Blind spots in global soil biodiversity and ecosystem function research

Carlos A. Guerra; Anna Heintz-Buschart; Johannes Sikorski; Antonis Chatzinotas; Nathaly Guerrero-Ramírez; Simone Cesarz; Léa Beaumelle; Matthias C. Rillig; Fernando T. Maestre; Manuel Delgado-Baquerizo; François Buscot; Jörg Overmann; Guillaume Patoine; Helen R. P. Phillips; Marten Winter; Tesfaye Wubet; Kirsten Küsel; Richard D. Bardgett; Erin K. Cameron; Don Cowan; Tine Grebenc; Cesar Marín; Alberto Orgiazzi; Brajesh K. Singh; Diana H. Wall; Nico Eisenhauer

doi:10.1038/s41467-020-17688-2

Blind spots in global soil biodiversity and ecosystem function research

Carlos A. Guerra, Anna Heintz-Buschart, Johannes Sikorski, Antonis Chatzinotas, Nathaly Guerrero-Ramírez, Simone Cesarz, Léa Beaumelle, Matthias C. Rillig, Fernando T. Maestre, Manuel Delgado-Baquerizo, François Buscot, Jörg Overmann, Guillaume Patoine, Helen R. P. Phillips, Marten Winter, Tesfaye Wubet, Kirsten Küsel, Richard D. Bardgett, Erin K. Cameron, Don CowanTine Grebenc, Cesar Marín, Alberto Orgiazzi, Brajesh K. Singh, Diana H. Wall, Nico Eisenhauer

Western Sydney University

Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review

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.

Original language	English
Article number	3870
Number of pages	13
Journal	Nature Communications
Volume	11
Issue number	1
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-020-17688-2
Publication status	Published - 2020

Open Access - Access Right Statement

This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license, and indicate if changes were made. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article’s Creative Commons license, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. If material is not included in the article’s Creative Commons license and your intended use is not permitted by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will need to obtain permission directly from the copyright holder. To view a copy of this license, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/.

Keywords

biodiversity
ecosystems
microorganisms
research
soil microbiology
soils

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10.1038/s41467-020-17688-2

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Guerra, C. A., Heintz-Buschart, A., Sikorski, J., Chatzinotas, A., Guerrero-Ramírez, N., Cesarz, S., Beaumelle, L., Rillig, M. C., Maestre, F. T., Delgado-Baquerizo, M., Buscot, F., Overmann, J., Patoine, G., Phillips, H. R. P., Winter, M., Wubet, T., Küsel, K., Bardgett, R. D., Cameron, E. K., ... Eisenhauer, N. (2020). Blind spots in global soil biodiversity and ecosystem function research. Nature Communications, 11(1), Article 3870. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-020-17688-2

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title = "Blind spots in global soil biodiversity and ecosystem function research",

abstract = "Soils harbor a substantial fraction of the world{\textquoteright}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.",

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author = "Guerra, {Carlos A.} and Anna Heintz-Buschart and Johannes Sikorski and Antonis Chatzinotas and Nathaly Guerrero-Ram{\'i}rez and Simone Cesarz and L{\'e}a Beaumelle and Rillig, {Matthias C.} and Maestre, {Fernando T.} and Manuel Delgado-Baquerizo and Fran{\c c}ois Buscot and J{\"o}rg Overmann and Guillaume Patoine and Phillips, {Helen R. P.} and Marten Winter and Tesfaye Wubet and Kirsten K{\"u}sel and Bardgett, {Richard D.} and Cameron, {Erin K.} and Don Cowan and Tine Grebenc and Cesar Mar{\'i}n and Alberto Orgiazzi and Singh, {Brajesh K.} and Wall, {Diana H.} and Nico Eisenhauer",

year = "2020",

doi = "10.1038/s41467-020-17688-2",

language = "English",

volume = "11",

journal = "Nature Communications",

issn = "2041-1723",

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Guerra, CA, Heintz-Buschart, A, Sikorski, J, Chatzinotas, A, Guerrero-Ramírez, N, Cesarz, S, Beaumelle, L, Rillig, MC, Maestre, FT, Delgado-Baquerizo, M, Buscot, F, Overmann, J, Patoine, G, Phillips, HRP, Winter, M, Wubet, T, Küsel, K, Bardgett, RD, Cameron, EK, Cowan, D, Grebenc, T, Marín, C, Orgiazzi, A, Singh, BK, Wall, DH & Eisenhauer, N 2020, 'Blind spots in global soil biodiversity and ecosystem function research', Nature Communications, vol. 11, no. 1, 3870. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-020-17688-2

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, Cesar

AU - Orgiazzi, Alberto

AU - Singh, Brajesh K.

AU - Wall, Diana H.

AU - Eisenhauer, Nico

PY - 2020

Y1 - 2020

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.

KW - biodiversity

KW - ecosystems

KW - microorganisms

KW - research

KW - soil microbiology

KW - soils

UR - http://hdl.handle.net/1959.7/uws:58980

U2 - 10.1038/s41467-020-17688-2

DO - 10.1038/s41467-020-17688-2

M3 - Article

SN - 2041-1723

VL - 11

JO - Nature Communications

JF - Nature Communications

IS - 1

M1 - 3870

ER -

Blind spots in global soil biodiversity and ecosystem function research

Abstract

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Keywords

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