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1. Plant‐associated microbes play essential roles in nutrient uptake and plant productivity, but their role in driving plant germination, a critical stage in the plant life cycle, is still poorly understood. 2. We used data from a large‐scale, field‐based soil seed bank study to examine the relationship among plants germinating from the seed bank and soil microbial community composition. We combined this with an experiment using 34 laboratory‐based microcosms whereby sterile soil was inoculated with microbes from different field sites to examine how microbes affect the germination of nine plant species. 3. The community composition of plants in the soil seed bank was highly and significantly associated with bacterial and fungal community composition, with stronger correlations for soil beneath plant canopies. Microbes predicted a unique portion of the variation in the community composition of germinants after accounting for differences in environmental variables. The strongest correlations among microbes and plant functional traits included those related to perenniality, growth form, plant size, root type and seed shape. Our microcosm study showed that different plant species had their own associated germination microbiome, and most plant–microbe interactions were positive during germination. 4. Synthesis. Our study provides evidence for intimate relationships between plant and soil biodiversity during germination. Our work fills an important knowledge gap for plant–microbe interactions and reveals valuable insights into the shared natural history of plants and microbes in terrestrial ecosystems. ; M.D.-B. was supported by the European Union's Horizon 2020 research and innovation program under the Marie Sklodowska-Curie Grant Agreement No 702057 (CLIMIFUN) and by a Large Research Grant from the British Ecological Society (Grant Agreement No. LRA17\1193, MUSGONET).

Understanding the present and future distribution of soil-borne plant pathogens is critical to supporting food and fibre production in a warmer world. Using data from a global field survey and a nine-year field experiment, we show that warmer temperatures increase the relative abundance of soil-borne potential fungal plant pathogens. Moreover, we provide a global atlas of these organisms along with future distribution projections under different climate change and land-use scenarios. These projections show an overall increase in the relative abundance of potential plant pathogens worldwide. This work advances our understanding of the global distribution of potential fungal plant pathogens and their sensitivity to ongoing climate and land-use changes, which is fundamental to reduce their incidence and impacts on terrestrial ecosystems globally. ; This project received funding from the European Union's Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under the Marie Sklodowska-Curie grant agreement No 702057 and the European Research Council (ERC) grant agreements no. 242658 (BIOCOM) and no. 647038 (BIODESERT). M.D.-B. is supported by a Ramón y Cajal grant from the Spanish Government (agreement no. RYC2018-025483-I) and a MUSGONET grant (LRA17\1193) from the British Ecological Society. F.T.M. also acknowledges funding from Generalitat Valenciana (CIDEGENT/2018/041) and from sDiv, the synthesis centre of the German Centre for Integrative Biodiversity Research Halle–Jena–Leipzig (iDiv). Work on microbial distribution and colonization in the B.K.S. laboratory is funded by the Australian Research Council (DP190103714). B.K.S. also acknowledges a research award by the Humboldt Foundation. C.A.G. and N.E. acknowledge support from iDiv, funded by the German Research Foundation (DFG FZT118) through flexpool proposals 34600850 and 34600844. N.E. also acknowledges support from the ERC under the European Union's Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme (grant agreement no. 677232).

The commercial cultivation of genetically modified (GM) crops in the European Union (EU) necessitates, according to EU legislation, the setting up of a General Surveillance (GS) system that should be able to detect unanticipated effects of GM crops on the environment. Although the applicant is responsible for setting up GS as well as for reporting the results, EU Member States may implement additional supporting surveillance programmes. Devising a GS system to detect unanticipated effects is not straightforward and requires clearly defined protection goals, suitable indicators that are linked to measurable parameters and an objective system for assessing the data. This paper describes a number of recommendations for the development of a General Surveillance system of the soil ecosystem specifically focussed on the situation in the Netherlands. The overarching protection goal of General Surveillance is 'soil quality', which is translated into more practical terms of ecosystem services that are relevant for soil quality, and that can be used to select measurable parameters and thus make a link with actual measurements. Ultimately, if and when effects on ecosystem services are detected, decision makers will have to decide whether these effects are acceptable or not. As a support for these decision-making processes, this paper discusses the modalities for the development of a stakeholder participation model. The model involves three groups of persons: the land users, the soil scientists and the decision makers. For reasons of cost effectiveness, a GS system of the soil ecosystem will have to make use of existing networks. The Dutch Soil Quality Network (DSQN) offers an existing infrastructure for soil sampling for GS. Finally, the GS system may be extended to contain data from the Dutch Ecological Monitoring Network, earth observation systems as well as other data resources such as farmers questionnaires or reports form organisations involved in nature conservation. Ideally these data are compiled by a Central Reporting Office (CRO) and maintained in a Geographic Information System (GIS) based database.

Soils harbor a substantial fraction of the world's biodiversity, contributing to many crucial ecosystem functions. It is thus essential to identify general macroecological patterns related to the distribution and functioning of soil organisms to support their conservation and consideration by governance. These macroecological analyses need to represent the diversity of environmental conditions that can be found worldwide. Here we identify and characterize existing environmental gaps in soil taxa and ecosystem functioning data across soil macroecological studies and 17,186 sampling sites across the globe. These data gaps include important spatial, environmental, taxonomic, and functional gaps, and an almost complete absence of temporally explicit data. We also identify the limitations of soil macroecological studies to explore general patterns in soil biodiversity-ecosystem functioning relationships, with only 0.3% of all sampling sites having both information about biodiversity and function, although with different taxonomic groups and functions at each site. Based on this information, we provide clear priorities to support and expand soil macroecological research. ; The German Research Foundation, iDiv, the DFG and the European Research Council (ERC) under the European Union's Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme. Open access funding provided by Projekt DEAL. ; http://www.nature.com/naturecommunications ; am2021 ; Biochemistry ; Genetics ; Microbiology and Plant Pathology

Soils harbor a substantial fraction of the world's biodiversity, contributing to many crucial ecosystem functions. It is thus essential to identify general macroecological patterns related to the distribution and functioning of soil organisms to support their conservation and consideration by governance. These macroecological analyses need to represent the diversity of environmental conditions that can be found worldwide. Here we identify and characterize existing environmental gaps in soil taxa and ecosystem functioning data across soil macroecological studies and 17,186 sampling sites across the globe. These data gaps include important spatial, environmental, taxonomic, and functional gaps, and an almost complete absence of temporally explicit data. We also identify the limitations of soil macroecological studies to explore general patterns in soil biodiversity-ecosystem functioning relationships, with only 0.3% of all sampling sites having both information about biodiversity and function, although with different taxonomic groups and functions at each site. Based on this information, we provide clear priorities to support and expand soil macroecological research. ; This manuscript developed from discussions within the German Centre of Integrative Biodiversity Research funded by the German Research Foundation (DFG FZT118). CAG and NE acknowledge funding by iDiv (DFG FZT118) Flexpool proposal 34600850. C.A.G., A.H.B., J.S., A.C., N.G.R., S.C., L.B., M.C.R., F.B., J.O., G.P., H.R.P.P., M.W., T.W., K.K., and N.E. acknowledge funding by iDiv (DFG FZT118) Flexpool proposal 34600844. N.E. acknowledges funding by the DFG (FOR 1451) and the European Research Council (ERC) under the European Union's Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme (grant agreement no. 677232). Finally we would like to acknowledge the contribution of all the authors that provided their datasets for analysis within this paper. Open access funding provided by Projekt DEAL.

The role of soil biodiversity in regulating multiple ecosystem functions is poorly understood, limiting our ability to predict how soil biodiversity loss might affect human wellbeing and ecosystem sustainability. Here, combining a global observational study with an experimental microcosm study, we provide evidence that soil biodiversity (bacteria, fungi, protists and invertebrates) is significantly and positively associated with multiple ecosystem functions. These functions include nutrient cycling, decomposition, plant production, and reduced potential for pathogenicity and belowground biological warfare. Our findings also reveal the context dependency of such relationships and the importance of the connectedness, biodiversity and nature of the globally distributed dominant phylotypes within the soil network in maintaining multiple functions. Moreover, our results suggest that the positive association between plant diversity and multifunctionality across biomes is indirectly driven by soil biodiversity. Together, our results provide insights into the importance of soil biodiversity for maintaining soil functionality locally and across biomes, as well as providing strong support for the inclusion of soil biodiversity in conservation and management programmes. Combining field data from 83 sites on five continents, together with microcosm experiments, the authors show that nutrient cycling, decomposition, plant production and other ecosystem functions are positively associated with a higher diversity of a wide range of soil organisms. ; Marie Sklodowska-Curie ; We thank N. Fierer, M. Gebert, J. Henley, V. Ochoa, F. T. Maestre and B. Gozalo for their help with laboratory analyses; O. Sala, C. Siebe, C. Currier, M. A. Bowker, V. Parry, H. Lambers, P. Vitousek, V. M. Pena-Ramirez, L. Riedel, J. Larson, K. Waechter, W. Williams, S. Williams, B. Sulman, D. Buckner and B. Anacker for their help with soil sampling in Colorado, Hawaii, Iceland, New Mexico, Arizona, Mexico and Australia; the City of Boulder Open Space and Mountain Parks for allowing us to conduct these samplings; C. Cano-Diaz for her advice about R analyses; S. K. Travers for her help with mapping. This project has received funding from the European Union's Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under the Marie Sklodowska-Curie grant agreement no. 702057. M.D.-B. is supported by the Spanish Government under a Ramon y Cajal contract RYC2018-025483-I. This research is supported by the Australian Research Council projects (DP170104634; DP190103714). S.A. and F.D.A. are funded by FONDECYT 1170995, IAI-CRN 3005, PFB-23 (from CONICYT) and P05-002 (from Millennium Scientific Initiative). N.A.C. acknowledges support from Churchill College, University of Cambridge; and M.A.W. from the Wilderness State Park, Michigan for access to sample soil and conduct ecosystem survey. B.K.S. acknowledges a research award from the Humboldt Foundation. J.-Z.H. acknowledges support from the Australia Research Council (project DP170103628); and A.G. from the Spanish Ministry (project CGL2017-88124-R). F.B. thanks the Spanish Ministry and FEDER funds for the CICYT project AGL2017-85755-R, the CSIC project 201740I008 and funds from 'Fundacion Seneca' from Murcia Province (19896/GERM/15). P.T. thanks K. Little for her help with laboratory analyses. S.C.R. was supported by the US Geological Survey Ecosystems Mission Area. Any use of trade, firm or product names is for descriptive purposes only and does not imply endorsement by the US Government. S.N. was funded by the Austrian Science Fund (grant Y801-B16). ; Public domain authored by a U.S. government employee

16 p.-1 fig. ; Microbes and their activities have pervasive, remarkably profound and generally positive effects on the functioning, and thus health and well‐being, of human beings, the whole of the biological world, and indeed the entire surface of the planet and its atmosphere. Collectively, and to a significant extent in partnership with the sun, microbes are the life support system of the biosphere. This necessitates their due consideration in decisions that are taken by individuals and families in everyday life, as well as by individuals and responsible bodies at all levels and stages of community, national and planetary health assessment, planning, and the formulation of pertinent policies. However, unlike other subjects having a pervasive impact upon humankind, such as financial affairs, health, and transportation, of which there is a widespread understanding, knowledge of relevant microbial activities, how they impact our lives, and how they may be harnessed for the benefit of humankind – microbiology literacy – is lacking in the general population, and in the subsets thereof that constitute the decision makers. Choices involving microbial activity implications are often opaque, and the information available is sometimes biased and usually incomplete, and hence creates considerable uncertainty. As a consequence, even evidence‐based 'best' decisions, not infrequently lead to unpredicted, unintended, and sometimes undesired outcomes. We therefore contend that microbiology literacy in society is indispensable for informed personal decisions, as well as for policy development in government and business, and for knowledgeable input of societal stakeholders in such policymaking. An understanding of key microbial activities is as essential for transitioning from childhood to adulthood as some subjects currently taught at school, and must therefore be acquired during general education. Microbiology literacy needs to become part of the world citizen job description. To facilitate the attainment of microbiology literacy in society, through its incorporation into education curricula, we propose here a basic teaching concept and format that are adaptable to all ages, from pre‐school to high school, and places key microbial activities in the contexts of how they affect our everyday lives, of relevant Grand Challenges facing humanity and planet Earth, and of sustainability and Sustainable Development Goals. We exhort microbiologists, microbiological learned societies and microbiology‐literate professionals, to participate in and contribute to this initiative by helping to evolve the basic concept, developing and seeking funding to develop child‐friendly, appealing teaching tools and materials, enhancing its impact and, most importantly, convincing educators, policy makers, business leaders and relevant governmental and non‐governmental agencies to support and promote this initiative. Microbiology literacy in society must become reality. ; Peer reviewed

Microbes and their activities have pervasive, remarkably profound and generally positive effects on the functioning, and thus health and well-being, of human beings, the whole of the biological world, and indeed the entire surface of the planet and its atmosphere. Collectively, and to a significant extent in partnership with the sun, microbes are the life support system of the biosphere. This necessitates their due consideration in decisions that are taken by individuals and families in everyday life, as well as by individuals and responsible bodies at all levels and stages of community, national and planetary health assessment, planning, and the formulation of pertinent policies. However, unlike other subjects having a pervasive impact upon humankind, such as financial affairs, health, and transportation, of which there is a widespread understanding, knowledge of relevant microbial activities, how they impact our lives, and how they may be harnessed for the benefit of humankind - microbiology literacy - is lacking in the general population, and in the subsets thereof that constitute the decision makers. Choices involving microbial activity implications are often opaque, and the information available is sometimes biased and usually incomplete, and hence creates considerable uncertainty. As a consequence, even evidence-based 'best' decisions, not infrequently lead to unpredicted, unintended, and sometimes undesired outcomes. We therefore contend that microbiology literacy in society is indispensable for informed personal decisions, as well as for policy development in government and business, and for knowledgeable input of societal stakeholders in such policymaking. An understanding of key microbial activities is as essential for transitioning from childhood to adulthood as some subjects currently taught at school, and must therefore be acquired during general education. Microbiology literacy needs to become part of the world citizen job description. To facilitate the attainment of microbiology literacy in ...