The UN General Assembly has declared 2015 the International Year of Soils to raise awareness of the vital importance of soil, which is essential not only for food security and for cultivating plants for feed, fibre, fuel and medicinal products, but also for maintaining biodiversity as it hosts countless organisms. It plays a key role in storing and filtering water, in carbon and other nutrients cycling and performs other irreplaceable ecosystem functions. The Institute of Soil Biology of the CAS Biology Centre carries out biological research into many of those functions of soil in both natural and human–affected environments, including studies of the soil microstructure, soil organism communities and their dynamics and interactions and so on. Researchers at the Institute of Soil Biology focus, among other things, on the contribution of soil fungi to nitrous oxide emissions and on the production of methane. The latter is a potent greenhouse gas and a substantial part of atmospheric methane is produced by anaerobic microorganisms called Archaea found in the soil and in animal digestive tracts, while soil is also a significant methane sink. Research is also being concentrated on the characterization and risk assessment of antibiotic resistance-reservoirs in soil, which is connected with the massive use of antibiotics in the past five decades. Scientists examine ways of preventing the antibiotic resistance spreading in the environment through food chains as well as and on the role played by the soil microflora in those processes, as Doctor Dana Elhottová explains in the corresponding article. and Jana Olivová.
The first implementation phase of the ELI Beamlines project was concluded and the laser facility in Dolní Břežany was inaugurated on October 19, 2015 in the presence of many distinguished guests from the world of science and politics. The initial greetings were given by Czech and foreign guests, including the President of the Czech Academy of Sciences Jiří Drahoš, Director of the Institute of Physics Jan Řídký, the President of the Senate of the Czech Republic Milan Štěch, Archbishop of Prague Dominik cardinal Duka, Director General of the European Synchrotron Radiation Facility (ESRF) Francesco Sette, Director General of the ELI-DC International Association Wolfgang Sandner, Chairman of the European Strategy Forum on Research Infrastructure John Womersley, French physicist and founder of the ELI project Gérard Mourou, Deputy director for science and technology in the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory in California Patricia Falcone. Guests were invited to see laser and experimental technologies directly in one of the laser halls. and Marina Hužvárová a Jana Olivová.