Divergent national-scale trends of microbial and animal biodiversity revealed across diverse temperate soil ecosystems

George, Paul B.L.; Lallias, Delphine; Creer, Simon; Seaton, Fiona M. ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2022-7451; Kenny, John G.; Eccles, Richard M.; Griffiths, Robert I.; Lebron, Inma ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8610-9717; Emmett, Bridget A. ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2713-4389; Robinson, David A. ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-7290-4867; Jones, Davey L.. 2019 Divergent national-scale trends of microbial and animal biodiversity revealed across diverse temperate soil ecosystems. Nature Communications, 10, 1107. 11, pp. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-019-09031-1

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Official URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/s41467-019-09031-1

Abstract/Summary

Soil biota accounts for ~25% of global biodiversity and is vital to nutrient cycling and primary production. There is growing momentum to study total belowground biodiversity across large ecological scales to understand how habitat and soil properties shape belowground communities. Microbial and animal components of belowground communities follow divergent responses to soil properties and land use intensification; however, it is unclear whether this extends across heterogeneous ecosystems. Here, a national-scale metabarcoding analysis of 436 locations across 7 different temperate ecosystems shows that belowground animal and microbial (bacteria, archaea, fungi, and protists) richness follow divergent trends, whereas β-diversity does not. Animal richness is governed by intensive land use and unaffected by soil properties, while microbial richness was driven by environmental properties across land uses. Our findings demonstrate that established divergent patterns of belowground microbial and animal diversity are consistent across heterogeneous land uses and are detectable using a standardised metabarcoding approach.

Item Type:	Publication - Article
Digital Object Identifier (DOI):	https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-019-09031-1
UKCEH and CEH Sections/Science Areas:	Soils and Land Use (Science Area 2017-)
ISSN:	2041-1723
Additional Information. Not used in RCUK Gateway to Research.:	Open Access paper - full text available via Official URL link.
NORA Subject Terms:	Ecology and Environment Agriculture and Soil Science
Date made live:	25 Mar 2019 11:34 +0 (UTC)
URI:	https://nora.nerc.ac.uk/id/eprint/522640

Item Type:

Publication - Article

Digital Object Identifier (DOI):

https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-019-09031-1

UKCEH and CEH Sections/Science Areas:

Soils and Land Use (Science Area 2017-)

ISSN:

2041-1723

Additional Information. Not used in RCUK Gateway to Research.:

Open Access paper - full text available via Official URL link.

NORA Subject Terms:

Ecology and Environment
Agriculture and Soil Science