Role and management of soil biodiversity for food security and nutrition; where do we stand?
Mujtara, Muñoz, Prack Cormick, Pullemane, Tittonell
Highlights
Evidence on the impact of soil biodiversity on food security and nutrition was reviewed.
Soil biodiversity is closely dependent on management of plant diversity aboveground.
New insights on factors modulating soil biodiversity and their effect on human nutrition are increasing.
Reductionist and holistic approaches to enhance or utilize soil biodiversity can be distinguished.
Quantitatively, linking of soil biodiversity to a multidimensional issue like food security and nutrition remains challenging.
Abstract
Soils host diverse communities that support and regulate ecosystem functions, thereby affecting plant production and resource use efficiencies. There is increasing evidence that agricultural intensification affects soil biodiversity (SBD) and such changes may impact on current and future food security. Here, we provide an overview of the state-of-the-art on the relations between agricultural management, SBD and food production. The potential of applying such knowledge to improve food security and nutrition is discussed. Biotechnological methods to describe impacts of agricultural practices on taxonomic and functional diversity of soil organisms are advancing rapidly. At the same time new understanding of soil-plant interactions has provided novel insights into the mechanisms by which soil organisms and plants co-regulate plant growth and defences, or affect food nutritional quality and safety. Yet, empirical studies on SBD – plant productivity relations often lead to results and applications that are crop and context specific. Translating knowledge on SBD into universally applicable soil management recommendations to enhance food production, and ultimately food security, remains challenging. Instead, we propose a holistic approach to SBD management that strengthens multiple ecosystem functions and provides ecological insurance.
Bacterial network analysis in soil samples taken along a gradient of land use types in Brazil. The different colours indicate different modules (groups of taxa containing key metabolic potential capacities). Each dot represents a bacterial genus and its size is proportional to the value of closeness centrality. Lines between dots represent trophic interactions. Closeness centrality denotes the proximity of a bacterial genus to all others in the network, and it is considered that a bacterial genus with high value of closeness centrality is likely to have a pronounced effect on microbial community because it can rapidly affect other species in the community.
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