecology, Copenhagen University, Denmark Dr Katarina Hedlund Department of Ecology, Lund University, Sweden Dr Wim H. van der Putten NIOO-KNAW CTE, Heteren, The Netherlands Prof Stefan Scheu Soil Ecology Working Group, Schnittspahnstrasse 3, Darmstadt, Germany Dr Simon Mortimer Centre for Agri-Environmental Research, The University of Reading, UK Dr Heikki Setälä Department of Ecological and Environmental Sciences, University of Helsinki, Finland Prof José-Miguel Barea Department of Soil Microbiology and Symbiotic Systems, Estación Experimental del Zaidín, Spain Dr Christophe Robin UMR INRA "Agronomie et Environnement" INRA, France Dr Juha Mikola Department of Biological and Environmental Science, University of Jyväskylä, Finland Dr Alan Gange School of Biological Sciences, Royal Holloway University of London, UK Sponsor European Union as part of the Framework Programme 5