Uncertain role of conservation areas to protect soil biodiversity and functioning
Soil biodiversity and functioning are the foundation of ecosystem sustainability, but we do not know whether current nature conservation areas are efficiently protecting soils. Here, we investigated the contribution of terrestrial nature conservation areas to protect soil biodiversity and functioning across scales. We found no general positive effect on diversity of bacteria, fungi, protists, invertebrates, and nematodes, captured as richness, Shannon diversity and dissimilarity, and 5 soil functions (pathogen control, nutrient provision, soil carbon, soil organic matter decomposition, and soil aggregate stability). Our findings suggest that nature conservation areas show an inconsistent role in protecting soil biodiversity and functioning, as we found mostly non-significant and otherwise mixed effects across scales. Despite few positive and negative effects of protection status, our work highlights the urgent need to directly target soils in nature conservation.
Authors
- Carlos A. Guerra (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-4917-2105)
- Rui P. Carvalho (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-0500-2200)
- Kirsten Küsel (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-5396-0975)
- Bala Singavarapu (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0147-895X)
- Arwyn Jones (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8552-6137)
- Pedro Alexandrino Fernandes
- Brajesh K. Singh (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-4413-4185)
- Concha Cano‐Díaz (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-6948-6553)
- Susana Mendes (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-3584-6551)
- Sofia Costa
- Nico Eisenhauer
- Irene Calderón-Sanou
- Alberto Orgiazzi
- Romy Zeiss
- A. Carolina Duarte
Institutions
- Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (FR)
- Centre de Coopération Internationale en Recherche Agronomique pour le Développement (FR)
- Leipzig University of Applied Sciences (DE)
- Universidade Politécnica de Viana do Castelo (PT)
- AgroParisTech (FR)
- European Commission (BE)
- German Centre for Integrative Biodiversity Research (DE)
- Institut National de Recherche pour l'Agriculture, l'Alimentation et l'Environnement (FR)
- Centro de Estudos em Geografia e Ordenamento do Territorio (PT)
- Instituto de Recursos Naturales y Agrobiología de Sevilla (ES)
- European Dynamics (Greece) (GR)
- Western Sydney University (AU)
- Friedrich Schiller University Jena (DE)
- University of Coimbra (PT)
- Leipzig University (DE)
- University of Minho (PT)
Publication Details
- Journal
- Global Ecology and Conservation
- Published
- 2026-01-08
- DOI
- https://doi.org/10.1016/j.gecco.2026.e04052
- Primary Topic
- Soil Carbon and Nitrogen Dynamics
- Type
- article
- Field-Weighted Citation Impact
- 0.00
Funders
- Ministerio de Ciencia, Innovación y Universidades
- China Building Materials Academy
- European Commission
- Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft
- Ministerio de Ciencia e Innovación
- Deutsches Zentrum für integrative Biodiversitätsforschung Halle-Jena-Leipzig
- Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia
- Agencia Estatal de Investigación