Global Soil Biodiversity Atlas Maps

This dataset contains 2 maps from the Global Soil Biodiversity Atlas

Soil Biodiversity map

This map is presented on pages 90-91 of the Global Soil Biodiversity Atlas. The map shows a simple index describing the potential level of diversity living in soils on our planet. In order to make this preliminary assessment, two sets of data were used:

• distribution of microbial soil carbon developed by Serna-Chavez and colleagues (2013). This dataset was used as a proxy for soil microbial diversity:
• distribution of the main groups of soil macrofauna developed by Mathieu (unpublished data). This dataset was used as a proxy for soil fauna diversity.

References

• Serna-Chavez, H.M., et al., 2013. Global drivers and patterns of microbial abundance in soil, Global Ecology and Biogeography 22: 1162-1172

Soil Biodiversity threats map

This map is presented on pages 134-135 of the Global Soil Biodiversity Atlas. The map shows the potential rather than the actual level of threat to soil organisms. For the development of this map, the following threats and corresponding proxies were chosen:

• loss of aboveground biodiversity: map of plant species loss developed by the University of Maryland, Baltimore County (Ellis et al, 2012);
• pollution and nutrient overloading: map of the nitrogen fertiliser application developed by the NASA Socioeconomic Data and Applications Center (Potter et al., 2011);
• agricultural use: map of cropland percentage cover developed by the International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis - International Food Policy Research Institute (Fritz et al., 2015);
• overgrazing: map of cattle density developed by the International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI), the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) and the Free University of Brussels (Robinson et al., 2014);
• fire risk: map of fire density 1997-2010 developed by the United Nations Environment Programme Division of Early Warning and Assessment (UNEP – DEWA, 2015);
• soil erosion: map of Water and Wind Erosion Vulnerability Indices developed by the United States Department of Agriculture Natural Resources Conservation Service (USDA – NRCS, 2015);
• land degradation: map of Desertification Vulnerability Index developed by the United States Department of Agriculture Natural Resources Conservation Service (USDA – NRCS, 2015);
• climate change: map of Global Aridity Index developed by University of Leuven (UKL), with the support of the International Water Management Institute (IWMI) and the International Centre for Integrated Mountain Development (Zomer at al., 2008).

References

• Ellis, E.C., et al., 2012. All is not loss: plant biodiversity in the Anthropocene. PLOS ONE 7: 1-9.
• United Nations Environment Programme Division of Early Warning and Assessment (UNEP – DEWA). Fire density 1997-2010. Global Risk Data Platform, 2015.
• Fritz, S., et al., 2015. Mapping global cropland and field size. Global Change Biology 21: 1980-1992.
• Potter, P., et al., 2011. Global Fertilizer and Manure, Version 1: Nitrogen Fertilizer Application. NASA Socioeconomic Data and Applications Center (SEDAC).
• Robinson, T.P., et al., 2014. Mapping the global distribution of livestock. PLOS ONE 9: e96084.
• USDA Natural Resources Conservation Service. World Soil Resources Map Index, 2015.
• Zomer, R.J., et al., 2008. Climate Change Mitigation: A Spatial Analysis of Global Land Suitability for Clean Development Mechanism Afforestation and Reforestation. Agriculture, Ecosystems & Environment 126: 67-80.

Other maps of the Atlas

Some maps of the atlas are available as GIS files (in .lpk format). These maps are the ones on pages: 

Since these maps have been elaborated by us with the use of data from external sources/partners, you should seek written approval from these external sources/partners before we can send you these files. This table gives the contact details.