| Institution: | 1. Department of Biology, Chemistry, Pharmacy, Institute of Biology, Freie Universität Berlin, Berlin, Germany;2. Instituto Multidisciplinar para el Estudio del Medio ‘Ramón Margalef’, Universidad de Alicante, Alicante, Spain;3. Department of Biology, Faculty of Sciences, Universidad Autónoma de Madrid, Madrid, Spain;4. Department of Environment Systems Science, Institute of Integrative Biology, ETH Zürich, Zürich, Switzerland;5. Department of Soil and Water Conservation and Waste Management, CEBAS-CSIC, Murcia, Spain;6. Instituto de Ciencias Agrarias (ICA), Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas, Madrid, Spain
Departamento de Biología y Geología, Física y Química Inorgánica, Universidad Rey Juan Carlos, Móstoles, Spain;7. Department of Biology, Botany Area, University of Cádiz, Vitivinicultural and Agri-Food Research Institute (IVAGRO), Cádiz, Spain;8. Instituto de Ciencias Agrarias (ICA), Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas, Madrid, Spain;9. Laboratorio de Biodiversidad y Funcionamiento Ecosistemico, Instituto de Recursos Naturales y Agrobiología de Sevilla (IRNAS), CSIC., Sevilla, Spain |
| Abstract: | Soil micronutrients are capital for the delivery of ecosystem functioning and food provision worldwide. Yet, despite their importance, the global biogeography and ecological drivers of soil micronutrients remain virtually unknown, limiting our capacity to anticipate abrupt unexpected changes in soil micronutrients in the face of climate change. Here, we analyzed >1300 topsoil samples to examine the global distribution of six metallic micronutrients (Cu, Fe, Mn, Zn, Co and Ni) across all continents, climates and vegetation types. We found that warmer arid and tropical ecosystems, present in the least developed countries, sustain the lowest contents of multiple soil micronutrients. We further provide evidence that temperature increases may potentially result in abrupt and simultaneous reductions in the content of multiple soil micronutrients when a temperature threshold of 12–14°C is crossed, which may be occurring on 3% of the planet over the next century. Altogether, our findings provide fundamental understanding of the global distribution of soil micronutrients, with direct implications for the maintenance of ecosystem functioning, rangeland management and food production in the warmest and poorest regions of the planet. |
