Jim Harris
Department of Environmental Science and Technology,
School of Applied Sciences, Cranfield University, U.K.

The below ground community is extremely biologically diverse, and interacts with mineral and organic components to generate soil structure and function. A handful of soil contains tens of thousands of species of organisms from bacteria, numbering in the billions, to earthworms few in number but critical in the formation and stability of soil structure. Terrestrial ecosystems cannot function without intact soil biological communities nutrient cycling is dependent on key processes carried out by soil organism including decomposition, nitrogen fixation and beneficial symbioses. Unfortunately, this vital component of ecosystems is often overlooked – although without it no restoration can succeed.
There are three ways in which the below ground community may be viewed as part of a restoration programme or project:
Following: the complex nature of the soil microbial community means it is rich with signals responsive to changes in the  structure and function of terrestrial ecosystems – this provides unequivocal  indicators the trajectory of a restoration in relation to target states and the effects of different restoration treatments and strategies;
Facilitating: as essential components of particular ecosystem process and interactions, from symbioses to nutrient cycling. Inoculation my bring about improved survival/ growth (e.g. mycorrhizae), structural genesis (e.g. earthworms) or nutrient cycling (e.g. N-fixers); and
Stabilisation: through securing diversity and novelty in ecosystems by favouring invasive species by means of Red Queen effects, transformation of novel compounds, increasing resource use efficiency, and imparting resilience to systems.
Examples of this type of interaction will be given and their implications for restoration ecology research, and ecological restoration practice discussed.  This will be set in the wider conceptual context of restoration ecology and the challenges facing the Earth System from climate change to intensification of land use.