Vertebrate ecologists have recently identified and communicated the key role of vertebrate animals in major nutrient cycles, specifically on carbon and other nutrients in tropical and temperate soils. Empirical and theoretical studies demonstrate the direct and indirect pathways by which animals affect soil nutrient content through the input of their body’s own organic materials to the soil, which in turn influence the soil microbial communities that shape soil organic matter composition. Mechanisms are still being elucidated, but it is known that carbon increases with vertebrate animal diversity, as does nitrogen, and phosphorus. Increasing carbon levels in the atmosphere is linked to global climate change.

This area of study, dubbed “zoogeochemistry”, is rooted in early studies showing dramatic and long-lasting changes in soil composition and microbe communities associated with animal carcasses, and ecosystem-level studies linking vertebrate animal diversity to soil carbon content beyond the effect of plant diversity.



Despite the clear gap in our understanding of the role of animals in nutrient cycling, and implications for refaunation as a necessary component of ecosystem function restoration, the number of studies addressing the direct role of vertebrate (and invertebrate) animals on soil nutrients remains extremely low, and especially so in the tropics.



Animals are excluded from most empirical and modelling studies of soil nutrients. When they are addressed, there is a narrow taxonomic focus in each study. Furthermore, knowledge from agricultural practice, restoration ecology, and wildlife management is rarely considered in the design and / or interpretation of ecological studies on soil nutrients in natural habitats, despite their potential insights into whole-ecosystem nutrient cycling.



Our symposium seeks to call attention to the key functional role of animals in soil nutrient dynamics. By generating excitement in the ATBC community about this emerging area of study, our symposium is intended as a modest step in the direction of knowledge integration and development of a shared research agenda on the joint role of animals, together with plants, in shaping soil nutrient content.