Blog Archive:
Beneath Our Feet
Why should we care about soil biodiversity?
By Barbra Fricks
Last week a key group of soil biodiversity scientists arrived in Fort Collins with a bang despite a massive snowstorm. Delayed flights and cold temperatures couldn’t keep this group down; they were on a mission to develop a Global Soil Biodiversity Assessment/Atlas on the state of global soil biodiversity. Soil scientists are some of the most passionate people I’ve ever met and soil biodiversity researchers kick it up a notch. Soil biodiversity rarely appears in biodiversity assessments, which I believe fuels the desire to put in the extra hours and get educational resources, such as an Atlas, out to the public.
Every participant showed up ready to go for the opening session Tuesday morning, February 26 2013. Colorado State University (CSU) Vice-President and Provost Rick Miranda opened the session with a warm-hearted welcome. He offered full support for the collaborative effort and appeared to take pride in the fact that CSU is a central role in the efforts. James Cooney, the Vice Provost of International Programs, followed Rick. Impressively Dr. Cooney stayed for the entire morning sessions despite a busy schedule to learn more about soil biodiversity prior to moderating the lunch panel. The morning schedule followed with a series of talks--see agenda for full list. Notably during the coffee break many of the scientists mingled with persons attending the session not participating in the Workshop. The lunch panel discussion, “Global Science Policy and the Soils Challenge” was a huge success and ended with some questions remaining unasked; clearly there was a demand by the public for more information on soil biodiversity.
Once behind closed doors the scientists jumped right into the task at hand. A lively discussion on whether there should be an Atlas, Assessment, or both dominated the afternoon session. The debate featured a range of scientific perspectives with Dr. Luca Montanarella of the European Commission routinely reminding the group what they found the most effective aspects of the European Global Soil Biodiversity Atlas from a policy perspective– cool pictures. Ultimately the group agreed to produce an Atlas in three years, identified core topic areas, and discussed how to get the much-needed pictures.
Day two proved just as productive as day one. The scientists broke out into small groups to discuss the topic areas and potential outline. The consistent pattern of small breakout groups, entire group discussion, and breaks provided the needed rest after a super productive group sessions, re-energizing the scientists to come back to the table ready to work.
By Thursday, day three, we were so ahead we took a slightly longer morning break enjoying some videos on soil biodiversity. The scientists also submitted their top eight reasons why soil biodiversity is important, which we made into a word cloud that impressed everyone present. Surprisingly few scientists included biodiversity in their reasons but money ended up ranking high –heads up neglecting soil biodiversity may affect your pocket books!
I have attended several workshops over my career and can take a page from the effectiveness of these scientists. At first I had doubts on the three-year time frame outlined for the Atlas, but while tight, the timeline seems completely feasible in light of the GSBA Workshop. Participants stayed energetic and on task for the entire three days despite the jet lag and grueling schedule. While there were disagreements, for example on the role of maps in the atlas, ultimately everybody came to a common consensus regarding the final product. It will take a massive effort and dedication by all the scientists involved, but after what I saw, I think they are up for the task!
Stay tuned for progress updates and ways to get involved.
For more pictures of the event visit: http://www.globalsoilbiodiversity.org/GSBAW_Pictures
For a full participant list visit: http://www.globalsoilbiodiversity.org/GSBAW_Participants
Barbara Fricks is the Project Director for the Global Soil Biodiversity Initiative. She worked as a science communication intern in Washington DC with the Soil Science Society of America, and is currently pursuing her PhD at Colorado State in Soil Microbial Ecology
GSBI at Rio+20: The future we want
Tomorrow GSBI Leadership Dr. Diana Wall and Dr. Kelly Ramirez will be heading down to the Rio +20 United Nations Conference on Sustainable Development. They will be meeting up with Dr. Luca Montanarella to participate in the GSBI organized side event- ‘Towards a Truly Global Soil Biodiversity Initiative’. This side event was organized by Dr. Heitor Coutinho and Dr. George Brown of Embrapa. The goals of GSBI at Rio+20 is to promote GSBI scientific activities, including a Global Soil Biodiversity Assessment, and help establish the role of GSBI alongside the Convention on Biological Diversity and other global environmental agreements.
What is Rio+20: The Rio+20 conference is a gathering of world leaders and participants- totalling up to 65,000 people - working to identify the path forward for Earth’s Sustainable Development through reducing poverty, increasing equality and promoting environmental protection. Rio+20 represents the 20 years that have passed since the 1992 Earth Summit in Rio. At this meeting 20 years ago a goal was set to restructure how governments think about economic growth and improve the quality of life for all, with specific attention being paid to social equality and environmental protection. While progress has been made, more can be done. To reach these goals, the conference has 2 main themes: 1. How to build a green economy to achieve sustainable development and lift people out of poverty? and 2. How to improve international coordination for sustainable development? These themes will be supported by 7 priority areas: decent jobs, energy, sustainable cities, food security and sustainable agriculture, water, oceans and disaster readiness.
While the actual negotiations and conference partnerships will occur June 20-22, there are a huge number of side events occurring prior to this main event. Over 500 side events will work to present focused commitments, summarizing how each specific side event will contribute to sustainable development.
Why should the GSBI be present: The GSBI has organized a side event at Rio+20 in order to bring greater awareness to the importance of soil biodiversity to ecosystem services, including: food, fiber, fuel, energy, primary productivity, disease mitigation and soil security. The Earth’s soils are living, dynamic interfaces that are supported by millions of microbial and animal species. Yet, despite the numerous benefits soil biodiversity delivers, it is often left out of policy decision. Attending Rio+20 is just one of many actions the GSBI is taking to ensure soil biodiversity is incorporated into environmental policy agendas.
Additional info: The GSBI will have presenters in the 'World Day to Combat Desertification Global Observance Event: Securing Healthy Soils and Stopping Land Degradation' session, a full schedule can be found on our website.
If you are following the Rio+20 events from home, please also check our website for regular updates on these side events and others, and follow our twitter updates @theGSBI.
GSBI at Planet Under Pressure (PUP) 2012
Planet Under Pressure (PUP) 2012
Day 1 - Sunday:
The entire GSBI team will be arriving in London throughout the week in preparation for our inaugural workshop, Friday March 30th| 9am-3pm. Today we sat down to discuss the week's schedule- what talks we need to see, who we need to meet and the goals we want to accomplish. There are some big hitters at PuP 2012 and our goal is to bring awareness to GSBI.
Tonight at the PUP reception, the keynote speaker, Sir Bob Watson, spoke of our ‘imperative to act’, discussing the steps needed to make the world a sustainable place. Already we have surpassed a turning point- the world will be warming through 2030 and numerous species have gone extinct. Our goal now is to prevent further warming and environmental destruction in the following decades. Sir Watson spoke of education, research and development, and training as means to prevent further loss of biodiversity. Other actions needed include: education of children and elderly, empowering of women, improved healthcare for children and elderly and contraception for all. Surrounding all these actions we need improved economics, using GDP as a measure of economics health is not sufficient. Implementation of Sustainable Economics, going beyond GDP, is the next step. Sir Watson, finished, saying ‘the age of innocence is over’... ‘the time to act was 20 years ago’... ‘now governments must be held accountable’.
Ominous words to begin out week.
Shunichi Samihima of the Asahi Glass Foundation followed the speaker, taking a moment to talk about Rio+20, then inviting us to the reception.
Reception run-ins: Bonding with Peter Raven over ‘dirt bugs and worms’ (colloquialisms for microbes and nematodes). Tom Lovejoy, Gina Adams, Kathy Galvin, Steve Running, Hal Mooney all seemed excited about the GSBI prospects.
Dinner- Win for Kentucky!
GSBI at Planet Under Pressure: Days 2 & 3
Planet Under Pressure (PUP) 2012 - Day 2 & 3:
The tones of urgency, warning and directness are presented repeatedly- no matter the subject. Still, there is a collective optimism (lead by Nobel Laureate Elinor Ostrom) and determination, suggesting that this meeting really will initiate the changes we need to see to mediate climate change and reduce biodiversity losses. The goal for GSBI is to integrate soil biodiversity into the conversation.
Some important questions/ideas/thoughts:
How can we integrate in measurements of soil systems?
We are losing the strength of the terrestrial biosphere to act as a carbon sink.
When talking about ecosystems- we need to remember that there is a huge living component, without it, ecosystems would be lost.
The role of scientists is to increase the dialogue with social actors- focus on ‘translation’ and ‘communication’ that will bring the best information to the public and policy makers.
The earth’s ecosystems are over exploited and overextended- what can we do to conserve diversity and mediate land use changes (Georgina Mace)
Finally, many of Tuesday’s talks have focused on HOW we can start synthesizing the immense amount of information and data for the maximum benefit (e.g. GEOBON, DOPA). And we are still just skimming the surface, there is much ‘Unknown Biodiversity’ including the microbes!