Unfortunately the intention of the

Unfortunately the intention of the question
'what type of research is needed' was misinterpreted
by the respondents as 'what research areas
require further investigation?' The respondents
identified the need for quantification of the role of
soil macrofauna in soil processes and to what
extent they improve or maintain soil fertility. I
was after the nature of investigations required to
answer such questions as: how do we establish
definitive links between soil macrofauna and soil
processes, especially considering some of the
difficulties outlined above. One of the obstacles
has been that the majority of research projects
have been observational and there has been little
manipulation of macrofauna such as in experiments
carried out by Bohlen et al. (1995) who
have manipulated earthworm populations in
large-scale field experiments in agroecosystems.
There needs to be funding initiatives to support
long-term, innovative, high-risk fundamental research
which has applied implications for stakeholder
groups.