The Living Soil: Biodiversity and Functions

Abstract

Soil biodiversity encompasses an enormous array of life on the planet. Soil organisms are essential for most processes and functions in the soil. Soil biological knowledge is critical for understanding functions such as nutrient supply to plants, carbon sequestration and greenhouse gas emissions, all of which are key to meeting the global challenges of food security and climate change mitigation. Soil microorganisms include a wide array of bacterial, archaeal and eukaryotic taxa. Microbes are extremely diverse and abundant, with up to 10 billion microorganisms predicted in a single gram of soil. Nematodes provide a good case study of a soil faunal group that encompasses all feeding habits within their own taxonomic group. Their different feeding habits mean that nematodes provide many and different connections in soil food webs. Microarthropods are discussed, as representing a well-studied soil animal group in Ireland in terms of their community ecology and biogeography, with several species of the Mesostigmata identified. Knowledge of larger animals such as earthworms is more complete, with 27 species recorded from Ireland.