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