Biology subjects

Briones, M. J. I.

Publications and source records attributed to Briones, M. J. I..

4 recordsLinked to original sources

bioRxiv2024

The applicability of Regional Red List assessments for soil invertebrates: First assessment of five native earthworm species in Canada

Earthworms (Annelida: Clitellata: Crassiclitellata) are prominent members of the soil community, important to many ecosystem functions. Despite this, and like many other soil invertebrates, they are rarely considered in conservation assessments, including the IUCN Red List assessments used to assess species extinction risk. To investigate the applicability of the IUCN Regional Red Listing protocol to soil invertebrates, we assessed the conservation status of five earthworm species known to be native to Canada using this protocol and all available occurrence records. In Canada, no earthworm species have yet been assessed by the Committee on the Status of Endangered Wildlife in Canada (COSEWIC). Due to the lack of data on population sizes and their trends, all five species were assessed using their Extent of Occurrence (EOO) (Criterion B). One species was assessed as Vulnerable, two were assessed in non-threatened categories, and two were assessed as Data Deficient. For the majority, the main threats identified were the continuing loss of potential habitat due to land conversion and resource exploitation, as well as the effects of climate change. Increasing the amount of data, including but not limited to distribution and habitat preferences, would make the assessment process easier and status decisions better supported. By undertaking regional assessments for five native earthworm species in Canada, we show that Regional Red List assessments are feasible for soil invertebrates.

ecology↗

bioRxiv2023

The Soil Food Web Ontology: aligning trophic groups, processes, and resources to harmonise and automatise soil food web reconstructions

Although soil ecology has benefited from recent advances in describing the functional and trophic traits of soil organisms, data reuse for large-scale soil food-web reconstructions still faces challenges. These obstacles include: (1) most data on the trophic interactions and feeding behaviour of soil organisms being scattered across disparate repositories, without well-established standard for describing and structuring trophic datasets; (2) the existence of various competing terms, rather than consensus, to delineate feeding-related concepts such as diets, trophic groups, feeding processes, resource types, leading to ambiguities that hinder meaningful data integration from different studies; (3) considerable divergence in the trophic classification of numerous soil organisms, or even the lack of such classifications, leading to discrepancies in the resolution of reconstructed food webs and complicating the reuse and comparison of food-web models within synthetic studies. To address these issues, we introduce the Soil Food Web Ontology, a novel formal conceptual framework designed to foster agreement on the trophic ecology of soil organisms. This ontology represents a collaborative and ongoing endeavour aimed at establishing consensus and formal definitions for the array of concepts relevant to soil trophic ecology. Its primary objective is to enhance the accessibility, interpretation, combination, reuse, and automated processing of trophic data. By harmonising the terminology and fundamental principles of soil trophic ecology, we anticipate that the Soil Food Web Ontology will improve knowledge management within the field. It will help soil ecologists to better harness existing information regarding the feeding behaviours of soil organisms, facilitate more robust trophic classifications, streamline the reconstruction of soil food webs, and ultimately render food-web research more inclusive, reusable and reproducible.

ecology↗

bioRxiv2022

Global monitoring of soil animal communities using a common methodology

Here we introduce the Soil BON Foodweb Team, a cross-continental collaborative network that aims to monitor soil animal communities and food webs using consistent methodology at a global scale. Soil animals support vital soil processes via soil structure modification, direct consumption of dead organic matter, and interactions with microbial and plant communities. Soil animal effects on ecosystem functions have been demonstrated by correlative analyses as well as in laboratory and field experiments, but these studies typically focus on selected animal groups or species at one or few sites with limited variation in environmental conditions. The lack of comprehensive harmonised large-scale soil animal community data including microfauna, mesofauna, and macrofauna, in conjunction with related soil functions, limits our understanding of biological interactions in soil communities and how these interactions affect ecosystem functioning. To provide such data, the Soil BON Foodweb Team invites researchers worldwide to use a common methodology to address six long-term goals: (1) to collect globally representative harmonised data on soil micro-, meso-, and macrofauna communities; (2) to describe key environmental drivers of soil animal communities and food webs; (3) to assess the efficiency of conservation approaches for the protection of soil animal communities; (4) to describe soil food webs and their association with soil functioning globally; (5) to establish a global research network for soil biodiversity monitoring and collaborative projects in related topics; (6) to reinforce local collaboration networks and expertise and support capacity building for soil animal research around the world. In this paper, we describe the vision of the global research network and the common sampling protocol to assess soil animal communities and advocate for the use of standard methodologies across observational and experimental soil animal studies. We will use this protocol to conduct soil animal assessments and reconstruct soil food webs on the sites included in the global soil biodiversity monitoring network, Soil BON, allowing us to assess linkages among soil biodiversity, vegetation, soil physico-chemical properties, and ecosystem functions. In the present paper, we call for researchers especially from countries and ecoregions that remain underrepresented in the majority of soil biodiversity assessments to join us. Together we will be able to provide science-based evidence to support soil biodiversity conservation and functioning of terrestrial ecosystems.

ecology↗

bioRxiv2019

Global distribution of earthworm diversity

Soil organisms provide crucial ecosystem services that support human life. However, little is known about their diversity, distribution, and the threats affecting them. Here, we compiled a global dataset of sampled earthworm communities from over 7000 sites in 56 countries to predict patterns in earthworm diversity, abundance, and biomass. We identify the environmental drivers shaping these patterns. Local species richness and abundance typically peaked at higher latitudes, while biomass peaked in the tropics, patterns opposite to those observed in aboveground organisms. Similar to many aboveground taxa, climate variables were more important in shaping earthworm communities than soil properties or habitat cover. These findings highlight that, while the environmental drivers are similar, conservation strategies to conserve aboveground biodiversity might not be appropriate for earthworm diversity, especially in a changing climate.\n\nOne sentence summaryGlobal patterns of earthworm diversity, abundance and biomass are driven by climate but patterns differ from many aboveground taxa.

ecology↗