Increasing the number of stressors reduces soil ecosystem services worldwide

Matthias C. Rillig (), Marcel G. A. Heijden, Miguel Berdugo, Yu-Rong Liu, Judith Riedo, Carlos Sanz-Lazaro, Eduardo Moreno-Jiménez, Ferran Romero, Leho Tedersoo and Manuel Delgado-Baquerizo ()
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Matthias C. Rillig: Freie Universität Berlin
Marcel G. A. Heijden: Agroscope
Miguel Berdugo: ETH Zurich
Yu-Rong Liu: Huazhong Agricultural University
Judith Riedo: Agroscope
Carlos Sanz-Lazaro: Universidad de Alicante
Eduardo Moreno-Jiménez: Freie Universität Berlin
Ferran Romero: Agroscope
Leho Tedersoo: University of Tartu
Manuel Delgado-Baquerizo: Instituto de Recursos Naturales y Agrobiología de Sevilla (IRNAS), CSIC

Nature Climate Change, 2023, vol. 13, issue 5, 478-483

Abstract: Abstract Increasing the number of environmental stressors could decrease ecosystem functioning in soils. Yet this relationship has not been globally assessed outside laboratory experiments. Here, using two independent global standardized field surveys, and a range of natural and human factors, we test the relationship between the number of environmental stressors exceeding different critical thresholds and the maintenance of multiple ecosystem services across biomes. Our analysis shows that having multiple stressors, from medium levels (>50%), negatively and significantly correlates with impacts on ecosystem services and that having multiple stressors crossing a high-level critical threshold (over 75% of maximum observed levels) reduces soil biodiversity and functioning globally. The number of environmental stressors exceeding the >75% threshold was consistently seen as an important predictor of multiple ecosystem services, therefore improving prediction of ecosystem functioning. Our findings highlight the need to reduce the dimensionality of the human footprint on ecosystems to conserve biodiversity and function.

Date: 2023
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (3)

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DOI: 10.1038/s41558-023-01627-2

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