TY - JOUR
T1 - Blind spots in global soil biodiversity and ecosystem function research
AU - Guerra, Carlos A.
AU - Heintz-Buschart, Anna
AU - Sikorski, Johannes
AU - Chatzinotas, Antonis
AU - Guerrero-Ramírez, Nathaly
AU - Cesarz, Simone
AU - Beaumelle, Léa
AU - Rillig, Matthias C.
AU - Maestre, Fernando T.
AU - Delgado-Baquerizo, Manuel
AU - Buscot, François
AU - Overmann, Jörg
AU - Patoine, Guillaume
AU - Phillips, Helen R.P.
AU - Winter, Marten
AU - Wubet, Tesfaye
AU - Küsel, Kirsten
AU - Bardgett, Richard D.
AU - Cameron, Erin K.
AU - Cowan, Don
AU - Grebenc, Tine
AU - Marín, César
AU - Orgiazzi, Alberto
AU - Singh, Brajesh K.
AU - Wall, Diana H.
AU - Eisenhauer, Nico
N1 - Publisher Copyright:
© 2020, The Author(s).
PY - 2020/12/1
Y1 - 2020/12/1
N2 - 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.
AB - 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.
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85088925987&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1038/s41467-020-17688-2
DO - 10.1038/s41467-020-17688-2
M3 - Article
C2 - 32747621
AN - SCOPUS:85088925987
SN - 2041-1723
VL - 11
JO - Nature Communications
JF - Nature Communications
IS - 1
M1 - 3870
ER -