Global mismatches in aboveground and belowground biodiversity

• Published in: Conservation Biology
• Main Authors: Cameron, Erin K., Martins, Ines S., Lavelle, Patrick, Mathieu, Jérôme, Tedersoo, Leho, Bahram, Mohammad, Gottschall, Felix, Guerra, Carlos A., Hines, Jes, Patoine, Guillaume, Winter, Marten, Cesarz, Simone, Ferlian, Olga, Kreft, Holger, Lovejoy, Thomas E., Montanarella, Luca, Orgiazzi, Alberto, Pereira, Henrique M., Phillips, Helen R. P., Settele, Josef, Wall, Diana H., Eisenhauer, Nico
• Other Authors: Helsinki University of Technology, Partenaires INRAE, Saint Mary's University, German Centre for Integrative Biodiversity Research (iDiv) Halle-Jena-Leipzig, Martin-Luther-University Halle-Wittenberg, Université Pierre et Marie Curie - Paris 6 (UPMC), Centro Internacional de Agricultural Tropical, Centre IRD d’île de France, Institut d'écologie et des sciences de l'environnement de Paris (iEES Paris), Institut National de la Recherche Agronomique (INRA)-Sorbonne Université (SU)-Université Paris-Est Créteil Val-de-Marne - Paris 12 (UPEC UP12)-Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS), University of Tartu, Department of Ecology, Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences (SLU), Laboratoire LTEE, Georg-August-University Göttingen, George Mason University, European Commission's Joint Research Centre, Universidade do Porto, Department of Community Ecology, Helmholtz Zentrum für Umweltforschung = Helmholtz Centre for Environmental Research (UFZ), University of the Philippines Los Baños (UP Los Baños), Colorado State University Fort Collins (CSU), Deutsche ForschungsgemeinschaftGerman Research Foundation (DFG) FZT 118, Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of CanadaNatural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada; Suomen AkatemiaAcademy of Finland 285882, H2020 European Research Council 677232, 641762-ECOPOTENTIAL, Vetenskapsradet 2017-05019
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English
• Published: HAL CCSD 2019
• Subjects: aboveground-belowground; bacteria; fungi; global patterns; mismatch; policy; soil biodiversity; bacterias; biodiversidad del suelo; disparidad; hongos; patrones mundiales; politicas; (sic)(sic)-(sic)(sic); (sic); (sic)(sic)(sic)(sic); (sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic); (sic)(sic); (sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic); macrofauna; sobre suelo - bajo suelo; [SDV]Life Sciences [q-bio]; [SDE]Environmental Sciences; Tundra
• Online Access: https://hal.inrae.fr/hal-02628008; https://doi.org/10.1111/cobi.13311

International audience Human activities are accelerating global biodiversity change and have resulted in severely threatened ecosystem services. A large proportion of terrestrial biodiversity is harbored by soil, but soil biodiversity has been omitted from many global biodiversity assessments and conservation actions, and understanding of global patterns of soil biodiversity remains limited. In particular, the extent to which hotspots and coldspots of aboveground and soil biodiversity overlap is not clear. We examined global patterns of these overlaps by mapping indices of aboveground (mammals, birds, amphibians, vascular plants) and soil (bacteria, fungi, macrofauna) biodiversity that we created using previously published data on species richness. Areas of mismatch between aboveground and soil biodiversity covered 27% of Earth's terrestrial surface. The temperate broadleaf and mixed forests biome had the highest proportion of grid cells with high aboveground biodiversity but low soil biodiversity, whereas the boreal and tundra biomes had intermediate soil biodiversity but low aboveground biodiversity. While more data on soil biodiversity are needed, both to cover geographic gaps and to include additional taxa, our results suggest that protecting aboveground biodiversity may not sufficiently reduce threats to soil biodiversity. Given the functional importance of soil biodiversity and the role of soils in human well-being, soil biodiversity should be considered further in policy agendas and conservation actions by adapting management practices to sustain soil biodiversity and considering soil biodiversity when designing protected areas.