BES Facebook pageBES Annual Meeting 2011
The Tansley Lecture
The BES warmly welcomes Dr Diana Wall, a scientist of the highest repute, to present the Tansley Lecture.
Integrating Soil Biodiversity into Terrestrial Ecosystem Science
Dr Diana Wall, Senior Research Scientist Professor of Biology, and Director, School of Global Environmental Sustainability, NREL, Colorado State University
Monday 12 September, 09.15 - 10.30
Soils are receiving global attention because they are being rapidly degraded at a time when we are dependent on soil for feeding ourselves and the world's enlarging population, and for climate mitigation. The immense hidden biodiversity of soils, including microbes and invertebrates, are essential for functioning of terrestrial ecosystems and for the provision of ecosystem services such as food and fiber production, carbon sequestration, and biocontrol of pests and pathogens. There is growing awareness that soil biodiversity is necessary to sustain soils, but there has been limited recognition by the 'aboveground" ecological sciences and other fields supporting research on earth system science. Using examples of research on soil invertebrates from Antarctic polar deserts with low species richnessandfrom global sites with high species richness, I will argue that incorporating an understanding of the diversity of species in soil, and their functions, is a central component of terrestrial ecosystem science.
Diana is actively engaged in research to explore how soil biodiversity contributes to healthy, productive soils and thus to society, and the consequences of human activities on soil sustainability.
She chaired the SCOPE Committee on Soil and Sediment Biodiversity and Ecosystem Functioning and edited the volume, Sustaining Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services in Soils and Sediments (2004, Island Press). Her research from the tropics to the Antarctic Dry Valleys examines soil biodiversity and ecosystem processes. She serves as a member of the US Commission of UNESCO and is a member of the Advisory Committee, Tropical Soil Biology and Fertility-CIAT Project on Conservation and Sustainable Management of Belowground Biodiversity - as well as serving on the Advisory Board for the UK Population Biology Network.
Diana has been President of the Ecological Society of America, the American Institute of Biological Sciences, the Intersociety Consortium for Plant Protection, Association of Ecosystem Research Centers, the Society of Nematologists and Chair, Council of Scientific Society Presidents.
