ABSTRACT

Soil ecosystems are far more functionally valuable than previously thought, but soil animals are less visible and often overlooked. Here, we surveyed population sizes of different animal orders in both urban and rural Beijing from 2013 to 2016, to study the impact of increasing urbanization on the ecology of soil fauna. We found 10 orders had less than 1% of soil-animal population in both urban and rural areas. Populations of 6 orders in urban areas were far smaller than those in rural areas. Between 2013 and 2016, both urban and rural areas had experienced a substantial long-term population decrease, and soil animals in Beijing suffered a 52.8% loss of population. Our study indicates 45.5% of orders may be in danger of local extinction, and 27.3% of orders seem highly susceptible to urbanization. Over just four years the soil-animal population in Beijing is shrinking fast thanks largely to increasing urbanization. This raises the worrying prospect of a future soil fauna that may be at risk of local extinction in cities. It is therefore necessary to provide a pragmatic approach to soil-animal diversity conservation. Moreover, the deeper understanding of soil extinction ecology opens up an exciting frontier of opportunities for future research.