On a safari through your own garden

Would you like to know which small creatures are living in your garden? Which ants, beetles, woodlice, millipedes, spiders and bugs? And just how important these soil organisms are for the health of your garden soil? Then why not take part in the »MikroSafari« research project and sharpen your awareness of the diversity of the tiny creatures that share your outdoor space with you.

As part of her doctoral thesis, biologist Maya Bosch is investigating biodiversity in Jena’s allotment gardens and aims to find out what impact, for example, garden management has on the species composition in the garden. We are looking for 200 allotment gardeners to take part in »MikroSafari«. Participation is voluntary, and all data collected will be anonymised. The citizen science project is set to begin in September.

Which arthropods are the typical allotment garden inhabitants?

»We want to find out which species are the typical allotment garden inhabitants,« says Maya Bosch. The biologist works at the University of Jena, the Helmholtz-Centre for Environmental Research (UFZ) and the German Centre for Integrative Biodiversity Research (iDiv) Halle-Jena-Leipzig. Her PhD project relies on the help of allotment gardeners in the Jena area. It is designed as a citizen science project and follows on from a project in which school classes were able to get actively involved.

In »MikroSafari«, participants are each given four traps for catching arthropods. The traps are set up at various locations in the garden, such as on the lawn, in a flower bed, in an overgrown corner of the garden and amongst vegetable plants. The traps are left in place for two weeks, after which the gardeners are invited to work with scientists to identify the captured arthropods or simply return the traps.

»We start by sorting them into groups such as ants, spiders, woodlice, beetles and ground beetles,« says Maya Bosch. The specimens are then examined in detail under a microscope to identify the specific species. Maya Bosch, Prof. Dr Aletta Bonn and Dr María Méndez want to find out how garden management in particular affects the composition of species. The »MikroSafari« team also includes Dr Julie Koch Sheard and Volker Grescho.

A piece of fabric reveals the activity of soil organisms

Garden management refers to the principles according to which the garden is tended—for example, whether fertiliser is used, how intensively it is watered and how often the lawns are mown. The researchers gather this information using a series of questionnaires, which are analysed anonymously. The experimental kit also includes a microclimate logger—a small monitoring station that automatically measures temperature and soil moisture and stores the periodically collected data on a chip. Another component of the experiment involves small pieces of fabric that are buried for two weeks. The change in weight can then be used to determine how active the soil organisms are in each garden. The location of the gardens within the urban area also allows conclusions to be drawn about changes in the fauna as a result of climate change.

How to take part

Anyone wishing to take part in »MikroSafari« will first be invited to complete a short online survey (in German), after which they will receive information on how to take part. The survey can be found at https://umfrage.uni-leipzig.de/index.php/132242External link.