 session number six of the Global Symposium on Serb Biodiversity. It is a great honor for me to be here with you. My name is Maria Konyshkova and I will be moderating these two our session. In the start I will give some technical notes about the session. So how the session will be organized first. We will be listening to four speakers and I ask the speakers to stick to the presentation of 10 minutes. When nine minutes are finished I will let you know that one minute is left. So and after four presentations we will have the Q&A session. It will should leave about 20 minutes for this Q&A session and then one after one hour without a break we go to the next session and it will be conducted in the same way. Also before we start I ask you to check the Zoom chat because my colleagues will post some information and rules about this session. Also if you have the questions to the speakers please post them on the chat and please don't forget to identify the name of the speaker to whom you address because we will have the Q&A session in the end of the first and second part. So also I will choose some questions to ask live. The rest of the questions will be answered in the chat. The host of this meeting is Bofei Li. He is here to assist us with some technical issues so if you have any technical problems please write to him using the private message box. So this is all with my technical notes and without any further delay I invite our first speaker Ms. Bruna Wink from Universidad Federal do Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil. The floor is yours and you are welcome. Thank you. I'll share my screen. Could you see my screen? Good morning, good afternoon and good evening for everyone. My name is Bruna. I work at Federal University of Rio Grande do Sul. Today I'll present you some results from my postdoc project where we investigate the effect of nativical version to food and fiber system in soya fauna community. This work was carried out in Brazilian Pampa. It is this green area here in the south of Brazil. Pampa is a biome that is present in four countries of the South America like Brazil, Uruguay, Paraguay and Argentina. In Brazil this biome covers about 63 percent of Rio Grande do Sul states and because of the intensification of agriculture and also forestry this biome is under threat and as there by diversity today it arrests only about 36 percent of the natural grassland vegetation. So the question is if crop lands and forestry can provide main ecosystem services for humans we know that grassland can also offer many existing services. So we need to find a balance between the use of lands and also the conservation of the grassland and many existing services are strongly related to grassland sites like climate regulation through carbon storage, water provision, the control of erosion but the most no existing services provided by grassland sites is the provision of food because these areas are a good provider of forage for animals. So these areas are really used for grazing activity but the most interesting thing about this ecosystem is the positive relationship between grassland management under moderate grazing for example that is the highest plant biodiversity and also the a good production of meat. So because of this positive balance we need to conserve this biome because we can have main ecosystem services from this biome also because of its biodiversity that is the high provision of habitat for biodiversity and other organisms like birds like a surface-dwelling organism but soil biodiversity is still a black box because there is some works that was carried out in Brazil but these work was are not enough to predict how many species that are in our soils and which is the impact of native conversion. We know that there is a stronger relationship between soil biodiversity activities. Bruna we can see only first title slide on our screen is it okay? Well I don't know give me a minute I'll stop the sharing. I'll share my screen not the PDF now it's okay now? Yeah yeah now it's working here. So now that is a pic with a kettles. Okay so I was talking about this slide. So I will show you the first one where we made our stud. His is the biome and his are all the locations where we made our sampling and here is the a pic of our biome the grassland and all the connections between climate between the existence services. So I was talking about the real amount of soil biodiversity that is in our soil. We don't know how many species that is in our soil. So this is because we made this work because we try to cover all the biome to to make a big survey of biodiversity. Well so our expectation is to find a high soil biodiversity on the grassland sites because that is a big plant diverse and also a great variability of plant structure and our main was to evaluate the fact of native conversion on this biodiversity. We made two stud case. I'll present only two stud case but we made many stud case. The first one was the comparison between eucalyptus plantation and grassland. We placed 10 plots around the biome and in each plot each plot is a pair between grassland and eucalyptus. We made a transaction inside the land use type of 250 meters and we survey vegetation composition and soil final composition by using bear less and pitfall track as our methods. The first result as expected we observe a decrease of plant diversity after conversion. That is about 30 species here the me the average and only two species in here in eucalyptus plantation. We only only find five species that was only found in eucalyptus plantation more than a hundred species in grassland. Concerning the plant composition we we can see a clear separation between both land use. Well this result is expected but we ask which are the facts on soil final community. We know that that is a change on microclimate and food resources so we need to understand how land use change can affect soil biodiversity. We know that vegetation can act as a filter on soil final community by selecting those ones that are more adapted to those conditions. Here I want to show you that after conversion the abundance of soil surface dwelling organism decreased as well their richness that are also a change of their species composition so we can see that is an effect of grassland conversion. When we look some facts of the most abundant one we can see that beetles the increased their abundance after conversion we need to better explore these response but the other one like colambula and ants decreased their abundance after conversion. For Iridafica colambula that those ones were was sampled by Berlez we did not found any difference for abundance and just a tendency to decrease their richness but we found a significant effect of each land use on their species composition. Well here our second study case was the comparison between site implantation grassland but in this case we not only compare both land use but also the distance between the plots. We expect for example to find a gradient of species richness and abundance of beetles because we use them as our model group from here to here okay and here we expect to find the most similar composition as we observed before that is an effect on plant diversity and richness and but we did not find any difference for the abundance and richness of beetles when we compare land use types and also the distance from that it was not expected this result we need to better explore why we did not find any difference but when we see species composition that is a positive that is a significant effect between of land use conversion on species composition as we already observed for surface dwelling colambula and organism colambula so we can our conclusion is that our main conclusion is that the native conversion can affect the soil fauna community mainly by changing their composition the abundance of organism and of course as many studies already show us that is an effect on ecosystem services so our next step is to increase the resolution of the identification and also use the functional traits to describe our community and try to better understand the real effect of land use changes on soil fauna community so thank for your attention I am available for your question thank you thank you Bruna so we have several questions to you in the chat we will address them in the Q&A session in the end of this first hour after the fourth presentation and I remind the participants please put the name of the speaker to whom you address your questions and now I invite the second speaker miss Ludmila Varatynceva from National Scientific Center Institute for Soil Science and Agrochemistry Research named after Sokolovsky from Ukraine you are welcome and the floor is yours Seryozha can you see my presentation yes please make a full screen okay now it's okay thank you good morning good afternoon good evening I am Ludmila Varatynceva I am from Ukraine Institute for Soil Science and Agrochemistry Research named after Sokolovsky soil is soil is one of nature's most complex ecosystems and one of the most diverse habitats on earth soil biodiversity plays an important role in the function of ecosystems and the provision of services providing regulating sapatin one second could you please remove the photos of the of the participants because they cover your presentation can you see no we can see the the videos of all the participants maybe you can choose one just the presenter mode if needed I can share instead of you oh okay okay you need to stop sharing the presentation Ludmila please stop sharing so you just say the next slide okay next next and please give me instructions to move to the next slide macroorganisms are very sensitive to changes of environmental factors therefore the number of microflora and the activity of microbiological processes can be diagnostic indicators of estimation of soil properties transformation next next slide irrigation is one of the powerful anthropogenic factors it leads to the restructuring of the ancient soil ecosystem changes or the number and ratio of different groups of microflora the nature and orientation of biochemical processes the aim of the researchers was to determine the change in the microbiological community of chinozome ordinary in irrigation by water of various quality next slide the researchers were conducted in the step zone of Ukraine where most of the irrigated lands are located the objects of the researchers were the irrigated and agro landscapes of the next region irrigated lands 50 years have been used in irrigated agriculture next slide Slavyansk, for irrigation unsalted waters are used of national classification it classifies as a suitable for irrigation on agronomic and ecological criterias marine gestational soils are long irrigated by saline water they are estimated as unsuitable for irrigation but given the lack of unsalted waters in this region they are used for irrigation irrigated soils is ordinary chinozome soil samples for microbiological researches were taken from 0.25 centimeter layer the object's cooperation were similar not irrigated soils next we determined the number of soil macro agronymes biologin to basic ecological trophic taxonomical and physiological groups organic nitrogen assimilating bacteria mineral nitrogen uterine bacteria actinomycetes fungi alliotrophic macro agronymes and air atrophs the main methods were field analytical and statistical for soil quality estimation we also used the level of provision of ecosystem services next in the next slide we can see the characteristics of the quality of irrigation water in Slavyansk, for irrigation used unsalted waters the mineralization of water is 0.1 gram per cubic decimeter pH is 7.5 in marine gestational used salted water with mineralization 3.2 gram per cubic decimeter pH water was 8.1 next our researchers showed the quality of irrigation water influences upon directivity of soil processes and evolution of soil in the soil of Slavyansk, in conditions of long irrigation by unsalted water the number of organic nitrogen assimilating bacteria changed in significant comparator to non-irrigating soil at the level of the least significant difference differences between the total number of macro agronymes assimilated mineral nitrogen in the irrigated soil of this Satyanar experimental site and non-irrigated soil have not been established however due to irrigation the number of bacteria increased and actinomycetes decreased the number of oligotrophs decreased the total number of macro agronymes decreased on 12 percent the mineralization index in the soil increased in the soil of marine castatyanar the number of all groups of macro agronymes except fungi in irrigated soil for 20 years was significantly lower than non-irrigated next summary biological index in irrigation by Salina water decreased to 65 percent this indicates about a low level on the functional activity of my microbial community long irrigation of Chernozium ordinary caused a moderate degradation degree biological degradation index was 35 percent toxicose in is due to the assimilation of farmhold toxins in the soil next microbiological indicators are an important indicator of soil health we also used it's for estimation the level of suppotive and provision ecosystem services of the studied soils next soil quality was assessed by 10 indicators they are shown on the slide 11 and 12 next next the irrigated and non-irrigated soils of Salina Satyanar and non-irrigated soil of the marine castatyanar were characterized by a high level of ecosystem services the irrigated soil of the marine castatyanar and was characterized by middle level one of the limited factors is the low microbiological activity of the soil next next the results of estimation of the ecosystem services level provided by Chernozium ordinary are the basis for making designs of the their rational using and elaboration the complex adapted message for maleration and improvement of their condition next macroorganisms are very sensitive to changes of ecological factors before the number and composition of microflora can be diagnostic indicators for estimation the transformation of soil properties thank you for your attention thank you Ludmila you were strict in time and now I invite the next speaker who is mr Felix Felix district the trick and so in telebrune from trier university from Germany you are welcome thank you very much for the introduction I will just start to share my screen which should be visible right now yes okay perfect so thank you very much again and hello to all of you my name is Felix Dietrich and I'm a phd student involved in the diver farming project which is currently running across Europe several field experiments are aiming on increase the crop diversity on the farm scale or on the plot scale with the aim to assess the potential of diversification measures to increase the resilience of agricultural farms and also to protect the agricultural science and for sure also in turn to maintain the soil life so in the upcoming slides I will just present you some preliminary results on a system where we introduced aromatic plants to a wine yard so we are in a perennial agricultural system and in order to give you an idea why this become or why this might be relevant I just share some information on the background on the local background so we are in the in a sloping landscape in the Mosul area in the western part of Germany and the tradition of viticulture dates back to the roman empire and the soils on which those grape wines are cultivated are heavily inclined and dominated by a really dry and hot pedo climate during the crop cycle and luckily this driving lane which which you see here in this picture is increasingly greened or probably be properly vegetated by the wine growers but however the area underneath the grape wines is still most commonly kept free of vegetation in order to combat competition and to combat also fungal disease which is then provoking risk of soil erosion loss of soil organic matter and of for sure also for soil habitats so in order to to combat this problem we propose or our idea was to to actually actively vegetate this area directly underneath the grape wines in order to overcome this problem and also to to create somehow a win-win situation for the farmers that or for the wine growers that they that they adapt also this kind of technique and also on the on the other hand to somehow to conserve and to preserve the soils where they are so on the left hand side here on the top you see the grape wine intercropping or also called mixed cultivation with thymus vulgaris and on the right hand side you see oregano vulgaris which is properly now covering the soil after three years of after three years of implementing those herbs to the wine yard and our idea was that those plant specific traits of those herbs appear really suitable to combine agronomic advantage with conservational points such as structural diversity there is a flowering provision and also the roots provide food and habitat for soil biota so what we did is we introduced those aromatic plants in april 2018 by hand and to a commercial wine yard which you can see here on the right hand side in the mussel area between Trier and Luxembourg and we diversified several rows of this wine yard plot with either thym or oregano and the control the regular mechanical tillage which is usually conducted in the wine yards serves as a control and from the beginning on of the experiment we also started to monitor different environmental but also soil related parameters and focusing or related with regard to soil biota we have a strong focus on microbial processes community structure and activity and but measure also the earthworm abundance and the abundance of above ground insect diversity so thinking or imagine of possible impacts that might affect the biota in the soil or above ground leads us or led us to two to the identification of two really key elements of the system which is the resource availability by for example root growth and root exodation as well as litter fall of above ground biomass and as well the reduced mechanical disturbance of this diversified wine soil habitat is from our point impacting the effects or impacting soil life so to put probably to put these words with resource availability and less mechanical disturbance in the words from Felipe Pacini during his really inspiring talk on Monday we provide with this system more food and more shelter for soil life and what we saw when we when we started to monitor that there was a beginning in soil organic matter a beginning decline which was most likely attributable to the soil preparation prior to the planting of the of the plants of the aromatic plants however this leveled off over the time of the experiment and as the herbs established over time they they contributed by loot root litter and above ground litter fall now to a slightly increased sorry increased soil organic matter content a secondary process or mechanism that I have not been thinking about before I have seen it in the wine yard is that those aromatic plants also act as a physical barrier to retain the dropped grape wine leaves during winter which is an additional input of organic matter and I estimated an additional input of up to one ton dry mass of leaves per hectare that are retained in those diversified rows so this is from my point of view a view a really clear picture that that resource availability increased over time and is expecting to to be to increase even more so how do the earthworms respond to this actually the wine yard is as I said in the beginning a really harsh environment for the for the earthworms as the pedoclimat is dominated by really dry and hot conditions during summer so when we when I went to the wine yard and tried to collect the earthworms it was only possible during winter and during the last winter I also found an increased abundance and an increased earthworm biomass underneath the diversification plants which is strongly dominated the earthworm community by aborecto dea kali genosa so coming now to to the microbial part of of this of this work is you see on the top left you see this really long unit on the y-axis which says it's co2c per milligram of microbial c which is also referred to as the respiration to biomass ratio and it is important to know that the decrease of this ratio indicates an increased carbon use efficiency of the microbial community and this also might be responsible for an for a long-term buildup of soil organic matter as the carbon that is available to microbes is not directly respired to the atmosphere again when it comes to to nitrogen we have a slight we have observed a slight slowdown of the nitrogen transformation in the field for example here we have the potential nitrification or also enzymes activities that are associated with nitrogen transformation and we found slight slight decreases under under the herbal treatments and this differentiated response of carbon and nitrogen associated microbes might be might be originating from the terpenes the plant secondary metabolites that are produced by the aromatic plants and some of those terpenes might be used by by a part of the microbial community but might be also toxic to another part so this is at least at at the time right now my assumption that the microbial community associated with those functions in the soil responds quite different differentiated to to this cultivation with aromatic plants so coming now to the to the fungal associations or to the fungal players in the soil the fungi are kind of my favorites