Organisation: David Russell (BonaRes Centre), Michael Schloter (INPLAMINT)
Abstract:
One of the key goals of BonaRes is to identify and strengthen the role that soil biodiversity plays in various soil functions. Most previous research has focused on the effects of soil management measures on soil biodiversity. To assess the influence of management options on the functional role of soil biodiversity, it is necessary to quantify the effects that soil biodiversity has on various soil processes. This includes not only the direct effects of soil fauna and microbiology on soil processes, but also how and to what degree their mutual (complementary and reciprocal) interactions drive general soil functions.
This workshop aims at bringing together BonaRes scientists studying various aspects of soil biodiversity (bacteria, fungi and fauna). Discussions will focus on the research questions of the module-A projects, identifying which aspects of soil biodiversity and which soil processes are being researched. The ultimate goals are to achieve an overall “BonaRes” quantification of the roles soil biodiversity plays in soil processes, to understand how biodiversity-driven processes (help) lead to soil functions, and to identify how management measures affect biodiversity’s roles in these functions.
In the workshop we will thus not stress how management procedures affect soil biodiversity, but rather focus on the following aspects:
1) How to identify (taxonomically cross-cutting) functional groups of soil biodiversity?
Which functional groups are most important in soil processes? How can taxonomically independent units be aggregated into functional groups? Can “proxy data” be used to assess management effects on the quantitative roles of these functional groups?
2) Which soil processes are driven by these functional groups?
Which soil processes are strongly biotically driven? How can the effects of soil biodiversity on soil processes be best quantified? Can a “process hierarchy” be determined, in which biotic influences at various nested scales can be assessed within the BonaRes framework?
3) Can the quantification of biotic soil processes lead to understanding effects on soil functions?
How do biotic soil processes at different spatio-temporal scales help lead to overall soil functions? How does soil biodiversity (including their interactions and dynamics) integrate smaller-scale processes into larger-scale functions? Can soil biodiversity’s functional roles be so quantified that they can be integrated into general models of soil functions?
4) An example of biotic soil compartments relevant for soil biodiversity’s role in soil processes:
The rhizosphere – a hotspot for biotic activities and driver of plant health
The biome associated with plant roots is unique and drives activities not covered by the plants` classical genome. At the same time, the plant also strongly influences the diversity and activity of its biome (i.e., by providing easy degradable carbon as well as niches for biotic colonization). The rhizosphere is thus the interface between bulk soil and root surfaces, playing a major role in processes such as nutrient mobilization and transport as well as biocontrol of phytopathogens. Using this example – central to many module-A projects – the questions above can be discussed in the framework of the interplay between soils and plants in the establishment of a rhizosphere’s biome, including the roles of the abiotic environment and functional redundancy or how diversity is linked to activity.
