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In the past decades, there has been an increasing awareness of the importance of Nature Conservation of Soil Biodiversity. Approximately 59% of all biodiversity on the planet is comprised of soil living organisms (Anthony et al. 2023), ranging from microorganisms to vertebrate species (FAO et al. 2020, Anthony et al. 2023). Soil biodiversity plays a central role in soil health and ecosystem services, as the activities of soil biota support the delivery of various ecosystem services, such as carbon sequestration, nutrient cycling, prevention of soil erosion, pest control, and cleaning of air and water (Banerjee and van der Heijden 2023, Creamer et al. 2022, Pulleman et al. 2012). However, soil biodiversity is currently threatened by intensive agriculture and forestry as well as soil sealing in urban environments. Protecting soil biodiversity and thus its ecosystem functions and services will have positive effects on a number of sustainability development goals (SDGs), including water quality and food security, among others (FAO et al. 2020, Köninger et al. 2022). Nevertheless, recent work did not find positive effects of current conservation practices on soil biodiversity and its ecosystem functions (Zeiss et al. 2022). The authors suggest this is predominantly because the priorities and the decision-making paradigms used for selection of sites for conservation do not take into account soil biodiversity, its associated ecosystem functions, or the value of belowground ecosystems to human well-being and economic development (Bardgett and van der Putten 2014, FAO et al. 2020, Zeiss et al. 2022). While biodiversity-friendly management approaches, such as ecological intensification (Kleijn et al. 2019), regenerative agriculture and agroecology (Barrios et al. 2023, FAO 2023, Grilli et al. 2023) are receiving increasing attention, studies focused on conservation of soil biodiversity and its ecosystem functions are still limited (Bardgett and van der Putten 2014, FAO et al.

PR, IFPRI4; 4 Transforming Agricultural and Rural Economies, DGO, 14 pages

Aim: Macroinvertebrates comprise a highly diverse set of taxa with great potential as indicators of soil quality. Communities were sampled at 3,694 sites distributed world-wide. We aimed to analyse the patterns of abundance, composition and network characteristics and their relationships to latitude, mean annual temperature and rainfall, land cover, soil texture and agricultural practices. Location: Sites are distributed in 41 countries, ranging from 55° S to 57° N latitude, from 0 to 4,000 m in elevation, with annual rainfall ranging from 500 to >3,000 mm and mean temperatures of 5–32°C. Time period: 1980–2018. Major taxa studied: All soil macroinvertebrates: Haplotaxida; Coleoptera; Formicidae; Arachnida; Chilopoda; Diplopoda; Diptera; Isoptera; Isopoda; Homoptera; Hemiptera; Gastropoda; Blattaria; Orthoptera; Lepidoptera; Dermaptera; and “others”. Methods: Standard ISO 23611-5 sampling protocol was applied at all sites. Data treatment used a set of multivariate analyses, principal components analysis (PCA) on macrofauna data transformed by Hellinger’s method, multiple correspondence analysis for environmental data (latitude, elevation, temperature and average annual rainfall, type of vegetation cover) transformed into discrete classes, coinertia analysis to compare these two data sets, and bias-corrected and accelerated bootstrap tests to evaluate the part of the variance of the macrofauna data attributable to each of the environmental factors. Network analysis was performed. Each pairwise association of taxonomic units was tested against a null model considering local and regional scales, in order to avoid spurious correlations. Results: Communities were separated into five clusters reflecting their densities and taxonomic richness. They were significantly influenced by climatic conditions, soil texture and vegetation cover. Abundance and diversity, highest in tropical forests (1,895 ± 234 individuals/m2) and savannahs (1,796 ± 72 individuals/m2), progressively

[Aim] Macroinvertebrates comprise a highly diverse set of taxa with great potential as indicators of soil quality. Communities were sampled at 3,694 sites distributed world-wide. We aimed to analyse the patterns of abundance, composition and network characteristics and their relationships to latitude, mean annual temperature and rainfall, land cover, soil texture and agricultural practices., [Location] Sites are distributed in 41 countries, ranging from 55° S to 57° N latitude, from 0 to 4,000 m in elevation, with annual rainfall ranging from 500 to >3,000 mm and mean temperatures of 5–32°C., [Time period] 1980–2018., [Major taxa studied] All soil macroinvertebrates: Haplotaxida; Coleoptera; Formicidae; Arachnida; Chilopoda; Diplopoda; Diptera; Isoptera; Isopoda; Homoptera; Hemiptera; Gastropoda; Blattaria; Orthoptera; Lepidoptera; Dermaptera; and “others”., [Methods] Standard ISO 23611-5 sampling protocol was applied at all sites. Data treatment used a set of multivariate analyses, principal components analysis (PCA) on macrofauna data transformed by Hellinger’s method, multiple correspondence analysis for environmental data (latitude, elevation, temperature and average annual rainfall, type of vegetation cover) transformed into discrete classes, coinertia analysis to compare these two data sets, and bias-corrected and accelerated bootstrap tests to evaluate the part of the variance of the macrofauna data attributable to each of the environmental factors. Network analysis was performed. Each pairwise association of taxonomic units was tested against a null model considering local and regional scales, in order to avoid spurious correlations., [Results] Communities were separated into five clusters reflecting their densities and taxonomic richness. They were significantly influenced by climatic conditions, soil texture and vegetation cover. Abundance and diversity, highest in tropical forests (1,895 ± 234 individuals/m2) and savannahs (1,796 ± 72 individuals/m2), progressively decreased in tropical cropping systems (tree-associated crops, 1,358 ± 120 individuals/m2; pastures, 1,178 ± 154 individuals/m2; and annual crops, 867 ± 62 individuals/m2), temperate grasslands (529 ± 60 individuals/m2), forests (232 ± 20 individuals/m2) and annual crops (231 ± 24 individuals/m2) and temperate dry forests and shrubs (195 ± 11 individuals/m2). Agricultural management decreased overall abundance by ≤54% in tropical areas and 64% in temperate areas. Connectivity varied with taxa, with dominant positive connections in litter transformers and negative connections with ecosystem engineers and Arachnida. Connectivity and modularity were higher in communities with low abundance and taxonomic richness., [Main conclusions] Soil macroinvertebrate communities respond to climatic, soil and land-cover conditions. All taxa, except termites, are found everywhere, and communities from the five clusters cover a wide range of geographical and environmental conditions. Agricultural practices significantly decrease abundance, although the presence of tree components alleviates this effect.

The magnitude and urgency of the challenges facing agriculture and food systems demand profound modifications in different aspects of human activity to achieve real transformative change and sustainability. Recognizing that the inherent complexity of achieving sustainability is commonly seen as a deterrent to decision-making, the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) has approved the 10 Elements of Agroecology as an analytical framework to support the design of differentiated paths for agriculture and food systems transformation, hence facilitating improved decision-making by policymakers, practitioners and other stakeholders in differing contexts at a range of levels on a number of scales. Biodiversity, consumers, education and governance are identified as promising entry points to build a structured process using visual narratives that rely on the 10 Elements of Agroecology to graphically dissect prospective social-ecological transition trajectories. We illustrate such applications with examples from agroforestry worldwide, public food procurement in Brazil and the United States of America, and agroecology education vis-à-vis secure access to land in Senegal. Nexus approaches are used to highlight and examine salient interactions among different sectors and entry points, and to develop visual narratives describing plausible theories of transformative change towards sustainable agriculture and food systems.

Interactions between aboveground and belowground organisms are important drivers of plant growth and performance in natural ecosystems. Making practical use of such above-belowground biotic interactions offers important opportunities for enhancing the sustainability of agriculture, as it could favor crop growth, nutrient supply, and defense against biotic and abiotic stresses. However, the operation of above-and belowground organisms at different spatial and temporal scales provides important challenges for application in agriculture. Aboveground organisms, such as herbivores and pollinators, operate at spatial scales that exceed individual fields and are highly variable in abundance within growing seasons. In contrast, pathogenic, symbiotic, and decomposer soil biota operate at more localized spatial scales from individual plants to patches of square meters, however, they generate legacy effects on plant performance that may last from single to multiple years. The challenge is to promote pollinators and suppress pests at the landscape and field scale, while creating positive legacy effects of local plant-soil interactions for next generations of plants. Here, we explore the possibilities to improve utilization of above-belowground interactions in agro-ecosystems by considering spatio-temporal scales at which aboveground and belowground organisms operate. We identified that successful integration of above-belowground biotic interactions initially requires developing crop rotations and intercropping systems that create positive local soil legacy effects for neighboring as well subsequent crops. These configurations may then be used as building blocks to design landscapes that accommodate beneficial aboveground communities with respect to their required resources. For successful adoption of above-belowground interactions in agriculture there is a need for context-specific solutions, as well as sound socio-economic embedding.