Global changes and their environmental stressors have a significant impact on soil biodiversity—A meta-analysis
Helen R. P. Phillips, Erin K. Cameron, Nico Eisenhauer, Victoria J. Burton, Olga Ferlian, Yiming Jin, Sahana Kanabar, Sandhya Malladi, Rowan E. Murphy, Anne Peter, Isis Petrocelli, Christian Ristok, Katharine Tyndall, Wim H. van der Putten, Léa Beaumelle
Abstract
Identifying the main threats to soil biodiversity is crucial as soils harbor ∼60% of global biodiversity. Many previous meta-analyses investigating the impact of different global changes (GCs) on biodiversity have omitted soil fauna or are limited by the GCs studied. We conducted a broad-scale meta-analysis focused on soil fauna communities, analyzing 3,161 effect sizes from 624 publications studying climate change, land-use intensification, pollution, nutrient enrichment, invasive species and habitat fragmentation. Land-use intensification resulted in large reductions in soil fauna communities, especially for the larger-bodied groups. Unexpectedly, pollution caused the largest negative impact on soil biodiversity - particularly worrying due to continually increasing levels of pollution and poor mechanistic understanding of impacts relative to other GCs. Not all GCs and stressors were detrimental; organic-based nutrient enrichment often resulted in positive responses. Including soil biodiversity in large-scale analyses is vital to fully understand the impact of GCs across the different realms.