Collecting, harmonizing and compiling data on soil biodiversity, from European agricultural plots

We all depend for our food and our health, for climate mitigation and water resource, of soil functions provided by soil biodiversity. The objective of the program MINOTAUR (Modelling and mapping soil biodiversity patterns and functions across Europe), is to increase the knowledge about soil biodiversity status and trends, with agricultural practices and climate change, at different scales in Europe. Within this program, the task of the Work Package 2 are 1) to inventory existing datasets, 2) to harmonize them and 3) to compile them into a database. We identified 52 datasets across Europe, using questionnaire and bibliographic search. After several meetings, the WP2 members defined the database template. It gathers biological data about micro, meso and macrofauna and metadata about sampling methodology, agricultural practices, soil properties and project information. Regarding the database, we chose to use OpenADOM solutions (Open source Application for Data Organization & Management) with a file configuration in YAML (Yet Another Markup Language). With this tool, the database is flexible and easy to use for scientists. Indeed, the database is accessible by a web interface and the data user can require a first data visualization and filter the data. This work is still on going and the next steps are to finish establishing the database structure and to collect the inventoried data.