1. National Research Council Institute for Geo-hydrological Protection, Unit of Applied Pedology, Firenze, Italy Costanza Calzolari costanza.calzolari@irpi.cnr.it  Soil survey and applications  Soil properties and processes  Landscape ecology  Soil erosion and conservation  Study of processes  Modelling  Desertification  Remote sensing and sensors development

2. Research Institute for Geo-hydrological Protection – Applied Pedology Unit, Firenze, Italy ENV.2010.2.1.4-4 Increasing the understanding of the role of soil biodiversity in ecosystem functioning  Requires to deepen the understanding of soil biodiversity and of its interactions and links with the soil functions (as defined by EU Soil Thematic Strategy)  Our fields of interest on soil biodiversity:  Establish the relationships between soil biodiversity and soil functions protection  Soil physical properties  Study interactions between loss of soil biodiversity and other soil threats,  Erosion, Salinization, SOM decline, Sealing  Up-scaling of experimental outcomes at regional scale  Spatial distributions of soil organisms  Spatial variability in agricultural and natural ecosystems  Spatial scales and patterns  Land use changes and management practices

3. Research Institute for Geo-hydrological Protection – Applied Pedology Unit, Firenze, Italy Our possible contribution to the topic call  Characterization of spatial patterning of soil biota and their determinants  Which soil properties explain most of the underlying variability for selected/target group of soil biota  Soil control on soil biota spatial patterns at various scales (pedon to soil region)  How spatial distributions of soil organisms influence plant growth and plant community structure http://www.fi.cnr.it/irpi/index_en.htm