European and national policy developments on soil protection and conservation of biological diversity (biodiversity) have exposed knowledge gaps that need to be addressed by research. Soils are among the most biodiverse ecosystems on earth and, in turn, many ecosystem services provided by soils (such as nutrient cycling, waste degradation, pest and disease suppression, carbon storage) depend on the activity of these diverse organisms. However, systematic and specific information is limited on the organisms that live in Irish soils, their response to environmental pressures and their roles in soil processes. The project had four specific scientific objectives: 1. To provide baseline data on the distribution and diversity of a range of important soil organisms in major land uses and soil types in Ireland; 2. To establish the need for protecting specific habitats where soil-dwelling ant species occur; 3. To investigate under field conditions the response of important organisms to pressures caused by land-spreading of organic waste materials; and 4. To conduct innovative ecological experiments that examined the link between biodiversity and functions in soils. The recommendations for soil biological monitoring in Ireland include: = To revise and differentiate more land-use classes; =To identify benchmark sites; =To use a tiered structure of core and specific indicators; =To include measurements of soil processes; =To establish a working group to oversee the development of a monitoring scheme; and =Relating to pressures on and functions of soil organisms, further research should be conducted on the long-term effects of biosolids on soil biota, and the relationships between temperate ants and microbes. By increasing the scientific knowledge and research capability in soil biodiversity in Ireland, this project has: = Informed sustainable soil protection strategies; and =Enhanced our understanding of biological diversity in Irish soils, a priority under the National Biodiversity Plan. Full technical details of this project, including method descriptions, statistical analyses, results and a comprehensive list of references, are contained in the Final Technical Report (Downloadable from SAFER).

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Schmidt, O.   "The CreBeo Soil Biodiversity Project". Associated datasets and digitial information objects connected to this resource are available at: Secure Archive For Environmental Research Data (SAFER) managed by Environmental Protection Agency Ireland https://eparesearch.epa.ie/safer/resource?id=3d9f81e9-6199-102f-8c70-b53a025bc1b8 (Last Accessed: 2023-06-06)

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SAFER-Data Display URL	https://eparesearch.epa.ie/safer/iso19115/display?isoID=239
Resource Keywords	Baseline Data, Response to Pressures, Functions and
EPA/ERTDI/STRIVE Project Code	2005-S-LS-8
EPA/ERTDI/STRIVE Project Theme	Biodiversity
Resource Availability:	Public-Open
Limitations on the use of this Resource	Any attached datasets, data files, or information objects can be downloaded for further use in scientific applications under the condition that the source is properly quoted and cited in published papers, journals, websites, presentations, books, etc. Before downloading, users must agree to the "Conditions of Download and Access" from SAFER-Data. These appear before download. Users of the data should also communicate with the original authors/owners of this resource if they are uncertain about any aspect of the data or information provided before further usage.
Number of Attached Files (Publicly and Openly Available for Download):	3
Project Start Date	Saturday 1st January 2005 (01-01-2005)
Earliest Recorded Date within any attached datasets or digital objects	Saturday 1st January 2005 (01-01-2005)
Most Recent Recorded Date within any attached datasets or digital objects	Saturday 1st October 2011 (01-10-2011)
Published on SAFER	Wednesday 16th November 2011 (16-11-2011)
Date of Last Edit	Monday 6th February 2012 at 12:12:37 (06-02-2012)
Datasets or Files Updated On	Monday 6th February 2012 at 12:12:37 (06-02-2012)

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Description of Geographical Characteristics of This Project or Dataset
A protocol was developed for the selection of a subset of the NSD sites based on a number of criteria, including the inclusion of major vegetation/land-use classes and soil types in proportion to their known frequency in Ireland and geographical spread. The sites selected by this protocol were also used by a sister project, the Soil-C project, examining carbon stocks in Irish soils (Kiely et al., 2009). In total, 61 sites were sampled during the soil biodiversity baseline survey. Fifty-two of the sites were sampled from late summer to autumn in 2006, and a further nine were sampled in autumn 2007. These included arable (n = 14), pasture (n = 21), forest (n = 10, five each of coniferous plantation and broadleaved forest), rough grazing (n = 8) and bog (n = 8) land-use classes. In addition, 12 of those sites sampled in 2006 were re-sampled in 2007 to examine temporal variability. This repeat sampling included three sites each of the arable, pasture, forest and bog land-use classes. The major Irish soil types included were: acid brown earths (n = 10), shallow brown earths (n = 3), brown podzolics (n = 9), grey-brown podzolics (n = 10), podzolics (n = 3), gleys (n = 10), lithosols (n = 3) and peats (n = 13). This resulted in 20 land-use × soil-type combinations, 13 of which were replicated over at least three sites

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The following is a list of similiar projects and resources on SAFER. Usually these resources share a similiar thematic area to the resource The CreBeo Soil Biodiversity Project you are currently viewing. You can view the full description for these projects and resources by using the links supplied.

• SIMBIOSYS Project: Pollinators and pollination in changing agricultural landscapes; investigating the impacts of bioenergy crops View Full Metadata Description
• CALISTO: Carbon loss from drained organic soils in agriculture use View Full Metadata Description
• Biodiversity in Ireland Plantation Forests (BIOFOREST) View Full Metadata Description
• SIMBIOSYS Project: Response of farmland biodiversity to environmental change: effects of scale and landscape structure View Full Metadata Description
• Predicting the Impact of Coexistence- Guided, Genetically Modified Cropping on Irish Biodiversity View Full Metadata Description

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