FAO and soil biodiversity: core of the matter
©FAO/ Tamara Stepanova
On 23 April 2021, the FAO Liaison Office with the Russian Federation in cooperation with the Faculty of Soil Science of Lomonosov Moscow State University held a round table ‘Soil Biodiversity of Russia’. Leading Russian scientists discussed the significance of soil biodiversity for natural and agrarian landscapes, as well as the need to protect soil biota, including that in agricultural soils. As it was emphasized by the moderator Prof. Sergey Shoba, Director, Soil Science Faculty of Lomonosov Moscow State University (MSU), corresponding member of the Russian Academy of Sciences (RAS), the task of the forum was to draw public attention to the problem of soil biodiversity. "1 gram of fertile soil contains from 5 to 9 billion microbial cells. The diversity of living organisms in this soil ecosystem is truly enormous."
Mr Oleg Kobiakov, Director of the FAO Liaison Office with the Russian Federation, noted that Russia was still "the largest country in terms of both soil diversity and biological life forms". Therefore, "the state of our soils largely determines the health and well-being of soils on the entire planet. FAO cooperation with Russia on soils can be described without exaggeration as an important area of the Organization's activities, that has been successfully developing since 2013." "A number of programmes related not only to Russia, but also to neighbouring countries have been implemented, in particular, the Eurasian Soil Partnership operating on the basis of MSU. With the assistance of FAO, the modernization of the Soil-agronomic museum named after. V.R. Williams is being completed; an updated exhibition will open in a month, where all the unique soil monoliths will be digitized and presented for study in free access on the Internet." In addition, for this week's FAO Global Symposium on Soil Biodiversity, ‘Keep soil alive, protect soil biodiversity’ we have translated the ‘State of knowledge of soil biodiversity – Status, challenges and potentialities'. Summary for policy makers into Russian. Soon this document would also be available on the website and published, Mr Oleg Kobiakov concluded.
Prof. Pavel Krasilnikov, Head of the Land Resources Department, corresponding member of the Russian Academy of Sciences (RAS), stressed that Russia was one of the most active participants in the Global Soil Partnership and, most importantly, its donor, regularly contributing to the activities of this remarkable initiative. "Four years ago, a meeting of the leading agricultural scientists of the G20 was held in Argentina, within the framework of which Russia, in collaboration with France, came forward with an initiative on the need to properly and sustainably manage soil systems," continued Prof. Krasilnikov. "Three priorities were identified: carbon cycle management, harmonization of soil analysis systems, and soil biota. These priorities are fully consistent with the main areas of work of the FAO Global Soil Partnership."
Dr Maria Konyushkova, an expert of the FAO Global Soil Partnership, presented the ITPS-FAO ‘State of knowledge of soil biodiversity’ report. "Back in 2002, the UN Convention on Biological Diversity decided to establish the International Initiative for the Conservation and Sustainable Use of Soil Biodiversity, and since then, FAO has been supporting this initiative," Dr Konyushkova said. She drew attention to the complex nature of soil health. Their microbiological activity was recognized as one of the four key indicators of soil health. The FAO expert stressed that soil biodiversity had a huge potential for agricultural application. In addition, soil can be a factor in increasing human immunity to various diseases. Today, however, the world's soil biodiversity is under threat due to the use of unsustainable practices that lead to its loss. By threatening soil biodiversity, humanity is losing 50 billion euros a year, and by 2050, the number of losses could reach 14 trillion euros. Major threats to soils include deforestation, acidification, compaction, sealing, and soil erosion, fires, urbanization, and loss of organic matter.
Prof. Yuri Mazei, Faculty of Biology of Moscow State University, Vice-Rector for International Affairs, delivered a presentation entitled ‘Soil biodiversity and ecosystem functions'. The expert spoke about the main groups of soil biodiversity and their role in ecosystems. Viruses are an important and unknown part of soil biodiversity: on the one hand, they are pathogens, and on the other, as clumps of DNA and proteins, they become a food substrate for many organisms. According to the expert, biodiversity performs important ecosystem functions, such as the production of organic matter, the formation of the mechanical structure of the ecosystem, the process of decomposition, the organization of food chains, the stabilization or destabilization of the ecosystem. In particular, a lot of unknown things are hidden by soil protista. "They do not only eat bacteria: there are specialized protista that consume fungi, and this is a completely different path in the food chain," Prof. Yuri Mazei explained.
Mr Alexei Tiunov, Head, Laboratory of Soil Zoology and General Entomology, Deputy Director, A. N. Severtsov Institute of Ecology and Evolution of the Russian Academy of Sciences (IEE RAS), correspondent member, Russian Academy of Sciences, delivered a presentation entitled ‘Soil food webs – from a pyramid to a comb’. He underscored that microorganisms often were not considered as part of land food webs. The reason is that microorganisms inhabiting soil differ a lot and a single instrument is needed to study them comprehensively. Today, isotopic analysis can be applied to that end. This method implies that nitrogen and carbon composition of living animals can reflect their position in the food web. This approach has enabled scientists to make a supposition that food webs can be presented in the form of a comb connecting organisms of a similar size rather than a pyramid. At the same time, connections between separate energy flows are significantly weaker than in underwater trophic chains, for instance. The supposition then has been proved true by practical research. Scientists have concluded that the land food webs system is different from classical environmental models, which can lay a foundation for future research.
Mr Alexei Kachalkin, leading research scientist, Faculty of Soil Science, MSU, told the participants about the biological collection of soil microorganisms that is part of the MSU ‘Noah’s Ark’ project that has been implemented by scientists since 2015. The project is aimed at creating a multifunctional biological material depository at all levels for the preservation our planet’s biodiversity and its sustainable use. Four collections have been created under the project: yeasts collection, microfungi collection, astrobiological collection and bacteria collection. All of them already include samples from nearly all regions of Russia. For example, the astrobiological collection consists of 1000 bacteria, collected, in particular, from "hot and cold deserts, glaciers and frozen rocks, and salt-affected habitats." This collection also includes "radioresistant cultures; strains resistant to the impact of low temperatures and high salts concentrations, strains resistant to the impact of different classes’ antibiotics." The work carried out by the department aims at "studying the limits of life on Earth and other planets."Collected materials are now used to both training and practical ends.
Mr Oleg Meniailo, senior research scientist, V.N. Sukachev Institute of Forest, Siberian Branch, Russian Academy of Science, professor, Russian Academy of Sciences, delivered an address on the influence of nitrogen on the carbon cycle as a soil microorganisms’ function. Today soil organisms are officially recognized as the main producers of greenhouse gases regulating our planet’s climate. Many organizations within the UN system are cooperating closely to study soils and their role in climate change. The expert said that soil functionality and their response to external factors depended on soil biodiversity. Today, the nitrogen cycle is heavily misbalanced. Since Fritz Haber discovered the way of transforming atmospheric nitrogen into mineral fertilizers global food production has increased. However, environmental problems related to the use of such fertilizers have multiplied. When nitrogen deposition is high – 150 kg of nitrogen per hectare annually – forest floor is no longer destructed, which leads to the disruption of the soil’s ability to store carbon and to more soil carbon emissions into the atmosphere. The expert told the audience about a research of nitrogen depositions and CO2 emissions in Russia that was conducted according to international models. "Nitrogen losses were due to increased heterotrophic activity, and it was the forest floor where they took place, as it was demonstrated later by incubatory experiments. Total nitrogen losses per hectare could reach up to 600-650 kg under larch and 1.8-2 tons under pine, surpassing wood biomass increment," the expert detailed. Consequently, "Soil functional activity (carbon storage, fertility) and soil response to changing factors depend on its biota content and characteristics. The correlation of fungal and bacterial biomasses defines soil response to nitrogen fertilizers."
The presentation by Ms Olga Selitskaia, Head of Microbiology and Immunology Department, Russian State Agrarian University – Moscow Timiryazev Agricultural Academy, focused on nitrogen-fixing bacteria as an element of microbial communities in salt-affected soils. Salt-affected soils form quite a large group of soils with such a common trace as low fertility and, consequently, unsuitability for plants. The expert told the audience how samples of salt-affected soils from various regions were studied. Plant rhizosphere from salt-affected soils was sampled to acquire strains that could be helpful in the remediation of salt-affected soils. The research helped to establish that organisms biomass depended on how seriously salt-affected the soil is. At the same time, no direct connection between the microbial metabolic quotient and the salt-affectedness was detected. Ms Selitskaia also underlined the importance of using molecular and classic microbiological methods to study soil biodiversity and the need to study soil respiration.
The round table discussion took place as part of the global Global Symposium on Soil Biodiversity ‘Keep soil alive, protect soil biodiversity' that was organized by the FAO Global Soil Partnership to spread knowledge on soil biodiversity and promote political and business decisions aimed at sustainable soil management. The conference attracted over 60 participants. Watch the recorded discussion. List of presentations:
BACKGROUND
Preserving soil health and biodiversity is one of the FAO priorities in the efforts to end hunger and achieve sustainable agri-food systems. Besides, preserving biodiversity is an integral part of the Decade on Ecosystem Restoration concept declared by the UN General Assembly for 2021-2030 and aimed at large-scale restoration of degraded and affected ecosystems as an efficient measure to combat climate change, improve food security, water supply and biodiversity. Russian scientists contribute actively to studying soil biodiversity as an important component of the world living organisms pool and global species diversity. Soil biodiversity is responsible for soil life, its sustainability and the provision of ecosystem services related to soils in both natural and agrarian landscapes. Soil microorganisms and animals are the ones to define carbon and nitrogen cycles as well as cycles of other biogenic elements. Learn more about FAO activities related to soil biodiversity on the special website.