I recommend research informing how to increase the welfare of soil animals over pursuing whatever land use change interventions naively seem to achieve that the most cost-effectively.
I currently recommend decreasing the uncertainty about how the (expectedhedonistic) welfare per unit time of different organisms and digital systems compares with that of humans. I am now more pessimistic about the above. I have very little idea about whether existing interventions which robustly increase the welfare of humans or non-soil animals increase or decrease animal welfare due to potentially dominant uncertain effects on soil animals. Likewise, I do not know whether hypothetical interventions which robustly increased the welfare of soil animals would increase or decrease welfare due to potentially dominant uncertain effects on soil microorganisms.
I currently recommend decreasing the uncertainty about how the (expected hedonistic) welfare per unit time of different organisms and digital systems compares with that of humans. I am now more pessimistic about the above. I have very little idea about whether existing interventions which robustly increase the welfare of humans or non-soil animals increase or decrease animal welfare due to potentially dominant uncertain effects on soil animals. Likewise, I do not know whether hypothetical interventions which robustly increased the welfare of soil animals would increase or decrease welfare due to potentially dominant uncertain effects on soil microorganisms.