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Environmental stress has played and still plays a significant role in the evolution and geographical distribution of species. Climatic stresses are environmental factors of paramount importance for biological systems. Numerous examples from terrestrial plants and animals show that, in particular, cold and drought are factors that may dictate the distribution of species. The Section of Soil Fauna Ecology and Ecotoxicology aims to enhance our knowledge and understanding of the interaction between environmental (stress) factors and the evolutionary processes that lead to stress adaptation in terrestrial invertebrates. A major step in our understanding on how climate change alter populations of soil organisms was obtained through the long term field observatory in the project CLIMAITE, a Danish research centre to investigate how climatic changes will affect biological processes and natural ecosystems.
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