The importance of soil age as an ecosystem driver across biomes remains largely unresolved. By combining a cross-biome global field survey, including data for 32 soil, plant, and microbial properties in 16 soil chronosequences, with a global meta-analysis, we show that soil age is a significant ecosystem driver, but only accounts for a relatively small proportion of the cross-biome variation in multiple ecosystem properties. Parent material, climate, vegetation and topography predict, collectively, 24 times more variation in ecosystem properties than soil age alone. Soil age is an important local-scale ecosystem driver; however, environmental context, rather than soil age, determines the rates and trajectories of ecosystem development in structure and function across biomes. Our work provides insights into the natural history of terrestrial ecosystems. We propose that, regardless of soil age, changes in the environmental context, such as those associated with global climatic and land-use changes, will have important long-term impacts on the structure and function of terrestrial ecosystems across biomes.

土壤年龄作为跨生物群落的生态系统驱动因素的重要性在很大程度上仍未得到解决。通过将跨生物群落全球实地调查（包括 16 个土壤时间序列中 32 种土壤、植物和微生物特性的数据）与全球荟萃分析相结合，我们表明土壤年龄是一个重要的生态系统驱动因素，但仅占相对多个生态系统属性中的跨生物群落变异的一小部分。与单独的土壤年龄相比，母体材料、气候、植被和地形共同预测的生态系统特性变化要大 24 倍。土壤年龄是一个重要的地方尺度生态系统驱动因素；然而，环境背景，而不是土壤年龄，决定了生态系统在整个生物群落的结构和功能方面的发展速度和轨迹。我们的工作提供了对陆地生态系统自然历史的见解。我们提出，无论土壤年龄如何，环境背景的变化，例如与全球气候和土地利用变化相关的变化，将对跨生物群落的陆地生态系统的结构和功能产生重要的长期影响。