Soil biodiversity is key to the maintenance of soil functioning and plant production, but is generally overlooked in global policies addressing food security, climate change, loss of biodiversity and desertification. Yet, soils are well known as living dynamic interfaces: they are inhabited by millions of largely unseen and unknown microbial and animal species that are intimately interacting with plants and animal biodiversity that live above-ground. Recent scientific advances in soil biodiversity have accelerated knowledge on the identity of species, the factors determining their biogeographical patterns, and their key role in biogeochemical cycling in terrestrial ecosystems. Society receives services from the activities of soil biological communities such as decomposition, cleansing of water, regulation of pests, nutrient cycling and food, feed and fiber production. Land use change, tillage, agrochemical use, GMOs, nitrogen enrichment and climate change all affect soil biodiversity and consequently, above-ground biodiversity and functioning. In a rapidly changing world, restoration and conservation of soil biodiversity is, therefore, critical in order to sustain our soil resource and the rapidly growing world population. The challenge is to promote interactions between scientists, policy makers, land managers and other end-users in order to increase the implementation of findings on the benefits of soil biodiversity and ways to restore and conserve it. The Global Soil Biodiversity Initiative (GSBI) was launched in 2011 in Wageningen, The Netherlands, to promote translation of expert scientific knowledge on soil biodiversity into actionable science for environmental policy and sustainable land management. GSBI’s S ... 전체 초록 보기