Chilean blind spots in soil biodiversity and ecosystem function research

Abstract

Soil harbor up to a quarter of the worlds biodiversity, contributing to many ecosystem functions. It is of great importance to identify distribution patterns of soil organisms and their ecosystem functions to support their conservation and policy building. This has been recently analyzed at macroecological scales, but analyses at national/local scales are scarce. Here we identify and analyze the blind spots in soil taxa and ecosystem functioning data in continental Chile, through a Web of Science articles (1945-2020) search, and focusing on ten soil taxonomic groups and four ecosystem functions (nutrient cycling, decomposition, water infiltration, soil respiration). A total of 741 sampling sites were obtained from 239 articles. In 49.25% of the sites soil biodiversity was studied, while this percentage was 32.65% for ecosystem functions; in 18.10% of the sites both soil biodiversity and ecosystem functions were investigated at the same time, a surprisingly high percentage compared to global studies. By far, Bacteria/Fungi and nutrient cycling were the most investigated taxa and function, respectively. There is a significant number of soil taxa (Acari, Collembola, Nematoda, Formicoidea, Protista, Rotifera) represented by just a few sites concentrated in specific Chilean regions. Places like the central regions, the Atacama desert, and the Valdivian temperate forests present a proliferation of studies on soil Fungi, Bacteria, and nutrient cycling, reflecting historical interests of established research groups. Based on this research, we are identifying the causes of the data blind spots and invite the Chilean soil ecology community to propose ideas on how to fill them.