SCOPE SSBEF Workshop
Overview of SSBEF
Workshop Structure
Workshop Questions
Responses to Questions
Your Responsibilities
Essential Reading


Overview of SSBEF Committee
The SSBEF Committee is sponsored by the Scientific Committee on Problems of the Environment (SCOPE), which is a Committee of the International Council for Science (ICSU). Through cutting edge evaluations and assessments, SCOPE acts at the interface of science and decision-making spheres to provide policymakers with the analytical tools necessary to promote sound management and policy practices on emerging environmental problems. SCOPE established the SSBEF committee in 1995, identifying that a lack of science-based knowledge in this area posed a significant impediment to achieving sustainability.

Through collaboration between international taxonomists and ecosystem scientists with expertise in soils, freshwater sediments and marine sediments, the SSBEF Committee has developed state of the art interdisciplinary syntheses and identified research and policy areas that need the most urgent attention. The committee has held three international workshops, chaired by Dr. Diana Wall. The workshops have resulted in 41 publications in journals read by scientists, managers and policy-makers. Additionally, the SSBEF workshop syntheses have helped launch a new integrative discipline that crosses traditionally isolated disciplines (e.g. taxonomy, biogeochemistry, ecology), management and domains (terrestrial, atmospheric, freshwater and marine). This new scientific approach has contributed data to advance a more integrated and holistic understanding of earth-system functioning.

For further reading on SSBEF syntheses and research priorities, please follow the link here <SSBEF syntheses>.


Workshop Structure
The workshops and syntheses of the SCOPE SSBEF Committee have advanced a paradigm shift in understanding biodiversity in soils and sediments. Scientists have acquired a more complete picture of these domains, especially the keystone taxa and functions, and are beginning to learn to what extent they are being, and may continue to be, disrupted and impaired by global change. They have also identified urgent priorities for further research and synthesis.

A critical priority for further synthesis identified is to integrate this improved, holistic understanding of below-surface biodiversity to assess the sustainability of below-surface ecosystems and provide information that can directly support their sustainable management. Below-surface biodiversity and ecosystem functioning is generally overlooked in agricultural, forestry, fishery, aquaculture and conservation and restoration programs. Scientists, managers and policy-makers that make decisions for the management of these ecosystems need critical information for soils and sediments on:
A. The most important taxa, ecosystem functions and habitats
B. Their biogeographical occurrence
C. Their vulnerability to human activities, including global change
D. Management options to sustain them


The Workshop Questions
Please limit your responses to no more that 200 words per question.
(Click here to download the questions as a word document in rich text format).

1. (a) What ecosystem services are most critical for the sustainability of natural and managed ecosystems (e.g. carbon sequestration, oxygen production, renewal of fertility, cleansing of water, provision of food…)?
(b) Which below surface ecosystems, habitats, ecological functions and taxa are most essential for the provision of these services (at different spatial and temporal scales)?

2. What is the vulnerability of these critical below surface ecosystems, habitats, functions and taxa to human activities including global change? To what extent is the vulnerability scale dependant (e. g. occurring at small “patch,” ecosystem, landscape and global scales, and with short-term or long-term mechanisms…)?

3. What are the implications for management of this knowledge of the important below surface systems and their vulnerability to change?
(a) Assess how current management practices impact the ability of the belowsurface domains and taxa to continue to provide goods and services at the different scales. Identify those that are the most and least effective for the conservation of the most “at risk” taxa, functions, and habitats (e.g. protected areas, endangered species designations, human community-based monitoring…).
(b) What are the major needs in research to support and enhance sustainable management of these below surface systems and the services they provide.
(c) Provide at least one case study of a specific example where science based knowledge on biota and functioning is supporting sustainable management of an ecosystem service.

4. What can research in soils and sediments contribute to generalizations (a unified theory) regarding the importance of biodiversity in ecosystem processes?
(a) Outline emerging consensus and remaining questions about biodiversity/function relationships in above surface ecosystem types and processes and any unifying theories that are emerging from them.
(b) List the latest knowledge on biodiversity/function relationships concerning belowsurface systems (e.g. effects of plant and decomposer diversity, diversity effects on bioturbation, diversity effects on electron transfer, etc….). Where does this conform or contrast with the emerging understanding from other systems.
(c) Where information is not available on important biodiversity/function issues within belowsurface systems, identify the research needs.


Pre-Workshop: Responses to Questions

Participant responses to workshop questions

Responses organized by domain and questions 1-4

Your Responsibilities
Please bring your laptops and any literature you may wish to refer to.

Domain chairs: Richard Bardgett (soil domain), Alan Covich (freshwater domain) and Paul Snelgrove (marine domain)

To assignments: session chairs, within domain working group rapporteurs and cross-cutting working group rapporteurs


Essential Reading Prior to Workshop
Wall, D. H., P.V.R. Snelgrove and A.P. Covich. 2001. Conservation Priorities for Soil and Sediment Invertebrates. M.E. Soule and G.H. Orians (eds). Pages 99-124. In Conservation Biology: Research Priorities for the Next Decade. Island Press, Washington, D.C.

Wall, D. H., Adams, G. A., Parsons, A. N. 2001. Soil Biodiversity. F.S. Chapin III and O.E. Sala (eds). Pages 47-82. In Global Biodiversity in a Changing Environment: Scenarios for the 21st Century. Springer-Verlag, New York.

Suggested papers to review for workshop
Naeem, S. 2002. Ecosystem Consequences of Biodiversity Loss: The Evolution of a Paradigm. Ecology 83: 1537-1552.

Loreau, M., S. Naeem, P. Inchausti, J. Bengtsson, J.P. Grime, A. Hector, D.U. Hooper, M.A. Huston, D. Raffaelli, B. Schmid, D. Tilman, and D. A. Wardle. 2001. Ecology-Biodiversity and Ecosystem Functioning: Current Knowldege and Future Challenges. Science 294: 804-808.