The new FAO report "Current knowledge of soil biological diversity - state, changes and potentialities", in the creation of which the staff of the IEE RAS has taken part, is available for free download from the FAO website.
In celebration of World Soil Day, established by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) and celebrated on 5 December, the report "Current knowledge of soil biological diversity - state, changes and potentialities" was finalized and presented. To prepare it, hundreds of specialists from more than 100 countries of the world united their efforts for a comprehensive analysis of the state of biological diversity of soils, the stability of ecosystem functions performed by soil biota, the most tangible threats to the stability of soils and their biological diversity, as well as the prospects for further soil-ecological research. This work was coordinated by experts from FAO and the Global Soil Biodiversity Initiative (GSBI).
Employees of the laboratory for studying the ecological functions of soils at the A.N.Severtsov Institute of Ecology and Evolution of the Russian Academy of Sciences co-authored this document from the Russian Federation. They took part in expert groups assessing the current state of soil biodiversity in the world, as well as studying threats to soil stability and functioning.
“The work of hundreds of fellow soil zoologists and ecologists has made it possible to create a comprehensive analytical document that will be useful not only to the expert community, but also to decision-makers in the development of strategic documents related to agriculture, land use and environmental protection,” says the head laboratory of ecological functions of soils, member of the GSBI expert council, doctor of biological sciences Konstantin Bronislavovich Gongalsky.
“This report is especially appealing because it is a complex interdisciplinary study covering all aspects of the conservation, enhancement, and use of the economic potential of biological diversity of soils”, - agrees with him the co-author of the report, leading researcher of the laboratory of ecological functions of soils, candidate of geographical sciences Andrey Stanislavovich Zaitsev.
Currently, work is underway to translate the Report into other official languages of the United Nations, including Russian. The text of the report can be found by following the link: http://www.fao.org/documents/card/ru/c/CB1928EN/