This highlights the complexity of soil biodiversity which is often impractical to assess in all but the largest studies. We found that many soil biodiversity studies do not focus on biodiversity sensu stricto, rather these studies examined either changes in abundance and/or diversity of individual groups of soil biota, instead of soil biodiversity as a whole, encompassing all levels of the soil food web. In addition, we identified emerging threats, particularly microplastics, in the 10 years following these knowledge based rankings. This we compared to a previously published expert assessment of threats to soil biodiversity. After a thorough review of the literature identified on a Web of Science search concerning threats to soil biodiversity (topic search: threat* “soil biodiversity”), we compiled a table of biodiversity threats considered in each paper including climate change, land use change, intensive human exploitation, decline in soil health or plastic followed by detailed listings of threats studied. In this review we consider what we mean by soil biodiversity, and why it is important to monitor. Several soil threats have been identified as having negative effects on soil biodiversity, including human intensive exploitation, land-use change and soil organic matter decline. Where soil biodiversity decline occurs, it can significantly affect the soils’ ability to function, respond to perturbations and recover from a disturbance. A decline in soil biodiversity is generally considered to be the reduction of forms of life living in soils, both in terms of quantity and variety.
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