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The prosperity and well‐being of human societies relies on healthy ecosystems and the services they provide. However, the biodiversity crisis is undermining ecosystems services and functions. Vultures are among the most imperiled taxonomic groups on Earth, yet they have a fundamental ecosystem function. These obligate scavengers rapidly consume large amounts of carrion and human waste, a service that may aid in both disease prevention and control of mammalian scavengers, including feral dogs, which in turn threaten humans. We combined information about the distribution of all 15 vulture species found in Europe, Asia, and Africa with their threats and used detailed expert knowledge on threat intensity to prioritize critical areas for conserving vultures in Africa and Eurasia. Threats we identified included poisoning, mortality due to collision with wind energy infrastructures, and other anthropogenic activities related to human land use and influence. Areas important for vulture conservation were concentrated in southern and eastern Africa, South Asia, and the Iberian Peninsula, and over 80% of these areas were unprotected. Some vulture species required larger areas for protection than others. Finally, countries that had the largest share of all identified important priority areas for vulture conservation were those with the largest expenditures related to rabies burden (e.g., India, China, and Myanmar). Vulture populations have declined markedly in most of these countries. Restoring healthy vulture populations through targeted actions in the priority areas we identified may help restore the ecosystem services vultures provide, including sanitation and potentially prevention of diseases, such as rabies, a heavy burden afflicting fragile societies. Our findings may guide stakeholders to prioritize actions where they are needed most in order to achieve international goals for biodiversity conservation and sustainable development., Article impact statement: Eighty percent of areas important for Old World vulture conservation are unprotected and in southern and eastern Africa, South Asia, and Iberia.

Human activities are accelerating global biodiversity change and have resulted in severely threatened ecosystem services. A large proportion of terrestrial biodiversity is harbored by soil, but soil biodiversity has been omitted from many global biodiversity assessments and conservation actions, and understanding of global patterns of soil biodiversity remains limited. In particular, the extent to which hotspots and coldspots of aboveground and soil biodiversity overlap is not clear. We examined global patterns of these overlaps by mapping indices of aboveground (mammals, birds, amphibians, vascular plants) and soil (bacteria, fungi, macrofauna) biodiversity that we created using previously published data on species richness. Areas of mismatch between aboveground and soil biodiversity covered 27% of Earth's terrestrial surface. The temperate broadleaf and mixed forests biome had the highest proportion of grid cells with high aboveground biodiversity but low soil biodiversity, whereas the boreal and tundra biomes had intermediate soil biodiversity but low aboveground biodiversity. While more data on soil biodiversity are needed, both to cover geographic gaps and to include additional taxa, our results suggest that protecting aboveground biodiversity may not sufficiently reduce threats to soil biodiversity. Given the functional importance of soil biodiversity and the role of soils in human well-being, soil biodiversity should be considered further in policy agendas and conservation actions by adapting management practices to sustain soil biodiversity and considering soil biodiversity when designing protected areas.Disparidades Mundiales entre la Biodiversidad Sobre y Bajo el Suelo Resumen Las actividades humanas están acelerando el cambio en la biodiversidad mundial y han tenido como resultado unos servicios ambientales severamente amenazados. Una gran proporción de la biodiversidad terrestre está albergada en el suelo, pero la biodiversidad de este ha sido omitida de varias evaluaciones mundiales de biodiversidad y de las acciones de conservación, además de que el entendimiento de los patrones mundiales de la biodiversidad del suelo permanece limitado; particularmente, la extensión del traslape entre los puntos fríos y calientes de biodiversidad sobre y bajo suelo no está clara. Examinamos los patrones mundiales de estos traslapes mapeando los índices de biodiversidad sobre el suelo (mamíferos, aves, anfibios y plantas vasculares) y bajo el suelo (bacterias, hongos y macrofauna) que creamos con datos previamente publicados de la riqueza de especies. Las áreas de disparidad entre la biodiversidad sobre y bajo el suelo cubrieron el 27% de la superficie terrestre del planeta. El bioma de los bosques templados de plantas frondosas y mixtas tuvo la proporción más alta de celdas de cuadrícula con una biodiversidad alta sobre el suelo, pero baja para en el subsuelo, mientras que los biomas boreales y de la tundra tuvieron una biodiversidad intermedia bajo el suelo, pero baja para el sobre suelo. Aunque se requieren más datos sobre la biodiversidad del suelo, tanto para cubrir los vacíos geográficos como para incluir a taxones adiciones, nuestros resultados sugieren que la protección a la biodiversidad sobre el suelo puede no reducir suficientemente las amenazas para la biodiversidad del suelo. Dada la importancia funcional de la biodiversidad del suelo y el papel de los suelos en el bienestar humano, se debería considerar a la biodiversidad del suelo mucho más en las agendas políticas y en las acciones de conservación, adaptando a las prácticas de manejo para que mantengan a la biodiversidad del suelo y la consideren cuando designen áreas protegidas.人类活动正在导致全球生物多样性的快速变化, 并已严重影响到生态系统服务功能。陆地生物多样性中很大一部分存在于土壤之中, 然而, 许多全球生物多样性评估和保护行动都没有考虑土壤生物多样性, 人们对全球土壤生物多样性格局的认识也十分有限, 特别是对地表生物多样性和土壤生物多样性的热点地区及贫瘠地区的重叠程度知之甚少。为了研究全球地表生物多样性和土壤生物多样性的重叠情况, 我们利用已发表的物种丰富度数据设计了地表生物多样性 (哺乳动物、鸟类、两栖类、维管植物) 及土壤生物多样性 (细菌、真菌、大型动物群) 指标, 用于绘制相应的地图。结果显示, 地表和土壤生物多样性不匹配的地区占地球陆地面积的 27% 。在温带阔叶林和混交林生物群中, 地表生物多样性高而土壤生物多样性低的栅格占比最高, 而寒带和苔原生物群则是土壤生物多样性中等而地表生物多样性低。虽然还有待增加土壤生物多样性的数据以囊括更多地理区域和生物类群, 但我们的结果已经表明, 保护地表生物多样性可能不足以减少对土壤生物多样性的威胁。鉴于土壤生物多样性的重要功能以及土壤对人类福祉的作用, 应在政策议程和保护行动中更多地考虑土壤生物多样性, 如调整管理实践以保护土壤生物多样性、在保护区设计中纳入土壤生物多样性等等。【翻译: 胡怡思; 审校: 聂永刚】.