Global soil biodiversity atlas

The Global Soil Biodiversity Atlas is a collection of images, text, and figures presenting the importance of soil biology to policy makers, experts, and general readers alike.

Key highlights include:

• Soil biodiversity supports many services essential to human beings including: plant growth, water and climate regulation, and disease control among others. 
• Soil biodiversity is increasingly under threats due to several pressures acting on soils. 
• Interventions to reduce the impact of threats to soil biodiversity are available and should be widely adopted. 
• Policies to protect and value soil biodiversity are still at an early stage and need to be further developed. 

The Atlas is divided into 8 chapters covering all the aspects of soil biodiversity:

• Chapter I: The soil habitat 
• Chapter II: Diversity of soil organisms 
• Chapter III: Geographical and temporal distribution 
• Chapter IV: Ecosystem functions and services 
• Chapter V: Threats 
• Chapter VI: Interventions 
• Chapter VII: Policy, education and outreach
• Chapter VIII: Conclusions