"Wide scale biochar has been proposed as a method of increasing soil carbon storage and so mitigating climate change while concurrently providing biofuel and positively affecting soil quality. However, while the effects of biochar application in agricultural systems is being studied throughout the world, little or no work is being undertaken to investigate the effects of biochar application to soil in natural ecosystems.BASE aims to address this issue by undertaking an in-depth investigation of the effects of biochar application to soil in a natural ecosystem. Working in partnership with world leading experts at Wageningen University and the Netherland Centre for Ecology, BASE will utilise multi-disciplinary techniques from soil physics, chemistry and biology and will investigate across scales, from genes up to landscape to obtain a full understanding of the impacts of biochar application to soils.Results from the project will be published in high impact, multi-disciplinary and open source journals, as well as hosted on a BASE website to allow the results of the project to reach as large an audience as possible."