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.

An Ambitious Vision for the Future of Scientific Ocean Drilling

Scientific ocean drilling is an enduring paragon of global research, advancing knowledge of Earth and informing scientists and educators for 55 years. A new road map plots the way to further discovery.

Global Research On Cognitive Frailty: A Bibliometric and Visual Analysis of Papers Published During 2013 – 2021

Background: Cognitive frailty relates to various adverse health outcomes of older adults and is proposed as a new target of healthy ageing. This study aimed to analyze the status, hotspots, and emerging trends / frontiers of global research on cognitive frailty.Methods: Articles and reviews related to cognitive frailty of older people published from 2013 to 2021 were retrieved from the Web of Science Core Collection (WoSCC) database on 26 November 2021. CiteSpace 5.8.R3 was used to conduct the collaboration analysis, document co-citation analysis, and keyword co-occurrence analysis.Results: A total of 2,077 publications were included. There has been a rapid growth of publications on cognitive research since 2016. The United States, Italy, England, and Australia were the leading research centers of cognitive frailty; however, China has recently focused on this topic. The National Center for Geriatrics and Gerontology and Shimada H. were found to be the most prolific institution and author, respectively. Co-citation analysis identified 16 clusters, of which the largest was cognitive frailty. The most frequently occurred keyword was older adult, followed by cognitive impairment, frailty, risk, dementia, prevalence, mortality, health, and Alzheimer’s disease. Burst keyword detection revealed a rising interest in cognitive frailty models.Conclusions: By analyzing the publications over the past years, this study provides a comprehensive analysis of cognitive frailty research. A variety of visualized networks offer an in-depth understanding of the countries / regions, institutions, authors, hotspots, and research frontiers.