Soil is one of the most biodiverse terrestrial habitats. Yet, we lack an integrative conceptual framework for understanding the patterns and mechanisms driving soil biodiversity. One of the underlying reasons for our poor understanding of soil biodiversity patterns relates to whether key biodiversity theories (historically developed for aboveground and aquatic organisms) are applicable to patterns of soil biodiversity. Here, we present a systematic literature review to investigate whether and how key biodiversity theories (species–energy relationship, theory of island biogeography, metacommunity theory, niche theory and neutral theory) can explain observed patterns of soil biodiversity. We then discuss two spatial compartments nested within soil at which biodiversity theories can be applied to acknowledge the scale‐dependent nature of soil biodiversity.

中文翻译：

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对土壤生物多样性的综合理解

土壤是生物多样性最丰富的陆地栖息地之一。然而，我们缺乏一个综合的概念框架来理解驱动土壤生物多样性的模式和机制。我们对土壤生物多样性模式了解不足的根本原因之一与关键的生物多样性理论（历史上为地上和水生生物发展）是否适用于土壤生物多样性模式有关。在这里，我们提出了一个系统的文献综述，以研究关键的生物多样性理论（物种-能量关系、岛屿生物地理学理论、元群落理论、生态位理论和中性理论）是否以及如何解释观察到的土壤生物多样性模式。