Soil property effects on soil-wildlife ecology

Abstract

Soil constitutes the foundational matrix within which terrestrial wildlife populations develop, interact, and persist, yet the mechanistic linkages between soil properties and wildlife ecology remain inadequately synthesized in ecological theory. This comprehensive review examines the multidimensional relationships between soil physical, chemical, and biological properties and wildlife ecological processes across taxonomic groups and ecosystem types. We systematically evaluate evidence for soil effects on wildlife habitat selection, foraging ecology, reproductive success, population dynamics, disease ecology, and community assembly. Our analysis reveals that soil texture and structure fundamentally constrain burrowing mammal distributions, while soil chemistry modulates plant-nutrient-herbivore trophic cascades with cascading effects on predator communities. Soil microbial communities emerge as critical mediators of wildlife health through immune system priming and pathogen suppression. Climate change and anthropogenic soil degradation are altering these interactions with profound implications for conservation. We identify critical knowledge gaps including limited understanding of soil-wildlife feedback loops, insufficient integration of belowground-aboveground ecology in wildlife management, and inadequate representation of tropical systems in current research. This review establishes soil ecology as an essential frontier in wildlife biology and provides a conceptual framework for integrating pedological and ecological approaches in biodiversity conservation.

Keywords: Belowground ecology, Biogeochemistry, Ecosystem engineering, Habitat quality, Nutrient cycling, Soil fauna, Trophic cascades, Wildlife management