Designing soil biodiversity education programs for diverse audiences

This workshop aims to address the need for more education programs on soil biodiversity for diverse audiences at all age levels, including children, undergraduate and graduate students, and adults in many careers. The main goal is to help participants think critically about translating soil biodiversity science into clear, engaging and creative messages for diverse audiences. Using the backward design method, participants will be guided through the intentional alignment of learning outcomes and learning activities that engage a target audience. The workshop targets everyone attending the GSBI conference, particularly those with responsibilities for education and outreach, and will be structured with brief presentations, small group brainstorming, sharing of small group work, and question-and-answer opportunities. The intended outcomes and benefits for participants include improved skills and ideas for developing new educational programs and materials, which can be used in their respective jobs and communities, and formalizing their ideas into publishable materials for journals, books, and websites to benefit the wider soil biodiversity research community.

For further details contact lbyrne@rwu.edu

#GlobalCollembola – Towards Open Knowledge on the Global Springtail Diversity and Ecology

This workshop aims to present last advances of #GlobalCollembola activities, establish concepts for community, taxonomic, and trait data curation strategies, present and discuss a synthesis project idea, and network within the initiative and with other global initiatives represented at the conference. The workshop is an open event which primarily invites #GlobalCollembola participants, but welcomes all interested persons who would like to discuss ideas, join the initiative, or propose collaborations with other initiatives/projects. The intended outcomes and benefits for participants are an overview of the available data, running activities, and future plans of #GlobalCollembola; the opportunity to join the initiative and contribute to the discussion on the strategy and the synthesis project idea; and the chance to connect to people with relevant expertise across ecology, taxonomy, and phylogeny of springtails.

For more details contact potapov.msu@gmail.com

NETSOB: mainstreaming soil biodiversity to halt biodiversity loss and ensure healthy soils for sustainable development

This workshop aims to present the work and progress of the International Network on Soil Biodiversity (NETSOB) and the Global Soil Biodiversity Observatory (GLOSOB) to scientists, researchers, international organizations, decision-makers, and other stakeholders interested in contributing to soil biodiversity monitoring, sustainable use, economics, and policies. The workshop will provide a platform for fruitful discussions on the challenges and opportunities in implementing the Global Soil Biodiversity Observatory. The intended outcomes for participants include contributing to the development of global standards and best practices for the sustainable use and conservation of soil biodiversity, and raising awareness of the importance of soil biodiversity in addressing environmental and socio-economic challenges such as climate change, pollution, and food insecurity. A fruitful discussion is expected on the scope, challenges, and opportunities posed by the implementation of GLOSOB.

Threats to Soil Biodiversity caused by Multiple, Concurrently acting Factors of Global Change

This workshop aims to address the need for the soil biodiversity research community to confront the problem of multiple, concurrently acting threats to soil biodiversity in a concerted fashion. The workshop is open to researchers, practitioners, and individuals interested in global change, policy, and the restoration and conservation of soil biodiversity. The workshop will include an overview presentation on previous and ongoing work on the topic, followed by discussions with participants aimed at identifying key challenges and obstacles for this type of work, exploring potential links to policy, and joint funding opportunities. The intended outcomes include greater awareness among participants of the role of multiple concurrent drivers in their own work, new linkages among soil biodiversity researchers, and potential formation of networks for funding applications. The workshop is expected to result in the writing of a viewpoint/perspective paper involving some of the participants on the policy consequences of multiple threats to biodiversity.

Biodiversity and Bioturbation: Development of a Research Collective and Call for Collaborators

The workshop aims to bring together researchers interested in soil bioturbation to develop a research collective that will collate existing data, provide the state-of-the-art in measurement methods and data processing, and support distributed experiments using novel techniques. The participants will include of field scientists, technologists, modellers, and practitioners. The workshop will include several talks, a feedback session, breakout groups to address specific questions, scoring, and a final open discussion session. The intended outcomes are an expanded research collective, agreed contributions to a manuscript covering the aims of the research collective, and an outline plan for a distributed experiment, including funding. Participants will gain knowledge of state-of-the-art bioturbation methods, have the opportunity to contribute to the development of ideas for distributed experiments, and join the research collective.

For further details contact aidan.keith@ceh.ac.uk

Molecular and traditional methods to assess soil biodiversity

This workshop will be organised in the form of a round table presentations, where representatives of the three H2020 sister projects – SoildiverAgro, SOILGUARD, and EXCALIBUR – will present the projects aims and outcomes and the methodologies used for soil biodiversity assessment, orienting the session towards opening debate among the speakers and the attendees.

The second part will be led by 3 relevant speakers from SoilBON, EUdaphobase and JRC LUCAS which will introduce their initiatives and follow by an interactive discussion between participants.

All presentations will be followed by the Q&A session, where the audience will be encouraged to actively participate in the debate, share the methods they are using, compare traditional and molecular approaches, discuss the perks and barriers for harmonisation or even if harmonisation is possible and desirable. Brochures/Leaflets/posters/Booklets presenting the three projects and initiatives will be hand in.

For further details see www.excaliburh2020.eu/en/molecular-and-traditional-nethods-to-assess-soil-biodiversity/ or contact info@excaliburh2020.eu

14 March

Second slot 14 to 15:30

• 5 minutes. Brief introduction between 3 initiatives
• 10 minutes. EUdaphobase presentation. Clement Schneider
• 10 minutes. JRC LUCAS presentation. Alberto Orgiazzi
• 10 minutes. SoilBON presentation. Carlos Guerra
• 20 minutes. Questions to speakers prior prepared.
• 35 minutes.  Q&A with attendees

Soil BON: Global Monitoring to aid Conservation of Soil Biodiversity

This workshop aims to discuss the status and dynamics of soil biodiversity and related ecosystem functions globally. The workshop is an open event for Soil BON participants and other interested individuals to discuss ideas, join the initiative, or propose collaborations with other projects. The format of the workshop will include presentations, world café/breakout groups discussions, and a general open discussion. The workshop will mainly contribute to the conference topics of ‘global drivers of biodiversity’ and ‘threats and protection of soil biodiversity,’ with a focus on critical nature conservation aspects of life belowground. The intended outcomes and benefits for participants are an overview of the available data, running activities, and future plans of Soil BON and the opportunity to join the initiative and contribute to the discussion on the strategy and add-on projects ideas.

For more details go to www.soilbonfoodweb.org/contribute/ or contact potapov.msu@gmail.com

Microbiomes for All! Undergraduate Research Experiences with Microbiomes Network (REMNet) Data Analysis Workshop

This workshop is designed for faculty to train undergraduate students in data analysis of soil microbiome projects. It covers creating metadata files, processing data from FASTQ files using Nephele pipeline, and interpreting data for alpha-diversity and beta-diversity metrics, relative abundance bar-charts, rarefaction curves, heatmaps, Venn diagrams, linear discriminant analysis effect size, and phylogenetic trees. The workshop is intended for 15-30 participants and does not require coding or advanced bioinformatics skills. Participants should have laptop computers and an internet connection, and all necessary data files and resources will be provided through a shared Google Drive folder. The workshop will help faculty to provide training in the scientific process to their students and can address core learning goals in a wide range of courses, including microbiology, ecology, genetics, environmental studies, and others.

For further details see www.microbiomesforall.com/about or contact  tmuth@brooklyn.cuny.edu

Global Biodiversity Information Facility (GBIF): data solutions to address soil biodiversity gaps across scales

The Global Biodiversity Information Facility (GBIF) is addressing soil biodiversity data gaps by utilizing DNA sequences to fill these gaps with speed, cover, and precision. DNA-derived occurrence data, represented as samples and sequences with dates and coordinates, are made discoverable and interpretable through GBIF, which recently assembled guidelines for resurfacing DNA-derived data beyond genetic data repositories. These guidelines target the principles and approaches of exposing DNA-derived occurrence data in the context of broader biodiversity data. The inclusion of operational taxonomic units (OTU) identifiers for fungi, prokaryotes, and arthropods allows finer-grained taxonomic annotation of incoming occurrence data derived from water and soil samples. The workshop will cover advances in this area, describe the benefits of cross-platform data discoverability, and provide an overview of data publishing through GBIF.

For further details visit www.gbif.org or www.geobon.org/bons/thematic-bon/soil-bon or contact dschigel@gbif.org, tfroeslev@gbif.org or carlos.guerra@idiv.de. For a call for data papers describing datasets on soil biodiversity  see www.gbif.org/news/232EKewXfNDeh0U7vAUbsG

For a call on data papers describing datasets on soil biodiversity, click on the link below

SPUN Workshop on Global Sampling Campaigns

The Society for the Protection of Underground Networks (SPUN) is an initiative that maps mycorrhizal fungal communities and advocates for their protection. SPUN collaborates with various groups to promote the inclusion of mycorrhizal fungal networks in conservation and climate agendas. Thes aim of this workshopis to discuss global microbial community sampling, with a focus on forming collaborations, developing sampling protocols, sequencing technologies, and data sharing, while considering ethics and inclusivity in the field. The target audience is researchers contributing or using data generated by large-scale global sampling campaigns, with an aim to encourage collaboration and discussion on pooling of expertise and resources for global projects aiming to understand soil biodiversity.

For further details see https://www.spun.earth/ or contact bethan@spun.earth

Resolving Herbivory Effects on Soil Biodiversity

This workshop aims to address the complex relationship between herbivory and soil biodiversity by convening soil ecologists with experience and data on plant, soil, and herbivore interactions in any system. The workshop will focus on three goals: to define the most pressing question regarding herbivory and soil biodiversity, synthesize knowledge, and compile data and collaborators for future analysis. Participants are invited with a mix of experience and enthusiasm for contributing to meta-analysis and synthesis. The workshop will be divided into three time blocks, each focused on specific tasks, including an introduction and presentation of existing knowledge, subgroup discussions, and recruitment of committed collaborators for future work. Participants will emerge from the workshop with a better understanding of herbivory and soil diversity interactions, and will have the opportunity to contribute to a synthesis manuscript and future research collaborations.

For further details contact kruminsj@montclair.edu

Metadata standards and data submission to the National Microbiome Data Collaborative

This workshop aims to teach researchers studying soil microbial communities how to make their data FAIR and standardize their metadata. The workshop, conducted by the National Microbiome Data Collaborative (NMDC), will cover best practices for metadata and data management, including how to use the NMDC submission and data portals. The workshop will consist of presentations, a hands-on tutorial, a data scavenger hunt, and discussion. The target audience includes researchers generating omics data. The intended outcomes of the workshop are for attendees to have a better understanding of FAIR data principles and how to use the tools provided by the NMDC for data sharing, access, and discovery.

For further details see   https://microbiomedata.org/ and https://data.microbiomedata.org/ or contact montana.smith@pnnl.gov

Restoration of Soil Biodiversity