soil biology and monitoring environmental change - cieem · soil biology and monitoring...
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Soil Biology and Monitoring
Environmental Change
Matthew Shepherd
Senior Specialist, Soil Biodiversity, Natural England
Soil Biology and Monitoring Environmental Change
“ Generations have trod, have trod, have trod
And all is seared with trade; bleared, smeared with toil
And wears man’s smudge and shares man’s smell: the soil
Is bare now, nor can foot feel, being shod.
And for all this, nature is never spent...”
Gerard Manley Hopkins, 1877
Soil Biology and Monitoring Environmental Change
• A new long-term monitoring programme
• Assessing soils and soil biology
• Baseline results
• Implications for soil monitoring and function
• Soil biodiversity – an end in itself?
Long-term Monitoring
Programme
Glensaugh
Sourhope
Porton
Wytham
North Wyke
Drayton
Y Wyddfa
(Snowdon)
Rothamsted
Hillsborough Moor House - Upper Teesdale
15
14
17
13
16
3
22
2
1079
6
5
4 8
11
1
1921
12
L
I
FJ
K
NOP
G
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C A
DE
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18
Alice Holt25
2324
26
Cairngorms
20
• Builds on ECN
• What are long-term
effects on biodiversity
and ecosystem function
of:
� climate change
� air pollution
� land management
• Environmental Change
Biodiversity Network
proposed
• Develop cost effective,
integrated monitoring
to 2050 and beyond.
• 40 or more core monitoring sites in England by end 2014.
• Built on existing monitoring
• 20 current core sites – all SSSI, mostly NNRs and SACs.
• Data will be managed by CEH
Long-term Monitoring
Programme
• Climate and air quality
• Automatic weather station
• NH3 diffusion tubes
• Precipitation and chemistry
• Biodiversity
• Butterflies (BMS)
• Birds (BBS)
• Vegetation - 50 quadrats,
spp. cover, height, etc.
Long-term Monitoring Programme
Assessing soils and soil biology
• How to integrate soils?
• ECN - soil physico-chemical
properties
• Make compatible and follow
advice:
• SQuID project - biological
indicators of soil quality
• Countryside survey – soil
monitoring
• UK SIC – environmental
interactions
• New soil methodology trialled at
9 sites 2011-2012
Assessing soils and soil biology
• Five 20m square
plots marked out
in homogeneous
vegetation
• Each divided into
100 2m square
subplots
• Assessments
made in field
• Samples taken
for lab analysis
• Most samples
bulked from 4
sub-plots
Assessing soils and soil biology
• Field observations
• Photograph
• Main plant spp.
cover to 5%
• Biogenic
structures
• Soil pit – photo,
horizons, visual
assessment.
Assessing soils and soil biology
• Cores taken, bulked and
analysed for
• Bulk density
• %C, %N
• Loss On Ignition
• pH
• CEC and cations
• Olsen and Total P
Assessing soils and soil biology
• On unbulked cores
• Soil function and biology
• NO3 and NH4
mineralisation
• PLFAs
• tRFLP – bacterial
genetic diversity.
• Nematodes
• Mesofauna.
Assessing soils and soil biology
• Project delivered by Helaina
Black, Andrew Cuthbert, Jason
Owen, Roy Neilson et al at the
James Hutton Institute
• Fieldwork in collaboration
with SAC
• Intended for Sept –delays
meant Dec – Jan fieldwork
• Weather, flood, disease!
• Mesofauna and nematodes
will be ID’ed during coming
year
• NE staff and volunteers
trained at new FSC course
Baseline results – physico-chemical
• Sig. between-
site differences
for almost all
parameters
• Physico-
chemical results
not too
surprising!
Implications for soil monitoring and soil function
• What size of changes can we detect?
– pH – ~0.4 pH units
– ~20% change in bulk density
– Over 100% change in NH4 mineralised!
– tRFLP - 7% change in evenness, 12% change in richness
– PLFA – 35-50% changes - better than soil cations!
• Soil physico-chemical properties change slowly
– detect change of habitats? Easier ways...
• Soil biological properties may be more sensitive
• Soil function – little evidence so far
• Future - link above and below-ground changes
• Recent NE review – what practices and systems could provide
benefits to soil biota and agriculture?
– Organic matter management
– Reduced or no-till
– Diversification of cropping
• Much evidence from disparate and non-UK sources
• Coordinated UK research/demonstrations needed
Implications for soil monitoring and soil function
• Soil biology a sensitive indicator...
• Different habitats have distinct soil communities
• Soil biodiversity is now better understood than ever
• Expertise is waning – can new technologies be used?
• Some groups are simply neglected – traditional conservation?
• Others (eg. microbes) may require new genetic approaches
Workshop on Conservation of Soil Organisms,
July 12th, Natural History Museum, London.
Soil biodiversity – an end in itself?