Identification of Soil Fauna (Dr. Anton Potapov, University of Göttingen + Prof. Rahayu Widyastuti, IPB University)

Southeast Asia is known for being one of the ´biodiversity hotspots´ of Earth. At the same time local fauna is hardly inventoried which restrains the progress in biological studies. This is especially true for soil animals, where around 50% (sometimes up to 80%) of species in different groups can be undescribed (according to Sumatera survey in 2013 by EFForTS project). One of the main reasons for that is very few local soil zoologists that able to describe the new species.
Sharing the working experience by organizing training courses and workshops in one of the main ideas behind the international collaboration in the framework of EFForTS project. Until now, not many specialists from IPB and Indonesia in general can identify diverse tropical soil animals.
Thus, a two-week training workshop for the identification of soil fauna was conducted at the Soil Biotechnology Division at IPB from March 20 to April 04, 2017. During the training course, a group of nine young Indonesian researchers (bachelor and master students) was trained to identify common groups of soil fauna down to the order or family level of taxonomic resolution. Along with the practical work, introduction in specific soil fauna groups, methods of soil ecology, data analysis and work with scientific literature were provided.
A simplistic identification key for the determination of soil fauna in Indonesia was developed and translated into Bahasa Indonesia (see identification key). This table is a pictorial key that allows easy identification of all common soil invertebrates of Indonesian fauna to the level of order. Such manual along with other materials, provided after the course, can serve as a starting point for soil taxonomic and ecological research of young Indonesian specialists. During the practical work, students sorted animals from the research material of the B08 scientific EFForTS project under the supervision of Anton Potapov and Rahayu Widyastuti. In total, 14.000 specimens were identified to 32 taxonomic groups.