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
Call for symposia proposals for the 4th Global Soil Biodiversity Conference are now open. Proposals are due February 28th, 2025
Check out the latest blog on Beneath Our Feet by Dr. Stefanie Lutz (Switzerland) and Dr. Marcel van der Heijden (Switzerland)
In GSBI's latest blog, Dr. Stefanie Lutz and Dr. Marcel van der Heijden discuss their recent paper in which they found that the abundance of arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi (AMF) are often underestimated. AMF research often focuses on Glomeromycota. However, recent discoveries have shown that the Mucoromycota phylum, in particular the enigmatic Endogonomycetes (E-AMF), also form arbuscule-like structures. Their study used long-read sequencing data from a combination of global field surveys including G-AMG and E-AMF and found significantly higher estimates of AMF richness than previously found.
Remote sensing and sensors to measure soil biodiversity
February 21, 2025, 9:00 MST, 11:00 EST, 16:00 GMT, 17:00 CET
Moderated by Michael Castellano
Soil biodiversity drives many of the ecosystem processes that support life on earth, yet evaluating soil biodiversity has proven to be both challenging and time consuming. Often, expert knowledge and large investments of time and resources are required to measure soil biodiversity. Recent advances in remote sensing and sensor capabilities have allowed scientists to improve soil biodiversity measurement capabilities, improving time investments and reducing taxonomic knowledge barriers. Join us in this webinar to learn from leading experts about new advances in sensing to measure soil biodiversity and the future of this field.
Moderated by Michael Castellano (Iowa State University, USA). Panelists are Carlos Abrahams (Nottingham Trent University, England), Camila Filgueiras (University of North Carolina Asheville, USA), Gregory Whiting (University of Colorado Boulder, USA), and Ashley Lang (Indiana University Bloomington, USA).
Catch up on previous webinars on the GSBI YouTube Channel
Biological Soil Crusts (Biocrusts) with Raúl Ochoa-Hueso, Bettina Weber, Matthew Bowker, Emilio Rodriguez-Caballero, and Claudia Colesie.
Dr. Diana H. Wall Remembrance with Johan Six, André Franco, Dorota Porazinska, Valerie Behan-Pelletier, Byron Adams, Carlos Guerra, and Kelly Ramirez.
Threats to mycorrhizae with Katie J. Field, Bala Chaudhary, César Marín, Nhu Nguyen, and Matthias Rillig.
Check out the latest blog on Beneath Our Feet by Dr. Ademir Araujo (Brazil)
In GSBI’s latest blog, Dr. Ademir Araujo discusses the establishment of the Caatinga Microbiome Initiative (CMI), which aims to understand how soil microbial communities change during desertification and restoration, and how manipulating these communities could accelerate ecosystem recovery. The Brazilian Caatinga is the most biodiverse semiarid ecosystem worldwide and is the only biome entirely unique to Brazil, which currently faces frequent drought and high temperatures.
Check out the latest blog on Beneath Our Feet by Dr. George Brown (Brazil)
In GSBI’s latest blog, Dr. George Brown makes the case for saving and preserving worms used in research projects instead of tossing them to help advance science. The blog and paper associated with it recommends guidelines to scientists for preserving worms and where the specimens can be sent to be preserved.
GSBI Speaks: Biological Soil Crusts (Biocrusts)
December 12, 2024, 7:00 MST, 9:00 EST, 14:00 GMT, 15:00 CET
Check out the latest blog on Beneath Our Feet by Dr. César Marín (Chile)
In GSBI’s latest blog, Dr. César Marín discusses natural selection and the theory of Multilevel Selection and how these concepts can be applied to arbuscular mycorrhizae (AM). To explore these ideas, Dr. Marín recently ran a workshop on how natural selection operates across the biological hierarchy in AM systems. A video of the full workshop can be found in the blog.
Submit a bid to host the GSBI by March 1st, 2025
For the past 13 years, Colorado State University (CSU) has hosted and supported the GSBI. The GSBI leadership is tremendously grateful for the support CSU has provided, which has allowed the GSBI to be an independent initiative. As part of GSBI’s long-term plans, the GSBI will be leaving CSU in April 2026 with the goal of rotating the host institution or organization every 5 years. As such, the GSBI is looking for a new home institution/organization and secretariat. The GSBI leadership invites individuals, institutions, organizations to submit a bid to house the GSBI.
Check out the latest blog on Beneath Our Feet by Dr. Tara Dirilgen (Ireland)
Check out GSBI's latest blog, where Dr. Tara Dirilgen (Maynooth University, Ireland) discusses the launch of Ireland's first local soil biodiversity network! The first meeting of the network was 26 June 2024 and had 15 attendees across 8 different Irish institutions. The blog also includes tips for starting your own local network. Ask the GSBI for tips or support on starting a local soil biodiversity network.
Check out the latest blog on Beneath Our Feet by Dr. Helen Phillips (Finland)
In GSBI’s latest blog, Dr. Helen Phillips (University of Helsinki, Finland) discusses their recent paper where they conducted a meta-analysis to measure Global Change (GC) impacts on soil fauna. They found that soil pollution had the strongest negative impacts on soil fauna, although climate change (drought and land use intensification) also had negative impacts on soil fauna.
“GSBI Speaks”
October Webinar: Dr. Diana H. Wall Remembrance
Check out the latest blog on Beneath Our Feet by Dr. Julia Köninger (Spain)
In GSBI’s latest blog, Dr. Julia Köninger (Universidade de Vigo, Spain) discusses their recent paper where they sought to understand the diversity of soil organisms across 787 sites in Europe. Dr. Köninger’s team analyzed soil DNA to understand which variables drive soil life diversity across different types of ecosystems ranging from croplands to grasslands to woodlands. Surprisingly, they found croplands to host the highest diversity. However, species composition was also most homogeneous there compared to other ecosystems.
Announcing GSBI’s Interim Leadership
Dear GSBI community,
Since Diana Wall's untimely passing, GSBI has been without the leadership of the scientific chair. To fill this gap in leadership, I am pleased to announce that co-founders Wim van der Putten (Netherlands), Johan Six (Switzerland), and Richard Bardgett (United Kingdom) will step in as co-interim scientific chairs for a transitionary period. Together, the GSBI leadership will decide on next steps for GSBI after this interim period. Although GSBI lost both a founder and visionary, GSBI will continue on in her legacy.
Sincerely,
Dr. Leena Vilonen (Executive Director)
Check out the latest blog on Beneath Our Feet by Dr. Jake Robinson (Australia)
In GSBI’s latest blog, Dr. Jake Robinson (Flinders University, Australia) shares his most recent advances in ecoacoustics. In his research, he uses microphones to detect the sounds that soils make. These sounds are then used to make inferences about the abundance and diversity of soil communities. Dr. Robinson uses these sounds (ecoacoustics) to track the effectiveness of soil restoration interventions. Check out the blog to learn more about this innovative research.
Dr. Diana Wall’s Passing
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.
Major decision on Soil Biodiversity monitoring and protection adopted at COP-15 of Convention of Biological Diversity (CBD) in Montreal, QC, December 2022
Soil Biodiversity Science challenges and international policy are the highlight of a new paper in Science by Global Soil Biodiversity Initiative colleagues
Soil Biodiversity needs policy without borders
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.
THE GLOBAL SOIL BIODIVERSITY INITIATIVE PARTNERS WITH SOIL BIODIVERSITY OBSERVATION NETWORK (SoilBON)
The first soil biodiversity assessment across the United States has begun in association with the global SoilBON.
See the SoilBON USA partners
See the global SoilBON network
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
The Global Soil Biodiversity Atlas
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 INVOLVED WITH 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.”