Book of Abstracts

Abstract

A major global sustainability challenge involves the management of ecosystems to ensure the provision of multiple ecosystem services. There is increasing evidence that soil organisms significantly contribute to shaping the biodiversity and functioning of plants in terrestrial ecosystems, as well as the ecological and evolutionary responses to environmental change. While still limited, knowledge about the spatial and temporal patterns of soil biodiversity and mechanistic understanding of how it regulates the structure and function of terrestrial ecosystems are growing rapidly. In this session we will be exploring a number of questions: How to integrate this new understanding into existing and novel frameworks of biodiversityfunctioning research?, How to best improve our understanding of the mechanisms that shape complex soil biological communities at different spatial and temporal scales?, How to best study the impact of soil biodiversity on plant traits in response to environmental change?, How do we most effectively integrate insights of soil biodiversity research into sustainable land management decisions?. The presentations in this workshop may include a range of approaches, methodologies and tools. These may include spatial analysis, aboveground and belowground biodiversity monitoring, functional traits and ecosystem services, decisionsupport systems, capacity development of stakeholders, local knowledge on biodiversity interactions and land management. Voluntary contributions accepted: