This paperprovidesaframeworktounderstandthesourceoftheeconomicvalueofsoilbiodiversityand
soil ecosystemservicesandmapsoutthepathwaysofsuchvalues.Weclarifythelinkbetweencom-
ponents oftheeconomicvalueofsoilbiodiversityandtheirassociatedservicesofparticularrelevanceto
soils. Wecontendthatsoilbiodiversityandassociatedecosystemservicesgiverisetotwomainadditive
valuecomponentsinthecontextofriskanduncertainty:anoutputvalueandaninsurancevalue.These
are illustratedwithexamplesfromsoilecologyandasimpleheuristicmodel.Thepaperalsopoints
towardsthechallengesofcapturingsuchvalueshighlightingthedifferencesbetweenprivate(individual)
and public(global)sourcesofvalue