Climate change and anthropogenic disturbances are known to influence soil biodiversity. The objectives of this study were to compare the community composition, species coexistence patterns, and ecological assembly processes of soil microbial communities in a paired setting featuring a natural and an anthropogenic ecosystem facing each other at identical climatic, pedological, and vegetational conditions. A transect gradient from forest to seashore allowed for sampling across different habitats within both sites. The field survey was carried out at two adjacent strips of land within the Po River delta lagoon system (Veneto, Italy) one of which is protected within a natural preserve and the other has been converted for decades into a tourist resort. The anthropogenic pressure interestingly led to an increase in the α-diversity of soil microbes but was accompanied by a reduction in β-diversity. The community assembly mechanisms of microbial communities differentiate in natural and anthropic ecosystems: for bacteria, in natural ecosystems deterministic variables and homogeneous selection play a main role (51.92%), while stochastic dispersal limitation (52.15%) is critical in anthropized ecosystems; for fungi, stochastic dispersal limitation increases from 38.1% to 66.09% passing from natural to anthropized ecosystems. We are on calcareous sandy soils and in more natural ecosystems a variation of topsoil pH favors the deterministic selection of bacterial communities, while a divergence of K availability favors stochastic selection. In more anthropized ecosystems, the deterministic variable selection is influenced by the values of SOC. Microbial networks in the natural system exhibited higher numbers of nodes and network edges, as well as higher averages of path length, weighted degree, clustering coefficient, and density than its equivalent sites in the more anthropically impacted environment. The latter on the other hand presented a stronger modularity. Although the influence of stochastic processes increases in anthropized habitats, niche-based selection also proves to impose constraints on communities. Overall, the functionality of the relationships between groups of microorganisms co-existing in communities appeared more relevant to the concept of functional biodiversity in comparison to the plain number of their different taxa. Fewer but functionally more organized lineages displayed traits underscoring a better use of the resources than higher absolute numbers of taxa when those are not equally interconnected in their habitat exploitation. However, considering that network complexity can have important implications for microbial stability and ecosystem multifunctionality, the extinction of complex ecological interactions in anthropogenic habitats may impair important ecosystem services that soils provide us.

At the end of October 2018, a storm of unprecedented strength severely damaged the forests of the eastern sector of the Italian Alps. The affected forest area covers 42,500 ha. The president of one of the damaged regions asked for help from the University of Padua. After eight months of discussion, the authors of this article wrote a consensus text. The sometimes asper debate brought to light some crucial aspects: 1) even experienced specialists may have various opinions based on scientific knowledge that lead to conflicting proposals for action. For some of them there is evidence that to restore a destroyed natural environment it is more judicious to do nothing; 2) the soil corresponds to a living structure and every ecosystem’s management should be based on it; 3) faced with a catastrophe, people and politicians find themselves unarmed, also because they rarely have the scientific background to understand natural processes. Yet politicians are the only persons who make the key decisions that drive the economy in play and therefore determine the near future of our planet. This article is an attempt to respond directly to a governor with a degree in animal production science, who formally and prudently asked a university department called “Land, Environment, Agriculture and Forestry” for help before taking decisions; 4) the authors also propose an artistic interpretation of facts (uncontrolled storm) and conclusions (listen to the soil). Briefly, the authors identify the soil as an indispensable source for the renewal of the destroyed forest, give indications on how to prepare a map of the soils of the damaged region, and suggest to anchor on this soil map a series of silvicultural and soil management actions that will promote the soil conservation and the faster recovery of the natural dynamic stability and resilience.

We set out to study what biodiversity is, and how it can be influenced by human activities. To carry out this research, we looked for two, relatively closed, natural small-island systems: one little-influenced by human settlement and another equivalent (same vegetation series aligned 200 m from the first) but heavily settled. In these two environments, two transects were created in 10 subecosystems, from the sea to the mainland. We sought similar subecosystems in both places. We selected a series of eight points along the same gradient in the two environments, with two additional nonoverlapping points, specific to “natural plus” or “natural minus”. We studied soil microorganisms and arthropods to have a large number of cases (OTUs) available, and also studied the microorganisms’ phylogenetic status. We also compared biodiversity with soil organic carbon (SOC) content, using two SOC measurement systems (with and without litter), to understand biodiversity starting from its potential source of food (SOC). The results surprised us: the biodiversity indices are higher in the anthropized environment; the level of biodiversity of these microorganisms (OTUs) is linked to the quantity of organic carbon measured in the first 30 cm of soil with two different methods, Carbon Still Yeomans (650 g of soil sample) and Skalar Primacs ATC-100-IC-E (1 g of soil sample). The following forced line at the origin explains 85% of the variance: Shannon–Wiener’s H = 1.42 • ln (TOC400); where ln = natural logarithm and TOC400 = organic carbon lost from a soil sample raised to 400 °C. The concept of biodiversity merges with that of survival: the more species there are, the better they are organized among themselves in the process of food consumption (SOC utilization), and the better they will be able to transform the environment to survive and evolve with it. We wanted to identify the differences in soil biodiversity of natural and anthropogenic ecosystems, to offer evidence-providing tools to land managers to achieve more ecologically efficient managing practices.

Continuing nitrogen (N) deposition has a wide-ranging impact on terrestrial ecosystems. To test the hypothesis that, under N deposition, bacterial communities could suffer a negative impact, and in a relatively short timeframe, an experiment was carried out for a year in an urban area featuring a cover of Bermuda grass (Cynodon dactylon) and simulating environmental N deposition. NH₄NO₃ was added as external N source, with four dosages (N0 = 0 kg N ha⁻² y⁻¹, N1 = 50 kg N ha⁻² y⁻¹, N2 = 100 kg N ha⁻² y⁻¹, N3 = 150 kg N ha⁻² y⁻¹). We analyzed the bacterial community composition after soil DNA extraction through the pyrosequencing of the 16S rRNA gene amplicons. N deposition resulted in soil bacterial community changes at a clear dosage-dependent rate. Soil bacterial diversity and evenness showed a clear trend of time-dependent decline under repeated N application. Ammonium nitrogen enrichment, either directly or in relation to pH decrease, resulted in the main environmental factor related to the shift of taxa proportions within the urban green space soil bacterial community and qualified as a putative important driver of bacterial diversity abatement. Such an impact on soil life induced by N deposition may pose a serious threat to urban soil ecosystem stability and surrounding areas.

The authors wish to make the following corrections to this paper

Remnant forests are vital in urban ecosystems as they serve as a crucial link between organisms, inorganic environments, and human settlements. However, there is a lack of research on how urbanization affects the physical and chemical properties of soil in remnant forests, as well as the response of soil fauna to environmental changes within these forests. Our study utilized the urbanization gradient research method to investigate the characteristics of the soil fauna community in remnant forests across different urbanization gradients and to understand its intrinsic response to environmental changes. Our results indicate support for the “moderate disturbance hypothesis” based on the statistical values of diversity indices. Additionally, it was found that SOM and Pb are the primary factors influencing soil fauna diversity in the remnant forests, while SOM and Zn are the main influencing factors for the dominant soil fauna groups. To elucidate the impact of urbanization on soil fauna biodiversity in remnant forests, future studies should consider other urbanization factors.