Soils worldwide suffer from the combined effects of multiple global change factors

A statistical analysis of data from global surveys reveals that soils react to the number of stressors as well as to the individual stressor types. Moreover, the increasing number of stressors above a critical threshold reduces soil biodiversity and impedes the delivery of various ecosystem processes.

This is a preview of subscription content, access via your institution

Access options

Rent or buy this article

Get just this article for as long as you need it

$39.95

Prices may be subject to local taxes which are calculated during checkout

Fig. 1: The number of stressors operating at high levels decreases the delivery of multiple ecosystem processes.

References

  1. Sage, R. Global change biology: a primer. Glob. Change Biol. 26, 3–30 (2020). A review article that presents the various factors that are driving global change.

    Article 

    Google Scholar
     

  2. Rillig, M. C., Ryo, M. & Lehmann, A. Classifying human influences on terrestrial ecosystems. Glob. Change Biol. 27, 2273–2278 (2021). This article presents an approach for classifying global change factors that affect terrestrial ecosystems and the soil.

    Article 
    CAS 

    Google Scholar
     

  3. Rillig, M. C. et al. The role of multiple global change factors in driving soil functions and microbial biodiversity. Science 366, 886–890 (2019). This paper uses a lab-based experiment to show that increasing the number of global change factors leads to progressively lower biodiversity and soil processes.

    Article 
    CAS 

    Google Scholar
     

  4. Yang, G. et al. Multiple anthropogenic pressures eliminate the effects of soil microbial diversity on ecosystem functions in experimental microcosms. Nat. Commun. 13, 4260 (2022). This paper reports that high soil biodiversity cannot protect soils from the effects of an increasing number of global change factors.

    Article 
    CAS 

    Google Scholar
     

Download references

Additional information

Publisher’s note Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.

This is a summary of: Rillig, M. C. et al. Increasing the number of stressors reduces soil ecosystem services worldwide. Nat. Clim. Change https://doi.org/10.1038/s41558-023-01627-2 (2023).

Rights and permissions

Reprints and Permissions

About this article

Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this article

Soils worldwide suffer from the combined effects of multiple global change factors.
Nat. Clim. Chang. (2023). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41558-023-01628-1

Download citation

  • Published: 23 March 2023

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41558-023-01628-1

Share this article

Anyone you share the following link with will be able to read this content:

Sorry, a shareable link is not currently available for this article.

Provided by the Springer Nature SharedIt content-sharing initiative