blindspots_datasets

Soils harbor a substantial fraction of the world’s biodiversity, contributing to many crucial ecosystem functions. It is thus essential to identify general macroecological patterns related to the distribution and functioning of soil organisms to support their conservation and consideration by governance. These macroecological analyses need to represent the diversity of environmental conditions that can be found worldwide. Here we identify and characterize existing environmental gaps in soil biodiversity and ecosystem functioning data across soil macroecological studies and >17,186 sampling sites across the globe. These data gaps include important spatial, environmental, taxonomic, and functional gaps, and an almost complete absence of temporally explicit data. We also identify the limitations of soil macroecological studies to explore general patterns in soil biodiversity-ecosystem functioning relationships, with only 0.3% of all sampling sites having both information about biodiversity and function, although with different taxonomic groups and functions at each site. Based on this information, we provide clear priorities to support and expand soil macroecological research.

土壤承载着全球相当一部分生物多样性，同时支撑诸多关键生态系统功能。因此，识别与土壤生物分布及功能相关的通用大生态模式（macroecological patterns），对助力其保护并供治理决策参考至关重要。此类大生态分析需覆盖全球范围内各类环境条件的多样性。
本研究针对全球范围内的土壤大生态研究（soil macroecological studies）与超17186个采样点（sampling sites）的相关数据，识别并表征了土壤生物多样性（soil biodiversity）与生态系统功能（ecosystem functioning）数据中现存的各类环境缺口。此类数据缺口涵盖关键的空间、环境、分类学（taxonomic）与功能缺口，且几乎完全缺失具有明确时间信息的数据集（temporally explicit data）。
本研究同时指出，当前土壤大生态研究在探索土壤生物多样性-生态系统功能关系的通用模式时存在局限：仅0.3%的采样点同时具备生物多样性与生态系统功能相关数据，但各采样点对应的分类类群与功能类型各不相同。
基于上述发现，本研究明确了支撑与拓展土壤大生态研究的核心优先级方向。