Shuhong Luo Youzhi Feng Fernando T. Maestre Tadeo Sáez-Sandino Nicholas Gross Yoann Le Bagousse-Pinguet Victoria Ochoa Beatriz Gózalo Emilio Guirado Miguel García-Gómez Enrique Valencia Sergio Asensio Jaime Martínez-Valderrama Betty J. Mendoza Sebastian Abades Fernando D. Alfaro Matt Barrett Miguel Berdugo José Luis Blanco Pastor Niels Blaum Bazartseren Boldgiv Matthew A. Bowker Helena Castro Haiyan Chu Nick A. Cutler Zhongmin Dai Balázs Deák Jorge Duran Carlos Iván Espinosa Alex Fajardo Kunkun Fan Ana Foronda Lauchlan H. Fraser Katja Geissler Tina Grebenc Elizabeth Gusmán-Montalván Stephen C. Hart Liana Kindermann Melanie Köbel Lauri Laanisto Peter C. le Roux Pierre Liancourt Anja Linstädter Michelle A. Louw Petr Macek Gillian Maggs-Kölling Thulani P. Makhalanyane Antonio J. Manzaneda Eugene Marais Daniel Montesinos Juan P. Mora Gerardo Moreno Seth M. Munson Miriam Muñoz-Rojas Girish R. Nair Sigrid Neuhauser Alice Nunes César Plaza Yolanda Pueyo Pedro J. Rey Ana Rey Asunción de los Ríos Alexandra Rodríguez Borja Rodriguez Lozano Raul Roman Jan C. Ruppert Ayman Salah Jay Singh Heather L. Throop Samantha K. Travers Tina Unuk Nahberger Munkhbat Uuganbayar Orsolya Valkó Lixin Wang Mark A. Williams Chao Xiong Jianming Xu Eli Zaady Bin Ma Brajesh K. Singh Manuel Delgado-Baquerizo Ruirui Chen 2026 <p><span>Microbes, as the planet’s most abundant and diverse organisms, drive soil functions globally and are vulnerable to environmental stressors triggered by global change. Yet, knowledge regarding the impacts of multiple environmental stressors on their functional profiles as well as the consequences for soil functionality largely remains unknown. Here, we analyze two global-scale datasets including information on soil metagenomics and multiple environmental stressors. We find that across terrestrial ecosystems worldwide, up to 60% of all functional genes significantly shift when soil microbes experience the high-level of concurrent stressors. In this regard, the relative abundances of genes involved in microbial growth are negatively linked to the increasing number of stressors. Conversely, those genes linked to stress resistance and energy production exhibit positive responses. Taken together, our findings highlight a significant restructuring of global soil functional microbiomes in response to multiple environmental stressors. Consequently, such restructuring drives community-level shifts in matter and energy reallocations, thereby impacting the maintenance of soil functionality under the projected global change.</span></p> application/pdf 10.1038/s41467-026-73231-9 en Nature Functional restructuring of the global soil microbiome under multiple stressors article