Comparison of protected and unprotected soils across scales

To test effects of conservation measures on soil biodiversity and functioning, this dataset investigates five soil functions (pathogen control, nutrient provision, soil carbon, soil organic matter decomposition, and soil aggregate stability); diversity and dissimilarity measures for bacteria, fungi, protists, and invertebrates; and richness of nematodes, decomposers, ectomycorrhizal and arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi. To evaluate the soil diversity and functioning estimates under conservation measures, we compared protected sites with environmentally similar unprotected sites as described elsewhere (Zeiss et al., 2022). We used three independent datasets to address our research question across three different spatial scales, namely global, continental (i.e., Europe), and regional scale (i.e., Portugal).