Updated project metadata. Herein, we evaluated the changes in biological functions in soils across global biomes through the identification and quantification of proteins. This knowledge is essential to provide one stepforward in soil microbial ecology in order to decipher the cellular and molecular mechanisms employed by soil microbial communities to adapt to their environment and to explain the potential responses of microbial communities, and their microbially-driven ecosystem services, to global change and land use. Our study aims to provide the most comprehensive assessment on the structure and function of the topsoil metaproteome across global biomes, and hence provide direct identification of the most domimant protein-encoded functions in terrestrial ecosystems.