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Global soil map pinpoints key sites for conservation

A map of Earth reveals hotspots of soil biodiversity and regions to target for conservation. Many of these areas are currently unprotected, which suggests that it is time to rethink our soil management and conservation priorities.
  1. Peter C. de Ruiter

    1. Peter C. de Ruiter is at Biometris, Wageningen University, 6708 PB Wageningen, the Netherlands, and at the Institute for Biodiversity and Ecosystem Dynamics, University of Amsterdam, 1090 GE Amsterdam, the Netherlands.

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  2. Elly Morriën

    1. Elly Morriën is at the Institute for Biodiversity and Ecosystem Dynamics, University of Amsterdam, 1090 GE Amsterdam, the Netherlands.

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The growing interest in soil biodiversity has produced a wealth of information about the variability in soil organisms and their role in the functioning of soil ecosystems1,2. Global surveys are available that provide such data for bacteria, fungi and macrofauna3, nematode worms4 and earthworms5. Writing in Nature, Guerra et al.6 complement these findings with a worldwide survey that includes an analysis of 615 soil samples from 151 locations, representing all continents.

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Nature 610, 634-635 (2022)

doi: https://doi.org/10.1038/d41586-022-03079-8

References

  1. Johnson, N. et al. (eds) Global Soil Biodiversity Atlas (EU, 2016).

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  2. FAO et al. State of Knowledge of Soil Biodiversity — Status, Challenges and Potentialities (FAO, 2020).

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  3. Cameron, E. K. et al. Nature Ecol. Evol. 2, 1042–1043 (2018).

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  4. van den Hoogen, J. et al. Nature 572, 194–198 (2019).

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  5. Phillips, H. R. P. et al. Science 366, 480–485 (2019).

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  6. Guerra, C. A. et al. Nature 610, 693–698 (2022).

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  7. Moore, J. C. & de Ruiter, P. C. Energetic Food Webs: An Analysis of Real and Model Ecosystems (Oxford Univ. Press, 2012).

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  8. Wolters V. et al. Bioscience 50, 1089–1098 (2000).

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  9. Schimel, J. P. & Schaeffer, S. M. Front. Microbiol. 3, 348 (2012).

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  10. IPCC. In Climate Change 2022: Mitigation of Climate Change. Contribution of Working Group III to the Sixth Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change Impacts, Adaptation, and Vulnerability: Summary for Policymakers (eds Shukla, P. R. et al.) 50 (Cambridge Univ. Press, 2022).

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  11. Chenu, C. et al. Soil Till. Res. 188, 41–52 (2019).

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  12. Liang, C., Schimel, J. P. & Jastrow, J. D. Nature Microbiol. 2, 17105 (2017).

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  13. Hannula, S. E. & Morriën, E. Geoderma 413, 115767 (2022).

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Competing Interests

The authors declare no competing interests.

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