Summary
This narrative review examines how land-use and management practices in crop production, animal production, and planted forestry systems shape soil biodiversity and its influence on carbon and nutrient cycling. The authors highlight significant knowledge gaps in understanding how soil biodiversity — particularly across different functional groups and trophic levels — drives specific biogeochemical processes in managed ecosystems, and advocate for integration of molecular techniques with descriptive approaches to advance the field.
Regional applicability
The review's findings on crop and animal production systems are broadly applicable to United Kingdom farming contexts, where similar intensification and management practices shape soil function. However, the paper does not report geography-specific data; transferability depends on the underlying studies cited and their regional representation.
Key measures
Soil biodiversity across crop, livestock, and forest systems; carbon dynamics; nutrient cycling; relationships between microbial functional groups and biogeochemical processes
Outcomes reported
The review assessed how different land-use systems (crop production, animal production, and planted forest) affect soil biodiversity and how changes in soil biodiversity influence carbon and nutrient dynamics. The authors identify deficiencies in understanding relationships between soil biodiversity and biogeochemical function in managed ecosystems.
Topic tags
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