These priorities follow from the need to address the extent of any loss of functioning in soils, associated with intensive agriculture, forest disturbance, pollution of the environment, and global environmental change. The soil biota considered at present to be most at risk are species-poor functional groups among macrofaunal shredders of organic matter, bioturbators of soil, specialized bacteria like nitrifiers and nitrogen fixers, and fungiforming mycorrhizas. A.P. Covich, B.J. Finlay, J. Gibert, K.D. Hyde, R.K. Johnson, T. Kairesalo, S. Lake, C.R. Lovell, R.J. Naiman, C. Ricci, F. Sabeter, D. Strayer . Biodiversity and ecosystem processes in freshwater sediments. These zones of freshwater sediments contain an enormous variety of species that produce and process organic carbon.
Some species perform specific functions such as fixing or recycling nitrogen.
Others break down contaminants or mix sediments so as to alter the rates of ecosystem processes. Their diversity and distributions range greatly along gradients of depth, dissolved oxygen, latitude, and altitude in wetlands, lakes, rivers, and groundwaters. Deep, isolated habitats contain unique, endemic species especially among those organisms with limited dispersal ability. Competent scientists must be trained in many parts of the globe to accelerate studies of this species-rich biota and essential ecosystem relationships. N.B. Ramsing, V. Solis-Weiss .