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Featured Projects

Projects featured here focus on broad global aspects of soil biodiversity with special interest in citizen science and outreach.

EcoFINDERS

EcoFINDERS, financed by the European Union FP7, with 23 European partners and running from 2011 to 2014, is:

  • characterizing the biodiversity of European soils and the normal operating range (NOR) according to soil types, threats, climatic zones and land uses.
  • determining relationships between soil biodiversity, functioning and ecosystem services.
  • quantifying the economic values of soil ecosystem services.
  • evaluating the impacts of human activities on soil biodiversity, functioning and services.
  • designing policy-relevant and cost-effective indicators for monitoring soil biodiversity, functioning and ecosystem services.
  • and thereby providing environmental managers and administrators with validated soil biodiversity indicators and tools for ecosystem service assessments.

Contact: Scientific Coordinator Dr. Phillippe Lemanceau (philippe.lemanceau@dijon.inra.fr)

Tea Bag Index

Developed by a team of researchers from the University of Utrecht, The Netherlands Institute of Ecology and the University of Iceland, the Tea Bag Index (TBI) project examines decomposition rates around the world.  The project is low cost and utilizes citizen science to expand its implementation.

 

 

Census of Soil Invertebrates

At the fifth International Oligochaeta Taxonomy Meeting (IOTM) in 2011, Robert J. Blakemore presented a call for the Census of Soil Invertebrates (COSI).  The consensus will provide a central registry for soil fauna. Preliminary attempts to provide a soil fauna matrix were presented in 2007 and a compellation resource on earthworms is freely available online.

 
 
 
 
 
 

Map of Life

Currently in beta mode avaiable from Diversitas, Map of Life allows users to examine global biodiversity across all scales in all ecoystems.