Skip to main content
U.S. Department of Energy
Office of Scientific and Technical Information

Enumerating soil biodiversity

Journal Article · · Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America
 [1];  [2];  [2]
  1. Plant-Soil Interactions Unit, Research Division Agroecology and Environment, Agroscope, Zürich 8046, Switzerland; Swiss Federal Institute for Forest, Snow and Landscape Research, Forest Dynamics Research Unit, Birmensdorf 8903, Switzerland
  2. Plant-Soil Interactions Unit, Research Division Agroecology and Environment, Agroscope, Zürich 8046, Switzerland; Department of Plant and Microbial Biology, University of Zürich, Zürich 8008, Switzerland

Soil is an immense habitat for diverse organisms across the tree of life, but just how many organisms live in soil is surprisingly unknown. Previous efforts to enumerate soil biodiversity consider only certain types of organisms (e.g., animals) or report values for diverse groups without partitioning species that live in soil versus other habitats. Here, we reviewed the biodiversity literature to show that soil is likely home to 59 ± 15% of the species on Earth. We therefore estimate an approximately two times greater soil biodiversity than previous estimates, and we include representatives from the simplest (microbial) to most complex (mammals) organisms. Enchytraeidae have the greatest percentage of species in soil (98.6%), followed by fungi (90%), Plantae (85.5%), and Isoptera (84.2%). Our results demonstrate that soil is the most biodiverse singular habitat. By using this estimate of soil biodiversity, we can more accurately and quantitatively advocate for soil organismal conservation and restoration as a central goal of the Anthropocene.

Research Organization:
USDOE Joint Genome Institute (JGI), Walnut Creek, CA (United States)
Sponsoring Organization:
USDOE
Grant/Contract Number:
AC02-05CH11231
OSTI ID:
2422812
Journal Information:
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, Journal Name: Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America Journal Issue: 33 Vol. 120; ISSN 0027-8424
Publisher:
National Academy of SciencesCopyright Statement
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English

References (91)

Knowledge sharing for shared success in the decade on ecosystem restoration journal January 2022
EpiList 1.0: a global checklist of vascular epiphytes journal April 2021
Viruses are real, virus species are man-made, taxonomic constructions journal December 2003
Differentiating between viruses and virus species by writing their names correctly journal January 2022
High-throughput sequencing view on the magnitude of global fungal diversity journal February 2021
Global Phage Diversity journal April 2003
Bacterial diversity in aquatic and other environments: what 16S rDNA libraries can tell us journal February 2004
The global virome: not as big as we thought? journal October 2013
The Magnitude of Global Marine Species Diversity journal December 2012
Nematodes journal October 2013
The values of soil animals for conservation biology journal November 2006
Protist taxonomic and functional diversity in soil, freshwater and marine ecosystems journal January 2021
A global overview of the trophic structure within microbiomes across ecosystems journal June 2021
A methodological framework to embrace soil biodiversity journal September 2019
The ‘Neglected’ Soil Virome – Potential Role and Impact journal August 2018
Diversity in the soil virosphere: to infinity and beyond? journal November 2022
Fungal Mating in the Most Widespread Plant Symbionts? journal February 2017
Are invasive species a major cause of extinctions? journal September 2004
Do we need a global strategy for microbial conservation? journal January 2012
Biodiversity of Collembola and their functional role in the ecosystem journal September 1998
Belowground biodiversity and ecosystem functioning journal November 2014
Ecogenomics and potential biogeochemical impacts of globally abundant ocean viruses journal September 2016
A communal catalogue reveals Earth’s multiscale microbial diversity journal November 2017
Minimum Information about an Uncultivated Virus Genome (MIUViG) journal December 2018
Dimensions of biodiversity in the Earth mycobiome journal June 2016
Mechanisms of, and Barriers to, Horizontal Gene Transfer between Bacteria journal September 2005
Microbial diversity and the genetic nature of microbial species journal May 2008
Forest tree growth is linked to mycorrhizal fungal composition and function across Europe journal January 2022
A few Ascomycota taxa dominate soil fungal communities worldwide journal May 2019
Blind spots in global soil biodiversity and ecosystem function research journal August 2020
Parasites dominate hyperdiverse soil protist communities in Neotropical rainforests journal March 2017
The global distribution and environmental drivers of aboveground versus belowground plant biomass journal June 2021
Detecting macroecological patterns in bacterial communities across independent studies of global soils journal November 2017
Defending Earth’s terrestrial microbiome journal October 2022
Soil microbiomes and one health journal August 2022
Substantial differences in soil viral community composition within and among four Northern California habitats journal October 2022
The species–accumulation curve and estimation of species richness journal August 2003
Quantifying biodiversity: procedures and pitfalls in the measurement and comparison of species richness journal July 2001
Are we in the midst of the sixth mass extinction? A view from the world of amphibians journal August 2008
Estimating prokaryotic diversity and its limits journal July 2002
New approaches narrow global species estimates for beetles, insects, and terrestrial arthropods journal June 2015
Scaling laws predict global microbial diversity journal May 2016
Biological species in the viral world journal May 2018
High-throughput discovery of phage receptors using transposon insertion sequencing of bacteria journal July 2020
Spatial turnover of soil viral populations and genotypes overlain by cohesive responses to moisture in grasslands journal November 2022
Inordinate Fondness Multiplied and Redistributed: the Number of Species on Earth and the New Pie of Life journal September 2017
How many species of mammals are there? journal February 2018
IMG/VR v4: an expanded database of uncultivated virus genomes within a framework of extensive functional, taxonomic, and ecological metadata journal November 2022
The SILVA ribosomal RNA gene database project: improved data processing and web-based tools journal November 2012
Estimating Global Biodiversity: The Role of Cryptic Insect Species journal October 2022
Taxonomic Note: A Place for DNA-DNA Reassociation and 16S rRNA Sequence Analysis in the Present Species Definition in Bacteriology journal October 1994
Discrepancies between prokaryotes and eukaryotes need to be considered in soil DNA‐based studies journal April 2022
Why are there so few evolutionary transitions between aquatic and terrestrial ecosystems? journal August 2000
The unseen majority: soil microbes as drivers of plant diversity and productivity in terrestrial ecosystems journal March 2008
The online database MaarjAM reveals global and ecosystemic distribution patterns in arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi (Glomeromycota) journal June 2010
Best practices in metabarcoding of fungi: From experimental design to results journal April 2022
The global distribution of known and undiscovered ant biodiversity journal August 2022
Global diversity and geography of soil fungi journal November 2014
The global soil community and its influence on biogeochemistry journal August 2019
Diversity and ecological footprint of Global Ocean RNA viruses journal June 2022
Temporal Dynamics and Decay of Putatively Allochthonous and Autochthonous Viral Genotypes in Contrasting Freshwater Lakes journal July 2012
Phage-Host Interaction: an Ecological Perspective journal June 2004
16S rRNA Gene Sequencing for Bacterial Identification in the Diagnostic Laboratory: Pluses, Perils, and Pitfalls journal July 2007
Status of the Archaeal and Bacterial Census: an Update journal May 2016
Broadscale Ecological Patterns Are Robust to Use of Exact Sequence Variants versus Operational Taxonomic Units journal July 2018
Amplicon Sequence Variants Artificially Split Bacterial Genomes into Separate Clusters journal August 2021
Fungal Diversity Revisited: 2.2 to 3.8 Million Species journal August 2017
How Many Species of Insects and Other Terrestrial Arthropods Are There on Earth? journal January 2018
Soil Biodiversity and the Environment journal November 2015
Operational Criteria for Delimiting Species journal December 2004
Biodiversity in helminths and nematodes as a field of study: an overview journal January 2001
More support for Earth’s massive microbiome journal March 2020
Minnesota peat viromes reveal terrestrial and aquatic niche partitioning for local and global viral populations journal November 2021
Estimating Global Termite Species Richness Using Extrapolation journal March 2018
How Many Species Are There on Earth and in the Ocean? journal August 2011
A census-based estimate of Earth's bacterial and archaeal diversity journal February 2019
Vast (but avoidable) underestimation of global biodiversity journal August 2021
Species Diversity and Distribution Patterns of the Ants of Amazonian Ecuador journal October 2010
Millipede Taxonomy after 250 Years: Classification and Taxonomic Practices in a Mega-Diverse yet Understudied Arthropod Group journal May 2012
Mycobacteriophages: Windows into Tuberculosis journal March 2014
Mammalian species and the twofold nature of taxonomy: a comment on Taylor et al. 2019 journal October 2019
The rise of the mammals journal October 2020
The Global Decline of Nonmarine Mollusks journal January 2004
Quantifying Threats to Imperiled Species in the United States journal August 1998
The Early Terrestrial Fungal Lineage of Conidiobolus—Transition from Saprotroph to Parasitic Lifestyle journal July 2022
Trends in Microbial Community Composition and Function by Soil Depth journal February 2022
Does Soil Contribute to the Human Gut Microbiome? journal August 2019
Deciphering Diversity Indices for a Better Understanding of Microbial Communities journal December 2017
High-throughput discovery of phage receptors using transposon insertion sequencing of bacteria dataset January 2020
Mammal Diversity Database dataset January 2022
Minnesota peat viromes reveal terrestrial and aquatic niche partitioning for local and global viral populations collection January 2021

Similar Records

The role and use of ectomycorrhizal fungus biodiversity as an indicator of sustainable forestry
Journal Article · Thu Mar 31 23:00:00 EST 1994 · Tappi Journal; (United States) · OSTI ID:7040310

Priorities for microbial biodiversity research: Summary and recommendations
Conference · Tue Aug 01 00:00:00 EDT 1995 · OSTI ID:584912

Linking soil biodiversity and ecosystem function in a Neotropical savanna
Journal Article · Wed Sep 01 20:00:00 EDT 2021 · Applied Soil Ecology · OSTI ID:1902117