The impact of boreal forest conversion to horticulture on soil arthropod communities and biological quality over time

面对气候变化，北方北方地区的农业扩张为实现粮食安全和自给自足提供了机会。然而，人们对北方森林向农业的转变如何影响土壤无脊椎动物群落知之甚少，尽管它们在维持作物生产力以及对人类福祉至关重要的许多其他土壤功能方面发挥着重要作用。该项目将评估农田土壤无脊椎动物群落和土壤生物质量如何因转换而变化，以及土壤耕种的时间。使用QBS-ar指数测量的土壤生物质量不仅是土壤生物多样性的良好指标，也是土壤维持土壤功能以提供商品和服务的能力的良好指标。除了生成供更广泛的科学界使用的原始数据集外，我们还将生成一系列技术和简单语言资源，以(i)促进对土壤生物质量的广泛监测，（ii）为农业政策和土地管理决策工具提供信息，以开发加拿大北部北方地区的可持续农业景观。

NERC : Beth Evans : NE/L123456/1Agricultural expansion in northern boreal regions presents an opportunity to generate food security and self-sufficiency in the face of climate change. However, little is known about how conversion of boreal forest to agriculture affects soil invertebrate communities, despite their essential role in sustaining crop productivity among many other soil functions essential to human well-being. This project will assess how soil invertebrate communities and the biological quality of soil on farmland change due to conversion and how long the soil has been cultivated since. Soil biological quality, measured using the QBS-ar index, is a good indicator not only of soil biodiversity, but the capacity of soils to maintain soil functioning for delivery of goods and services. In addition to generating an original data set for use by the wider scientific community, we will produce a range of technical and plain-language resources to (i) facilitate widespread monitoring of soil biological quality and (ii) inform agricultural policy and land management decision-making tools to develop sustainable agricultural landscapes in Canada's northern boreal regions.