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The Atlas describes soil as habitat for the diversity of organisms that live under our feet. At the same time, it draws attention to the threats to soil biodiversity, such as invasive species, pollution, intensive land use practices or climate change. The Atlas provides current solutions for a sustainable management of soils. It was coordinated by the JRC and the Global Soil Biodiversity Initiative (www.globalsoilbiodiversity.org) with more than 70 contributing organisations and several hundred individual contributions. It illustrates the diversity of soil organisms, explains their geographical and temporal distribution, the ecosystem functions and services provided by soil biota. Most importantly, it draws attention to the myriad of threats to soil biodiversity. These include inappropriate land management practices (e.g. deforestation, land take for infrastructure development), agricultural systems, over-grazing, forest fires and poor water management (both irrigation and drainage). Other practices such as land conversion from grassland or forest to cropped land result in rapid loss of soil carbon, which indirectly enhances global warming. The Atlas shows that mismanaging soils could exacerbate the effects of climate change, jeopardise agricultural production, compromise the quality of ground water and worsen pollution. It also proposes solutions to safeguard soil biodiversity through the development of policies that directly or indirectly target soil health, leading to a more sustainable use.

Soil biodiversity. --- Soil biology. --- Biology --- Natural history --- Diversity, Soil biological --- Soil biological diversity --- Biodiversity --- Soil biodiversity --- Soil biology

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This volume explores current knowledge and methods used to study soil organisms and to attribute their activity to wider ecosystem functions.Biodiversity not only responds to environmental change, but has also been shown to be one of the key drivers of ecosystem function and service delivery. Soil biodiversity in tree-dominated ecosystems is also governed by these principles, the structure of soil biological communities is clearly determined by environmental, as well as spatial, temporal and hierarchical factors. Global environmental change, together with land-use change and ecosystem management by humans, impacts the aboveground structure and composition of tree ecosystems. Due to existing knowledge of the close links between the above- and belowground parts of terrestrial ecosystems, we know that soil biodiversity is also impacted. However, very little is known about the nature of these impacts; effects on the overall level of biodiversity, the magnitude and diversity of functions soil biodiversity generates, but also on the present and future stability of tree ecosystems and soils. Even though much remains to be learned about the relationships between soil biodiversity and tree ecosystem functionality, it is clear that better effort needs to be made to describe and understand key processes which take place in soils and are driven by soil biota. .

Life sciences. --- Agriculture. --- Ecology. --- Forestry. --- Life Sciences. --- Soil biodiversity --- Diversity, Soil biological --- Soil biological diversity --- Biodiversity --- Forests and forestry. --- Forest land --- Forest lands --- Forest planting --- Forest production --- Forest sciences --- Forestation --- Forested lands --- Forestland --- Forestlands --- Forestry --- Forestry industry --- Forestry sciences --- Land, Forest --- Lands, Forest --- Silviculture --- Sylviculture --- Woodlands --- Woods (Forests) --- Agriculture --- Natural resources --- Afforestation --- Arboriculture --- Logging --- Timber --- Tree crops --- Trees --- Balance of nature --- Biology --- Bionomics --- Ecological processes --- Ecological science --- Ecological sciences --- Environment --- Environmental biology --- Oecology --- Environmental sciences --- Population biology --- Farming --- Husbandry --- Industrial arts --- Life sciences --- Food supply --- Land use, Rural --- Ecology --- Ecology .