Workshop: Anglo-U.S. Workshop on Soil Biodiversity

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Freckman Attention has focused on biodiversity in tropical forests and marine environments, but so far the soil environment has been relatively neglected. Soil biodiversity in particular is of fundamental importance to many vital ecological processes, but the soil organisms are for the most part small, numerous, and poorly known. For many taxa, our best estimates of the extent of diversity are provisional. It is difficult, at present, to say which organisms, or groups or organisms, are most important in relation to critical ecological processes and soil attributes such as stability and resilience. This proposal requests funds for 15 scientist to attend a workshop at the British Natural History Museum on soil biodiversity that will bring together representative British and American specialists. The specific purpose of this workshop will be to: determine the feasibility and scale of one or many soil biodiversity inventories. The workshop will engender a multidisciplinary approach to soil biodiversity by bringing together systematist, ecologist and information management specialist o discuss the relationships between taxonomic groups f soil organisms and soil ecological processes and to consider how to carry out inventories of soil biodiversity. A final report summarizing the workshop's recommendations and properties for research will be released in 2-3 months to the scientific community and funding agencies. The report would hopefully mobilize the soil systematist and ecologist to propose research and training for soil biodiversity and function. Over the long term, results of soil biodiversity research would generate new knowledge and products for a diverse set of users (e.g., pharmaceutical scientist to ecosystem managers).