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Global change and their environmental stressors have a significant impact on soil biodiversity -- a meta-analysis
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  • Helen Phillips,
  • Erin K. Cameron,
  • Nico Eisenhauer,
  • Victoria Burton,
  • Olga Ferlian,
  • Yiming Jin,
  • Sahana Kanabar,
  • Sandhya Malladi,
  • Rowan Murphy,
  • Anne Peter,
  • Isis Petrocelli,
  • Christian Ristok,
  • Katharine Tyndall,
  • Wim van der Putten,
  • Léa Beaumelle
Helen Phillips
NIOD-KNAW

Corresponding Author:helen.phillips@smu.ca

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Erin K. Cameron
Saint Mary's University
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Nico Eisenhauer
University of Leipzig
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Victoria Burton
Natural History Museum
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Olga Ferlian
University of Leipzig
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Yiming Jin
Technische Universität Dresden
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Sahana Kanabar
Saint Mary's University
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Sandhya Malladi
JUNIA
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Rowan Murphy
Saint Mary's University
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Anne Peter
University of Leipzig
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Isis Petrocelli
University of Leipzig
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Christian Ristok
German Centre for Integrative Biodiversity Research (iDiv) Halle-Jena-Leipzig
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Katharine Tyndall
University of Leipzig
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Wim van der Putten
NIOO-KNAW
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Léa Beaumelle
CNRS, Université Paul Sabatier III
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Abstract

Anthropogenic global changes are impacting biodiversity, however, many previous meta-analyses investigating the impact of different global changes on biodiversity have omitted soil fauna, or are limited in the scope of the global changes studied. Threats to soil biodiversity by global changes need to be understood to mitigate effects on ecosystem services provided by soils. We conducted a meta-analysis using 3,173 effect sizes from 627 publications focused on six global changes (climate change, land-use intensification, pollution, nutrient enrichment, invasive species, and habitat fragmentation) and their associated environmental stressors on soil fauna. We classified stressors as either pulse (short-term, acute) or press (long-term, chronic) stressors, and expected pulse stressors to have less impact on soil biodiversity due to buffering effects of the soil. Unexpectedly, pollution caused the largest loss in soil fauna communities, which is worrying due to continually increasing levels of pollution, as well as the poor mechanistic understanding of pollution impacts. There was no clear pattern of pulse stressors having a smaller impact on soil biodiversity than press stressors. Overall, this work shows the importance of including soil biodiversity in large-scale global change analyses, as soil organisms often do not show the same responses as organisms above-ground.