Mini-BioBlitz event for Burgenland Cluster Farmers

Citizen Science training focusing on soil held on-farm...

On May 19, 2022, a Bio-Blitz event was held at a Cluster farm in Groß Enzersdorf, Austria. During this event, BOKU presented a new approach for assessing soil fauna activity to four farm businesses from the Cluster.

Credit: BOKU

This event was a warm up to a future workshop digging into Soil Health - wooden planks were placed on the soil at different places (cultivated crops) of the crop rotation a few weeks before the action. On the action day, the animals under these planks could be observed and identified.

Identification keys were used for soil animals, beetles and snails. Each participant received a sheet on which they could note down the animals they found. In addition, participants had the opportunity to use the iNaturalist app to obtain additional information about unknown or little-known animals.

Despite the extreme drought in the region, a large number of different soil organisms were found. Participants worked intensively and soil organisms were sighted at all 3 sites and roughly classified using the identification keys.

Follow more activity from the Cluster here.