Blind spots in global soil biodiversity and ecosystem function research
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Date
Authors
Guerra, Carlos A.
Heintz-Buschart, Anna
Sikorski, Johannes
Chatzinotas, Antonis
Guerrero-Ramirez, Nathaly
Cesarz, Simone
Beaumelle, Lea
Rillig, Matthias C.
Maestre, Fernando T.
Delgado-Baquerizo, Manuel
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
Nature Publising Group
Abstract
Soils harbor a substantial fraction of the world’s biodiversity, contributing to many crucial
ecosystem functions. It is thus essential to identify general macroecological patterns related
to the distribution and functioning of soil organisms to support their conservation and consideration
by governance. These macroecological analyses need to represent the diversity of
environmental conditions that can be found worldwide. Here we identify and characterize
existing environmental gaps in soil taxa and ecosystem functioning data across soil macroecological
studies and 17,186 sampling sites across the globe. These data gaps include
important spatial, environmental, taxonomic, and functional gaps, and an almost complete
absence of temporally explicit data. We also identify the limitations of soil macroecological
studies to explore general patterns in soil biodiversity-ecosystem functioning relationships,
with only 0.3% of all sampling sites having both information about biodiversity and function,
although with different taxonomic groups and functions at each site. Based on this information,
we provide clear priorities to support and expand soil macroecological research.
Description
Keywords
Soils harbor, Soil organisms, Conservation, Macroecological patterns, Biogeochemistry, Biogeography, Macroecology, Research data
Sustainable Development Goals
Citation
Guerra, C.A., Heintz-Buschart, A., Sikorski, J. et al. Blind spots in global soil biodiversity and ecosystem function research. Nature Communications 11, 3870 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-020-17688-2.