Soil nematode abundance and functional group composition at a global scale

• Published in: Nature
• Main Authors: van den Hoogen, Johan, Geisen, Stefan, Routh, Devin, Ferris, Howard, Traunspurger, Walter, Wardle, David A., de Goede, Ron G. M., Adams, Byron J., Ahmad, Wasim, Andriuzzi, Walter S., Bardgett, Richard D., Bonkowski, Michael, Campos-Herrera, Raquel, Cares, Juvenil E., Caruso, Tancredi, de Brito Caixeta, Larissa, Chen, Xiaoyun, Costa, Sofia R., Creamer, Rachel, Mauro da Cunha Castro, José, Dam, Marie, Djigal, Djibril, Escuer, Miguel, Griffiths, Bryan S., Gutiérrez, Carmen, Hohberg, Karin, Kalinkina, Daria, Kardol, Paul, Kergunteuil, Alan, Korthals, Gerard, Krashevska, Valentyna, Kudrin, Alexey A., Qi, Li, Liang, Wenju, Magilton, Matthew, Marais, Mariette, Martín, José Antonio Rodríguez, Matveeva, Elizaveta, Mayad, El Hassan, Mulder, Christian, Mullin, Peter, Neilson, Roy, Nguyen, T. A. Duong, Nielsen, Uffe N., Okada, Hiroaki, Rius, Juan Emilio Palomares, Pan, Kaiwen, Peneva, Vlada, Pellissier, Loïc, Carlos Pereira da Silva, Julio, Pitteloud, Camille, Powers, Thomas O., Powers, Kirsten, Quist, Casper W., Rasmann, Sergio, Moreno, Sara Sánchez, Scheu, Stefan, Setälä, Heikki, Sushchuk, Anna, Tiunov, Alexei V., Trap, Jean, van Der Putten, Wim, Vestergård, Mette, Villenave, Cecile, Waeyenberge, Lieven, Wall, Diana H., Wilschut, Rutger, Wright, Daniel G., Yang, Jiue-In, Crowther, Thomas Ward
• Other Authors: Eidgenössische Technische Hochschule - Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Zürich (ETH Zürich), Netherlands Institute for Ecology (NIOO-KNAW), Dept Entomol & Nematol, University of California Davis (UC Davis), University of California (UC)-University of California (UC), Universität Bielefeld = Bielefeld University, Nanyang Technological University Singapour, Wageningen University and Research Wageningen (WUR), Brigham Young University (BYU), Aligarh Muslim University, Colorado State University Fort Collins (CSU), Sch Earth & Environm Sci, University of Adelaide, University of Cologne, Universidad de La Rioja (UR), Universidade de Brasília (UnB), Queen's University Belfast (QUB), Nanjing Agricultural University (NAU), Universidade do Minho = University of Minho Braga, Ctr Pesquisa Agr Trop Semi Arido, Empresa Brasileira de Pesquisa Agropecuária (Embrapa), Ministério da Agricultura, Pecuária e Abastecimento Brasil (MAPA), Governo do Brasil-Governo do Brasil-Ministério da Agricultura, Pecuária e Abastecimento Brasil (MAPA), Governo do Brasil-Governo do Brasil, Zealand Inst Business & Techno, Partenaires INRAE, Institut Sénégalais de Recherches Agricoles Dakar (ISRA), Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Cientificas España = Spanish National Research Council Spain (CSIC), Scotland's Rural College (SRUC), Senckenberg Research Institute and Natural History Museum, Russian Academy of Sciences Moscow (RAS), Department of Forest Ecology and Management, Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences = Sveriges lantbruksuniversitet (SLU), Université de Neuchâtel = University of Neuchatel (UNINE), Georg-August-University = Georg-August-Universität Göttingen, Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS), Agricultural Research Council (ARC), Inst Nacl Invest & Tecnol Agr & Alimentaria, Université Ibn Zohr Agadir, Università degli studi di Catania = University of Catania (Unict), University of Nebraska–Lincoln, University of Nebraska System, The James Hutton Institute, Vietnam Academy of Science and Technology (VAST), Western Sydney University, National Agriculture and Food Research Organization (NARO), Bulgarian Academy of Sciences (BAS), Swiss Federal Institute for Forest, Snow and Landscape Research WSL, Universidade Federal de Lavras = Federal University of Lavras (UFLA), Helsingin yliopisto = Helsingfors universitet = University of Helsinki
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English
• Published: HAL CCSD 2019
• Subjects: [SDE.BE]Environmental Sciences/Biodiversity and Ecology; Arctic
• Online Access: https://hal.inrae.fr/hal-02627798; https://doi.org/10.1038/s41586-019-1418-6

International audience Soil organisms are a crucial part of the terrestrial biosphere. Despite their importance for ecosystem functioning, few quantitative, spatially explicit models of the active belowground community currently exist. In particular, nematodes are the most abundant animals on Earth, filling all trophic levels in the soil food web. Here we use 6,759 georeferenced samples to generate a mechanistic understanding of the patterns of the global abundance of nematodes in the soil and the composition of their functional groups. The resulting maps show that 4.4 +/- 0.64 x 10(20) nematodes (with a total biomass of approximately 0.3 gigatonnes) inhabit surface soils across the world, with higher abundances in sub-Arctic regions (38% of total) than in temperate (24%) or tropical (21%) regions. Regional variations in these global trends also provide insights into local patterns of soil fertility and functioning. These high-resolution models provide the first steps towards representing soil ecological processes in global biogeochemical models and will enable the prediction of elemental cycling under current and future climate scenarios.