The values of soil animals for conservation biology

Decaëns, Thibaud; Jiménez, Juan J.; Gioia, Carmela La; Measey, John; Lavelle, Patrick

doi:10.1016/j.ejsobi.2006.07.001

Cited by 310 publications

(195 citation statements)

References 63 publications

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“…In general, there is a lack of ecosystem service values in the literature for the multitude of benefits we receive from the natural environment (Decaens et al, 2006). A number of the identified ecosystem services provided by the WHP area were not valued due to a lack of information.…”

Section: Ecosystem Service Quantification and Valuationmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Plant root structures break up rock, retain soil and extract soil minerals required for growth. Soil fauna provide important services in forming and shaping soils and are appropriately referred to as ecosystem engineers (Decaens et al, 2006;Feller et al, 2003). The soil formation services provided by the soil biota of the WHP area is discussed qualitatively.…”

Section: Soil Formationmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Soil formation is the product of abiotic (climate, mineral substrate) and biotic (vegetation and soil biota) activity (Decaens et al, 2006;Feller et al, 2003). Climate-driven processes such as freeze-thaw and precipitation events influence the formation of soils.…”

Section: Soil Formationmentioning

confidence: 99%

See 2 more Smart Citations

Sustainable Development

Meadowcroft¹

2011

The SAGE Handbook of Governance

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Section: Ecosystem Service Quantification and Valuationmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Soil Formationmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Sustainable Development

Meadowcroft¹

2011

The SAGE Handbook of Governance

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“…Despite their crucial contribution to global biodiversity, soil organisms have only weakly engaged the attention of taxonomists compared with other groups, such as higher plants and vertebrates [105,106]. Below-ground taxa suffer from a conspicuous deficit of interest from the scientific community and we still know very little about their taxonomy, systematics and biogeography.…”

Section: The Present Situation Of Farming Systems: Impacts and Pressuresmentioning

confidence: 99%

Large-Scale Agricultural Management and Soil Meso- and Macrofauna Conservation in the Argentine Pampas

Bedano

Domínguez

2016

Sustainability

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Soil is the most basic resource for sustainable agricultural production; it promotes water quality, is a key component of the biogeochemical cycles and hosts a huge diversity of organisms. However, we are not paying enough attention to soil degradation produced by land use. Modern agriculture has been successful in increasing yields but has also caused extensive environmental damage, particularly soil degradation. In the Argentine Pampas, agriculturization reached a peak with the generalized use of the no-till technological package: genetically modified soybeans tolerant to glyphosate, no-till, glyphosate, and inorganic fertilizers. This phenomenon has been widely spread in the country; the no-till package has been applied in large areas and has been used by tenants in a 60%-70% of cultivated lands. Thus, those who were involved in developing management practices may not be the same as those who will face degradation issues related to those practices. Indeed, most evidence reviewed in this paper suggests that the most widely distributed practices in the Pampas region are actually producing severe soil degradation. Biological degradation is particularly important because soil biota is involved in numerous soil processes on which soil functioning relies, affecting soil fertility and productivity. For example, soil meso-and macrofauna are especially important in nutrient cycling and in soil structure formation and maintenance, and they are key components of the network that links microbial process to the scale of fields and landscapes where ecosystem services are produced. However, the knowledge of the impact of different agricultural managements on soil meso-and macrofauna in Pampas agroecosystems is far from conclusive at this stage. The reason for this lack of definite conclusions is that this area has been given less attention than in other parts of the world; the response of soil fauna to agricultural practices is complex and taxa-dependent; and there is a wide variety of practices in the main types of agricultural systems, making generalizations difficult. A review of the existing studies on soil meso-and macrofauna in agroecosystems, revealed that (a) agricultural soils, regardless of farming system, are strongly modified in biological aspects compared to the same soils without human interventions; (b) there are no conclusive results about no-till benefits compared to reduced tillage or conventional tillage; (c) agricultural managements that are alternative to the traditional conventional systems are very poorly represented in research.

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“…The paucity of research in the tropics is remarkable when one considers that tropical forests contain some of the greatest biodiversity and biomass on the planet, 20% of the planet's C within the first 3 m of their soil, and are considered one of the most critical biogeographic zones for global nutrient cycling and C and N sequestration (Jobbágy and Jackson, 2000). As such, understanding how vegetation and soil fungal and bacterial communities interact to drive the decomposition and nutrient cycle processes in the tropics is especially critical now as deforestation of these unique and critical habitats has resulted in deleterious impacts at local, regional and global scales, including an atmospheric rise in greenhouse gas levels (Keller et al 1993, Cochrane and Laurance 2002, Laurance and Peres 2006, shifts in biodiversity (Ehrlich and Wilson 1991), and negative impacts on nutrient cycles (Reiners et al 1994, Nüsslein and Tiedje, 1999, Cleveland et al 2003, Decaëns et al 2006, thus, representing a great threat to the global nutrient cycles and C and N sequestration (e.g., Laurance et al 1997, Wolters et al 2000, Campo et al 2001, Carney et al 2004, Feldpausch et al 2004, Waldrop and Firestone 2006, Clark 2007, Ewing et al 2007, Sahrawat 2008). Yet, little is known of the important factors associated with establishing, maintaining, and/or changing the level and rates of activity of the biogeochemical nutrient cycles within tropical forest communities, ecosystems, and landscapes.…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%