Final published version
Research output: Contribution to Journal/Magazine › Journal article › peer-review
Research output: Contribution to Journal/Magazine › Journal article › peer-review
}
TY - JOUR
T1 - Deforestation impacts soil biodiversity and ecosystem services worldwide
AU - Qu, Xinjing
AU - Li, Xiaogang
AU - Bardgett, Richard D.
AU - Kuzyakov, Yakov
AU - Revillini, Daniel
AU - Sonne, Christian
AU - Xia, Changlei
AU - Ruan, Honghua
AU - Liu, Yurong
AU - Cao, Fuliang
AU - Reich, Peter B.
AU - Delgado-Baquerizo, Manuel
PY - 2024/3/26
Y1 - 2024/3/26
N2 - Deforestation poses a global threat to biodiversity and its capacity to deliver ecosystem services. Yet, the impacts of deforestation on soil biodiversity and its associated ecosystem services remain virtually unknown. We generated a global dataset including 696 paired-site observations to investigate how native forest conversion to other land uses affects soil properties, biodiversity, and functions associated with the delivery of multiple ecosystem services. The conversion of native forests to plantations, grasslands, and croplands resulted in higher bacterial diversity and more homogeneous fungal communities dominated by pathogens and with a lower abundance of symbionts. Such conversions also resulted in significant reductions in carbon storage, nutrient cycling, and soil functional rates related to organic matter decomposition. Responses of the microbial community to deforestation, including bacterial and fungal diversity and fungal guilds, were predominantly regulated by changes in soil pH and total phosphorus. Moreover, we found that soil fungal diversity and functioning in warmer and wetter native forests is especially vulnerable to deforestation. Our work highlights that the loss of native forests to managed ecosystems poses a major global threat to the biodiversity and functioning of soils and their capacity to deliver ecosystem services.
AB - Deforestation poses a global threat to biodiversity and its capacity to deliver ecosystem services. Yet, the impacts of deforestation on soil biodiversity and its associated ecosystem services remain virtually unknown. We generated a global dataset including 696 paired-site observations to investigate how native forest conversion to other land uses affects soil properties, biodiversity, and functions associated with the delivery of multiple ecosystem services. The conversion of native forests to plantations, grasslands, and croplands resulted in higher bacterial diversity and more homogeneous fungal communities dominated by pathogens and with a lower abundance of symbionts. Such conversions also resulted in significant reductions in carbon storage, nutrient cycling, and soil functional rates related to organic matter decomposition. Responses of the microbial community to deforestation, including bacterial and fungal diversity and fungal guilds, were predominantly regulated by changes in soil pH and total phosphorus. Moreover, we found that soil fungal diversity and functioning in warmer and wetter native forests is especially vulnerable to deforestation. Our work highlights that the loss of native forests to managed ecosystems poses a major global threat to the biodiversity and functioning of soils and their capacity to deliver ecosystem services.
KW - forest conversion
KW - fungal guilds
KW - global scale
KW - meta-analysis
KW - microbial diversity
U2 - 10.1073/pnas.2318475121
DO - 10.1073/pnas.2318475121
M3 - Journal article
C2 - 38466879
AN - SCOPUS:85187784228
VL - 121
JO - Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America
JF - Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America
SN - 0027-8424
IS - 13
M1 - e2318475121
ER -