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Soils are usually exposed to multiple global change factors (like warming or contamination by pollutants), but the response of soil communities to combined global change factors is poorly understood. The authors show that the combination of multiple global change factors shapes soil microbial communities differently than individual factors alone.

Matthias Rillig’s foray into film-making has helped him to identify the research and management skills he needs to work on.

Karine Bonneval’s residency in Matthias Rillig’s lab, and a question he first dismissed as silly, had unexpected consequences for each of them.

Microbial carbon use efficiency (CUE) plays a key role in soil carbon storage. Here, the authors show that CUE declines with soil depth across 60 forest sites, driven by microbial diversity in topsoil and by physicochemical protection in deeper layers.

Challenges in obtaining empirical trait data hinder the development of trait-based frameworks for soil microbes. Here, the authors analyse traits of saprobic fungal isolates from a grassland site to propose a fungal economics spectrum, suggesting a general trait framework for soil fungi.

The joint effects of chemical pollution and climate change on soil food webs remain underexplored. This Progress discusses the impacts of these stressors on soil food web structure along with a potential framework to mitigate the adverse effects on soil functions.

Soil properties and functions are both affected by many global change factors. Here, the authors use a microcosm experiment to demonstrate that the number of these factors as well as their dissimilarity were important for predicting the impacts of global change factors.

In this Review, Rillig, Kim and Zhu review our current understanding of the soil plastisphere, including the members of the microbial community that are enriched, the possible mechanisms underpinning this selection and functional properties.

Locations that are relatively insulated from the effects of climate change (so-called climate change refugia) might be similarly insulated from a range of other anthropogenic stressors. The degree of overlap among these stressors should be considered in area-based conservation planning.

The effects of microplastics (MPs) on soil microbial communities and antimicrobial resistance genes are not well understood. Here, the authors used microcosm studies to show that MP diversity, and partially fungicide treatment and reduced plant diversity, correlate with higher levels of ARG and related genetic factors.

The authors investigate relationships between various soil stressors that exceed critical thresholds and the maintenance of ecosystem services. They show that multiple stressors crossing a high-level threshold reduces soil functioning and can be consistently used to predict ecosystem functioning.

Exome sequencing within a structured diagnostic process for rare diseases in Germany shows how facial image analysis and machine learning can guide variant prioritization and uncover many ultrarare diseases.

Pathogenic viruses and antibiotic-resistant bacteria thrive on plastic. The biohazard risks of this ‘plastisphere’ shouldn’t be overlooked in efforts to tackle the pollution crisis.

The biogeochemical roles of the plastisphere regulating N cycling are elusive. This study reveals the plastisphere as an emerging nitrifying niche, featured by distinct shifts in nitrifiers and potential substrate exchanges compared to seawater.

In global drylands, soils tend to be more fertile beneath tree, shrub and grass islands. Soil fertility was greater beneath taller and wider plants but was unaffected by either grazing pressure or the type of herbivore.

Liu et al. demonstrate that human-driven soil contamination in natural areas mirrors that in nearby urban greenspaces globally, and highlight the potential influence that soil contaminants have on ecosystem functions.

How arable farming affects soil fungal biogeography is poorly understood. Here, the authors find that prevalent fungal groups become more abundant, whereas rare groups become fewer or absent in arable lands across Europe, suggesting a biotic homogenization due to arable farming.

The roles of marine plastisphere in global nitrogen cycling are largely unknown. Here, the authors indicate that the plastisphere could act as a potential source of N2O production, which is mainly regulated by the biotic denitrification

Reports on the widespread presence of plastic particles in the environment have raised concerns about whether these particles could be taken up by plants and end up on our plates. An experimental study now reveals a mechanism through which nanoplastics can make their way into plant roots.

It is unclear whether the positive effects of biodiversity on ecosystem functioning are maintained under multifaceted anthropogenic disturbance. In this experiment, the authors show that multiple simultaneous stressors can negate the positive effect of microbial diversity on soil functions.

Combining field data and greenhouse experiments, the authors show how agricultural management practices like fungicide applications can affect the degree to which arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi in the soil provision phosphorus to plants.

Although co-occurring species may differ widely in their response traits, coordinated functional trait shifts may emerge at the community level in response to environmental factors. Here, the authors use data from 150 grassland sites to identify a coordinated slow-fast strategy response to land-use intensification across above- and belowground taxa.

Soil organism biodiversity contributes to ecosystem function, but biodiversity and function have not been equivalently studied across the globe. Here the authors identify locations, environment types, and taxonomic groups for which there is currently a lack of biodiversity and ecosystem function data in the existing literature.

System-level analysis on the effects of soil biodiversity on cropping system is lacking. Across conventionally managed European fields, the proportion of time with crop cover during the past ten-year rotation has a greater impact than crop diversity on soil microbial diversity, soil multifunctionality and crop yield.

The authors test whether spatial scale (plot, local and landscape) affects the supply of various ecosystem services in grasslands, finding that some services are predicted by plot-level properties while others depend more on landscape-level management.

The structuring of soil into distinct aggregates is a key element in biogeochemical cycling. Here, a meta-analysis reveals a strong positive effect of soil biota on soil aggregation, with the largest influence coming from bacteria and fungi.

Few microbiome-based solutions for agricultural productivity, food processing and human nutrition have been successfully commercialized. A systems-based approach that considers the ecology of microbial communities may help finetune extant tools to increase their reliability while promoting innovation and greater adoption.

Belowground soil biota play key roles in maintaining proper ecosystem functioning, but studies on their extinction ecology are sparse. Here, Veresoglou et al. review the risks to soil biota posed by global change, and highlight the technical challenges involved in identifying extinction events.

Environmental cycling of microplastics and nanoplastics is complex; fully understanding these pollutants is hindered by inconsistent methodologies and experimentation within a narrow scope. Consistent methods are needed to advance plastic research and policy within the context of global environmental change.

Microbial death pathways affect the quantity and composition of microbial necromass and its associated soil organic carbon.

Both a high number of species and abundance in multiple trophic levels are required for ecosystems to continue to provide the services humans require of them.

Soil health is essential to crop production but is also key to many ecosystem services. In this Perspective, the definition, impact and quantification of soil health are examined, and the needs in soil-health research are outlined.

In this Review, Philippot et al. explore how soil microorganisms can affect the physical and chemical properties of soil and discuss the ecological and evolutionary consequences of these microbially driven shifts in soil properties. They also explore how microbially mediated changes in soil properties can be used to combat threats to soil health and other environmental challenges.