Assessing Global Soil Biodiversity for Sustainable Development Goals.

There is growing scientific evidence indicating that optimizing soil biodiversity is critical for sustainability and for the successful implementation of the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). However, despite the many essential services provided by life in the soil, soil biodiversity has been largely ignored in global and regional policies addressing land management, food security, climate change, loss of biodiversity, and desertification. The Global Soil Biodiversity Initiative (www.globalsoilbiodiversity.com) aspires to promote interactions between scientists across disciplines, policy makers and the general public in order to transfer and implement findings on the benefits of soil biodiversity and ways to restore and conserve it. The first Global Soil Biodiversity Atlas was created in conjunction with the European Union Joint Research Centre to convey to the global public the importance of soil biodiversity for our economy, health and life in general, The Atlas is a remarkable international scientific effort of 121 soil biodiversity experts from 29 countries, resulting in an unprecedented collection of images, maps, and statistics for researchers and policy makers alike. It synthesizes the latest scientific research and identifies the importance of, and key threats to, soil biodiversity and ecosystem functioning. To continue the momentum from the release of the Atlas and the success of the International Year of Soils, the GSBI and collaborators from around the globe are initiating a Global Soil Biodiversity Assessment.  The goal of the Assessment will be to bring together and synthesize existing data and emerging research on the distribution and functioning of soil biota world-wide.  The Assessment will provide specific policy and research priorities to manage soil biodiversity and its functionality to the benefit of the ecosystem services it provides.