Welcome to the Global Soil Biodiversity Initiative
Seeking to promote expert knowledge on soil biodiversity in environmental policy and sustainable land management to protect and enhance ecosystem services
Seeking to promote expert knowledge on soil biodiversity in environmental policy and sustainable land management to protect and enhance ecosystem services
Published in Soil Organisms, the Soil BON Earthworm initiative aims at creating a global community of earthworm experts and aims to address key questions, such as the dynamic of earthworm communities over time and their response to environmental factors and anthropogenic influences; their impact on ecosystem functioning; and the redefinition of functional groups based on traits. The consortium invites researchers worldwide to contribute to this endeavor and encourages the resampling of study sites, to expand currently limited time series datasets.
It is with deep sadness that we announce that Diana Wall, GSBI founder and scientific chair, has passed. A staunch champion for soil biodiversity science, Diana founded GSBI as a grassroots organization in 2011 together with Wim van der Putten, Richard Bardgett, Johan Six, and Luca Montanarella to connect scientists and inform policy, education, and the public on soil biodiversity. As the leader of GSBI, Diana prioritized the inclusion of scientists from underrepresented groups, the global South, and early career researchers, and advocated for their access to resources. There are very few scientists who have reached out with the intensity and breadth across their field as she did. Diana Wall placed soil biodiversity on the map.
Diana was tireless in her efforts to build up the GSBI and bring soil biodiversity onto the international policy stage. By 2012 she had secured funding from Colorado State University (CSU), hired an Executive Director, organized an international workshop, was invited to speak at the RIO+20 Convention, and initiated work on the Global Soil Biodiversity Atlas (published in 2016). Over the last decade, Diana encouraged the production of the first Global Soil Biodiversity Assessment (2020), secured GSBI participation in the UN’s Convention on Biological Diversity-COP14 and international monitoring efforts such as the Soil Biodiversity Observation Network (SoilBON) and the UN Food and Agriculture Organization’s (FAO) Global Soil Biodiversity Observatory (GLOSOB). She spearheaded the creation of the international Global Soil Biodiversity Conferences (Dijon, Nanjing, and Dublin), and during Covid produced ‘GSBI Speaks’ a series of online webinars to keep the global soil biodiversity community connected.
GSBI Scientific Chair was only one of many scientific roles that Diana held across the field of ecology. We will share additional details about any tributes or celebrations of her life as they become available.
Patrick Lavelle (Paris Sorbonne University, France) discusses their latest paper where they produced an indicator of soil macrofauna that can be used as indicator of overall soil quality. This indicator can be used by land managers, farmers, etc to evaluate soil quality.
Daniel Rath (National Resources Defense Council, USA) and Kate Scow (University of California Davis, USA) discuss the latest report out of California's Department of Food and Agriculture: Soil Biodiversity in California Agriculture: Framework and Indicators for Soil Health Assessment. The report is the first US report to outline how to measure and monitor soil biodiversity in agroecosystems.
The German Centre for Integrative Biodiversity Research (iDiv) is searching for a female scientist with expertise in soil microbial ecology and data analysis/synthesis. The scholarship has up to two years of funding. See here for more information on the project and how to apply.
Check out booth 6 December 10th - 11th to see GSBI featured. To find more information on CSU led events at COP 28, see CSU’s website here. Attendees, let us know by email if there is any soil health or soil biodiversity presence at COP and we will update our website.
Find the podcasts here to learn more about Antarctic soils, tidal systems, soil ecology in Africa, and more. See our podcasts tab for more soil related podcasts.
Mites: Grappling with a hyperdiverse taxon in soil with Valerie Behan-Pelletier.
Soil Biodiversity and Sustainable Agriculture with Gerlinde de Deyn, Stuart Grandy, and Sara Sanchez Moreno.
Soil Biodiversity and the Stabilisation of Carbon in the Soil with Gerrit Angst, Colin Averill, Kate Buckeridge, and Cynthia Kallenbach.
A new paper in the recent issue of Science by W. van der Putten, R. Bardgett, M. Farfan, L. Montanarella, J. Six, and D. Wall highlights the importance of soils and soil biodiversity science for soil health the challenges and promises of new regional and international policies for soil protection and sustainable management.
Read the first-ever report on the State of Knowledge of Soil Biodiversity!
Produced in conjunction with the UN-FAO, ITPS, GSBI, SCBD, the European Commission (EC), and 300+ contributing-scientists, this report is the primary science and policy guiding-document in the world for connecting science to policy recommendations for the conservation and monitoring of soil biodiversity.
Citation: FAO, ITPS, GSBI, SCBD, and EC. 2020. State of knowledge of soil biodiversity - Status, challenges and potentialities, Report 2020. Rome, FAO. https://doi.org/10.4060/cb1929en
Soil biodiversity affects our environment and our wellbeing. Learn about soil organisms around the world in the Global Soil Biodiversity Atlas jointly published by the European Commission Joint Research Centre and the GSBI.
Get updates on what the GSBI is up to and never miss an opportunity to participate in GSBI events and efforts.
Stay up-to-date with the work other GSBI members are doing or share some of your own work in the GSBI blog “Beneath Our Feet.”