Raising awareness for soil biodiversity and multiplying monitoring by student-based Citizen Science
Call
Duration
01/03/2024 – 28/02/2027
Total grant
Approx. 1,2 mil. €
More information
PD Dr. Martin POTTHOFF
martin.potthoff@zentr.uni- goettingen.de
Partners of the project
- Center of Biodiversity and sustainable Land Use, University of Göttingen, Göttingen, Germany
- Department of Crop Sciences/ Experimental Farm Gross-Enzersdorf, University of Natural Resources and Life Science (BOKU), Vienna, Austria
- Department of Soil Science and Agrophysics, Krakow, University of Agriculture in Krakow, Krakow, Poland
- UCD School of Agriculture and Food Science, University College Dublin, Dublin, Ireland
- UMR ECOBIO 6553, University of Rennes 1, Rennes, France
- Living Lab Clef, Plelan-le-Grand, France
Context
Soil organisms are neglected by conservation policies compared to the biodiversity contained in most other habitats. Indeed, below-ground biodiversity is hard to monitor at scale due to its cryptic living and low recognition in public and science. Yet, stakeholders (e.g. farmers, gardeners, local authorities, urban planners, and natural area managers) show a growing interest in obtaining simple and reliable indicators to assess soil biodiversity, quality and functioning. Among soil organisms, earthworms are widely recognised as relevant bioindicators of soil quality. They are also considered as soil ecosystem engineers. In the context of decreasing biodiversity, conserving high abundance and diversity of earthworms is of major interest, since they represent an important below-ground node maintaining above-ground trophic networks
SoilRise takes earthworms to exemplify an approach of combining cross-European sampling of earthworms through Citizen Science (CS) with barcode analyses to ensure high data quality to model earthworm distribution and communities at European scale. Barcoding will help to harmonise taxonomic dissent and improve and validate morphological identification keys. SoilRise will contribute to the specifications of Essential Biodiversity Variables (EBVs) and Essential Ecosystem Services Variables (EESVs) within EuropaBON efforts for below- ground biodiversity in terrestrial systems. SoilRise will develop an interactive network between academia and the public to enable extensive and accurate soil biodiversity monitoring.
Main objectives
- Boost data and its availability on earthworm communities across Europe;
- Raise soil biodiversity related awareness and enthusiasm among stakeholders and the public;
- Identify species at risk and define tools and measures for protection;
- Harmonise the taxonomy of earthworms across Europe;
- Explore diversity patterns across Europe, including interspecific variability;
- Identify potential non-native species;
- Valuation of social-ecological impacts of CS in student-stakeholders collaboration chain.
Main activities
- SoilRise will create a student-based research network of Citizen Scientists (land managers, stakeholders and citizens), students, and researchers in each partner country;
- Analyses of earthworm diversity and abundance in relation to habitat and implications for earthworm conservation;
- DNA barcoding in the SoilRise-network for intraspecific variability and future identification of potential new records, cases of cryptic and complex species;
- Socio-ecological valuation of the student-based citizen science approach;
- SoilRise will raise public awareness of the importance of soils and communicate the crucial role of soil organisms in sustaining life on the planet.