Global environmental dependences of soil biodiversity and functions are modified by water availability thresholds

Jianwei Zhang; Tadeo Sáez-Sandino; Fernando T Maestre; Youzhi Feng; Yongjie Yu; Miguel Berdugo; Juntao Wang; Claudia Coleine; Laura García-Velázquez; Brajesh K Singh; Manuel Delgado-Baquerizo

doi:10.1016/j.scitotenv.2024.178033

Global environmental dependences of soil biodiversity and functions are modified by water availability thresholds

Sci Total Environ. 2024 Dec 13:958:178033. doi: 10.1016/j.scitotenv.2024.178033. Online ahead of print.

Authors

Affiliations

¹ College of Chemical Engineering, Nanjing Forestry University, Nanjing, China; Institute of Agricultural Resources and Environment, Jiangsu Academy of Agricultural Sciences, Nanjing, China.
² Hawkesbury Institute for the Environment, Western Sydney University, Penrith, NSW, Australia.
³ Environmental Sciences and Engineering, Biological and Environmental Science and Engineering Division, King Abdullah University of Science and Technology, Thuwal, Saudi Arabia.
⁴ College of Chemical Engineering, Nanjing Forestry University, Nanjing, China; Jiangsu Collaborative Innovation Center for Solid Organic Waste Resource Utilization, Nanjing, China. Electronic address: [email protected].
⁵ School of Materials Engineering, Changzhou Vocational Institute of Industry Technology, Changzhou, China.
⁶ Departamento de Biodiversidad, Ecología y Evolución, Facultad de Biología, Universidad Complutense de Madrid, Madrid, Spain.
⁷ Global Centre for Land-Based Innovation, Western Sydney University, Penrith, New South Wales, Australia; Hawkesbury Institute for the Environment, Western Sydney University, Richmond, New South Wales, Australia; State Key Laboratory of Urban and Regional Ecology, Research Center for Eco-Environmental Sciences, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, China.
⁸ Department of Ecological and Biological Sciences, University of Tuscia, Viterbo, Italy.
⁹ Departamento de Sistemas Físicos, Químicos y Naturales, Universidad Pablo de Olavide, Sevilla, Spain.
¹⁰ Global Centre for Land-Based Innovation, Western Sydney University, Penrith, New South Wales, Australia; Hawkesbury Institute for the Environment, Western Sydney University, Richmond, New South Wales, Australia.
¹¹ Laboratorio de Biodiversidad y Funcionamiento Ecosistémico, Instituto de Recursos Naturales y Agrobiología de Sevilla (IRNAS), CSIC, Sevilla, Spain. Electronic address: [email protected].

PMID: 39674158
DOI: 10.1016/j.scitotenv.2024.178033

Abstract

Global soil biodiversity and functions are threatened by water availability thresholds. However, the role of these thresholds in modulating the environmental drivers of soil biodiversity and functions remains poorly understood. Analyzing a global dataset of 383 sites across major terrestrial biomes, we found that water availability threshold (measured by aridity index) reorganizes the relative importance of climate, vegetation, and soil properties in regulating soil biodiversity and functions. In less arid regions, vegetation and soil properties jointly explained the primary patterns of soil biodiversity and functions. Conversely, after crossing such water availability threshold toward more arid conditions, climate became the dominant controlling factor, outpacing other environmental variables. Notably, this water-induced shift in environmental dependence was more pronounced for soil multidiversity than for soil multifunctionality. Our findings highlight the critical role of water availability thresholds in shaping the environmental factors that govern soil biodiversity and ecosystem functions, providing valuable insights into potential ecosystem transformations in the context of on-going global aridification.

Keywords: Climate change; Ecological conservation; Soil biodiversity; Soil functions; Water availability.