Our Dependence on Soil Biodiversity for Sustaining Ecosystem Services.

Soil biodiversity is critical for soil functioning and plant production but for years was largely ignored in global and regional policies addressing land management, food security, climate change, loss of biodiversity and desertification. However living soils are a habitat for dynamic communities of numerous microbes and animal species that are integrally tied to all life above-ground. Today’s scientific advances are revealing new knowledge that is key to future land management, such as the identity of species, the determinants of biogeographical patterns and their key role in biogeochemical cycling in terrestrial ecosystems. Society is dependent on soil biodiversity for decomposition, cleansing of water, control of pests, nutrient cycling and food, feed and fiber production. Because soils are under threat, we must promote interactions between scientists, policy makers and all end-users in order to transfer and implement findings on the benefits of soil biodiversity and ways to restore and conserve it. The Global Soil Biodiversity Initiative (GSBI) launched in 2011 in Wageningen, The Netherlands, has a Secretariat office at Colorado State University. The GSBI has the goal of promoting translation of expert scientific knowledge on soil biodiversity into actionable science for environmental policy and sustainable land management. The GSBI aims to integrate soil biodiversity science with ongoing global scientific efforts to enhance information exchange and is achieving this through several activities including developing the first Global Soil Atlas, a proposal for a Global Soil Biodiversity Assessment, and serving to support international soil biodiversity research initiatives and soil related policy agendas. http://www.globalsoilbiodiversity.org.