Global hotspots for soil nature conservation

Carlos A. Guerra (), Miguel Berdugo, David J. Eldridge, Nico Eisenhauer, Brajesh K. Singh, Haiying Cui, Sebastian Abades, Fernando D. Alfaro, Adebola R. Bamigboye, Felipe Bastida, José L. Blanco-Pastor, Asunción los Ríos, Jorge Durán, Tine Grebenc, Javier G. Illán, Yu-Rong Liu, Thulani P. Makhalanyane, Steven Mamet, Marco A. Molina-Montenegro, José L. Moreno, Arpan Mukherjee, Tina U. Nahberger, Gabriel F. Peñaloza-Bojacá, César Plaza, Sergio Picó, Jay Prakash Verma, Ana Rey, Alexandra Rodríguez, Leho Tedersoo, Alberto L. Teixido, Cristian Torres-Díaz, Pankaj Trivedi, Juntao Wang, Ling Wang, Jianyong Wang, Eli Zaady, Xiaobing Zhou, Xin-Quan Zhou and Manuel Delgado-Baquerizo ()
Additional contact information
Carlos A. Guerra: German Centre for Integrative Biodiversity Research (iDiv) Halle-Jena-Leipzig
Miguel Berdugo: ETH Zürich
David J. Eldridge: University of New South Wales
Nico Eisenhauer: German Centre for Integrative Biodiversity Research (iDiv) Halle-Jena-Leipzig
Brajesh K. Singh: Western Sydney University
Haiying Cui: Northeast Normal University, Key Laboratory of Vegetation Ecology of the Ministry of Education, Jilin Songnen Grassland Ecosystem National Observation and Research Station
Sebastian Abades: Universidad Mayor
Fernando D. Alfaro: Universidad Mayor
Adebola R. Bamigboye: Obafemi Awolowo University
Felipe Bastida: Campus Universitario de Espinardo
José L. Blanco-Pastor: University of Seville
Asunción los Ríos: Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas
Jorge Durán: University of Coimbra
Tine Grebenc: Slovenian Forestry Institute
Javier G. Illán: Washington State University
Yu-Rong Liu: Huazhong Agricultural University
Thulani P. Makhalanyane: University of Pretoria
Steven Mamet: University of Saskatchewan
Marco A. Molina-Montenegro: Universidad de Talca
José L. Moreno: Campus Universitario de Espinardo
Arpan Mukherjee: Banaras Hindu University
Tina U. Nahberger: Slovenian Forestry Institute
Gabriel F. Peñaloza-Bojacá: Universidade Federal de Minas Gerais
César Plaza: Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas
Sergio Picó: Instituto Universitario de Investigación Marina (INMAR), Universidad de Cádiz
Jay Prakash Verma: Banaras Hindu University
Ana Rey: Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas
Alexandra Rodríguez: University of Coimbra
Leho Tedersoo: University of Tartu
Alberto L. Teixido: Universidade Federal de Mato Grosso
Cristian Torres-Díaz: Universidad del Bío-Bío
Pankaj Trivedi: Colorado State University
Juntao Wang: Western Sydney University
Ling Wang: Northeast Normal University, Key Laboratory of Vegetation Ecology of the Ministry of Education, Jilin Songnen Grassland Ecosystem National Observation and Research Station
Jianyong Wang: Northeast Normal University, Key Laboratory of Vegetation Ecology of the Ministry of Education, Jilin Songnen Grassland Ecosystem National Observation and Research Station
Eli Zaady: Institute of Plant Sciences, Gilat Research Center
Xiaobing Zhou: Chinese Academy of Sciences
Xin-Quan Zhou: Huazhong Agricultural University
Manuel Delgado-Baquerizo: Instituto de Recursos Naturales y Agrobiología de Sevilla (IRNAS), CSIC

Nature, 2022, vol. 610, issue 7933, 693-698

Abstract: Abstract Soils are the foundation of all terrestrial ecosystems1. However, unlike for plants and animals, a global assessment of hotspots for soil nature conservation is still lacking2. This hampers our ability to establish nature conservation priorities for the multiple dimensions that support the soil system: from soil biodiversity to ecosystem services. Here, to identify global hotspots for soil nature conservation, we performed a global field survey that includes observations of biodiversity (archaea, bacteria, fungi, protists and invertebrates) and functions (critical for six ecosystem services) in 615 composite samples of topsoil from a standardized survey in all continents. We found that each of the different ecological dimensions of soils—that is, species richness (alpha diversity, measured as amplicon sequence variants), community dissimilarity and ecosystem services—peaked in contrasting regions of the planet, and were associated with different environmental factors. Temperate ecosystems showed the highest species richness, whereas community dissimilarity peaked in the tropics, and colder high-latitudinal ecosystems were identified as hotspots of ecosystem services. These findings highlight the complexities that are involved in simultaneously protecting multiple ecological dimensions of soil. We further show that most of these hotspots are not adequately covered by protected areas (more than 70%), and are vulnerable in the context of several scenarios of global change. Our global estimation of priorities for soil nature conservation highlights the importance of accounting for the multidimensionality of soil biodiversity and ecosystem services to conserve soils for future generations.

Date: 2022
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (3)

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-022-05292-x Abstract (text/html)
Access to the full text of the articles in this series is restricted.

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:nat:nature:v:610:y:2022:i:7933:d:10.1038_s41586-022-05292-x

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
https://www.nature.com/

DOI: 10.1038/s41586-022-05292-x

Access Statistics for this article

Nature is currently edited by Magdalena Skipper

More articles in Nature from Nature
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Sonal Shukla () and Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing ().