Guerra Carlos A, Rosa Isabel M D, Valentini Emiliana, Wolf Florian, Filipponi Federico, Karger Dirk N, Xuan Alessandra Nguyen, Mathieu Jerome, Lavelle Patrick, Eisenhauer Nico
Institute of Biology, Martin Luther University Halle-Wittenberg, Am Kirchtor 1, 06108 Halle (Saale), Germany; German Centre for Integrative Biodiversity Research (iDiv), Halle-Jena-Leipzig, Deutscher Platz 5E, 04103 Leipzig, Germany.
School of Natural Sciences, Bangor University, Gwyned, Wales, UK.
Landsc Ecol. 2020 Apr;35:823-842. doi: 10.1007/s10980-020-00984-z. Epub 2020 Mar 10.
Soil erosion is one of the main threats driving soil degradation across the globe with important impacts on crop yields, soil biota, biogeochemical cycles, and ultimately human nutrition.
Here, using an empirical model, we present a global and temporally explicit assessment of soil erosion risk according to recent (2001-2013) dynamics of rainfall and vegetation cover change to identify vulnerable areas for soils and soil biodiversity.
We used an adaptation of the Universal Soil Loss Equation together with state of the art remote sensing models to create a spatially and temporally explicit global model of soil erosion and soil protection. Finally, we overlaid global maps of soil biodiversity to assess the potential vulnerability of these soil communities to soil erosion.
We show a consistent decline in soil erosion protection over time across terrestrial biomes, which resulted in a global increase of 11.7% in soil erosion rates. Notably, soil erosion risk systematically increased between 2006 and 2013 in relation to the baseline year (2001). Although vegetation cover is central to soil protection, this increase was mostly driven by changes in rainfall erosivity. Globally, soil erosion is expected not only to have an impact on the vulnerability of soil conditions but also on soil biodiversity with 6.4% (for soil macrofauna) and 7.6% (for soil fungi) of these vulnerable areas coinciding with regions with high soil biodiversity.
Our results indicate that an increasing proportion of soils are degraded globally, affecting not only livelihoods but also potentially degrading local and regional landscapes. Similarly, many degraded regions coincide with and may have impacted high levels of soil biodiversity.
土壤侵蚀是全球土壤退化的主要威胁之一，对作物产量、土壤生物群、生物地球化学循环以及最终的人类营养都有重要影响。
在此，我们使用一个实证模型，根据近期（2001 - 2013年）降雨和植被覆盖变化动态，对土壤侵蚀风险进行全球范围且具有时间明确性的评估，以确定土壤和土壤生物多样性的脆弱区域。
我们采用了通用土壤流失方程的一个变体，并结合最先进的遥感模型，创建了一个在空间和时间上都具有明确性的全球土壤侵蚀与土壤保护模型。最后，我们叠加了全球土壤生物多样性地图，以评估这些土壤群落对土壤侵蚀的潜在脆弱性。
我们发现，随着时间推移，陆地生物群落的土壤侵蚀防护能力持续下降，导致全球土壤侵蚀率上升了11.7%。值得注意的是，与基准年（2001年）相比，2006年至2013年间土壤侵蚀风险系统性增加。尽管植被覆盖对土壤保护至关重要，但这种增加主要是由降雨侵蚀力的变化驱动的。在全球范围内，土壤侵蚀预计不仅会影响土壤条件的脆弱性，还会影响土壤生物多样性，这些脆弱区域中有6.4%（针对土壤大型动物）和7.6%（针对土壤真菌）与土壤生物多样性高的区域重合。
我们的结果表明，全球范围内土壤退化的比例在增加，不仅影响生计，还可能使当地和区域景观退化。同样，许多退化地区与高土壤生物多样性区域重合，并且可能已经对其产生了影响。
