Brownfields Contaminated land, Contaminated land overview Contaminated land, funding Soil, Soil Overview 
         

The Soil Biodiversity Programme aims to achieve simultaneously:    
    
an understanding of biological diversity of the soil biota (embracing all abundant taxa, not just those normally considered tractable),      
    
and the functional roles played by soil organisms in key ecological processes.      
    
£5.85 million has been allocated by the Natural Environment Research Council (NERC) for research and necessary support services. The Programme is closely 
integrated, to give insights of wider generality than the chosen ecosystem, an upland grassland at Sourhope, near Kelso, Scotland.  Research has been funded 
in two main phases, the first starting in 1998.  The second phase will run from 2001 - 2004.  Details of current  research projects and outputs can be found in the 
sections below.  Contact the Programme Office for more information or request access to data.    
    
The objectives of the Soil Biodiversity Programme are:    
    
1. To quantify the taxonomic and metabolic diversity of key groups in the soil biota in a single ecosystem, sufficient to provide a sure basis for an experimental 
programme to determine the role of diversity in ecosystem processes.     
    
2. To extend taxonomic understanding of the soil biota, especially by using isolation and molecular techniques to examine hitherto poorly characterised 
groups.    
    
3. To characterise the roles played by all major groups within the soil biota (including root–microbe associations) in ecologically important processes 
in the carbon and nitrogen cycles in soil, including the development of carbon sinks, so as to determine the pathways and rates of movement of carbon through 
components of the soil foodweb.    
    
4. To determine (both experimentally and by comparison of contrasting sites) the extent to which depauperation of the soil biota may reduce their ability 
to perform essential ecosystem services, including the ability to cope with anthropogenic inputs.    
    
5. To conduct parallel manipulations of major taxonomic groups of soil biota under controlled conditions.    
    
6. To determine the extent to which indicators of soil biodiversity are measures of the soil ecosystem resilience of relevance to land use management.     
    
It is intended that research projects will use common experimental and identification protocols, allowing a robust test of the generality of the findings.