Summary
This meta-data analysis synthesised 90 eligible meta-analyses from 698 screened articles to quantify how agricultural management practices affect soil biological communities and associated soil functions. The authors reveal that reduced tillage, organic fertilisation, cover cropping, and intercropping support soil biology, whilst identifying substantial research gaps particularly for soil meso- and macrofauna and protists. A transparent utility-robustness framework is introduced to guide selection of sustainable farming approaches and appropriate soil biological indicators for monitoring frameworks.
UK applicability
The findings are directly applicable to UK agricultural policy and practice, given the emphasis on sustainable intensification and soil health monitoring. The utility-robustness framework could inform indicator selection for UK soil health monitoring schemes, though field validation under UK-specific conditions would strengthen applicability.
Key measures
Effects of management practices on soil biota communities (macrofauna, mesofauna, microfauna, microbiome); utility-robustness scoring for soil biological indicators
Outcomes reported
The study quantified effects of agricultural management practices (carbon/nutrient, vegetation, pest/disease, soil, and grazing management) on soil macrofauna, mesofauna, microfauna, and microbiome across 790 pairwise comparisons supported by 74,526 observations. It identified knowledge gaps and developed a utility-robustness scoring system for selecting soil biological indicators tailored to specific management contexts.
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