GSS EU Science Funding Gateway

Soils underpin the delivery of a range of ecosystem services which are essential for the environmental, social and economic wellbeing of people. Many of these services such as the production of biomass for food and other uses, removal of pollutants, support of aboveground biodiversity (e.g. farmland birds), provision of soil structure, nutrient cycling and carbon storage depend on the activities of a fascinating and complex network of soil organisms such as insects, invertebrates, bacterial and fungal organisms.

While our knowledge about individual components of soil biodiversity has significantly increased, the links between soil biodiversity, the multifunctionality of soils and the delivery of ecosystem services needs to be further explored. Furthermore, there is still a need to better understand the overall organisation of soil organisms (e.g. in terms of abundance, species richness, relationships of interdependence, evolution through time and community structure) and how pressures and drivers (including their interactions) resulting from different forms of land use and climate change affect the composition, functions, resilience and adaptation capacities of soil biota and their capacity to support multiple ecosystem services (ES).