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Symposia
2: Soil
Biodiversity: Scaling from microbe to ecosystem
Sponsored
by the British Ecological Society
Monday,
August 8, 8 AM - 11:30 AM, Meeting Room 517b, Level 5, Palais des congrès
de Montréal
Organizers:
Alastair Fitter (ahf1@york.ac.uk), Caroline Keenan, Hefin Jones
Description:
The
extraordinary biodiversity in soils, especially of prokaryotes and fungi, is
increasingly recognized, but its ecological significance remains unclear.
Several recent programs have tackled the problem and the availability of new
techniques is beginning to allow us to ask some key questions. Current threats
to soil globally are severe: it is estimated that 2% of the global stock of
cultivated soil is lost annually. Potential impacts of soil degradation and loss
for food production, ecosystem stability, and carbon sequestration are therefore
large. This symposium asks whether we can use data gathered at the fine scale
that characterizes most research on soil biodiversity to predict the behavior of
processes at the scale of the ecosystem. Topics include the extent to which
models can guide us in determining research approaches.
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