Project Information
The TellSoilBio Porject is funded by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) of Ireland, under their EPA Research Programme 2030.
Our Stakeholders
There are several key stakeholders and collaborators within this project. These include (1) our main funders, the EPA, (2), the Department of Agriculture Food and the Marine, (3) Geological Survey Ireland and (4) the University of Galway, Ireland.
Sample Sites - Tellus Project
Our survey sites will be a subsample of those previously visited by the GSI Tellus Project, a national programme gathering geochemical and geophysical data across Ireland. This will allow us to pick hot and cold spots of soil geochemistry. We will be implementing similar field techniques to those used in the Tellus project - described in the video attached.
Soil Biodiversity - Extraction and Identification
Once our soil samples are collected, we will use (opens in a new window)SoilBON Foodweb extraction methods to collect micro and meso fauna, as well as nematode and enchytraeids. We will then work in parallel with SoilBON Foodweb to implement high-resolution image analysis for identifying and counting large amounts of samples.