Soil bacterial and fungal communities show within field heterogeneity that varies by land management and distance metric

Seaton, Fiona M. ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2022-7451; Griffiths, Rob I. ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3341-4547; Goodall, Tim ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1526-4071; Lebron, Inma ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8610-9717; Norton, Lisa R. ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1622-0281. 2023 Soil bacterial and fungal communities show within field heterogeneity that varies by land management and distance metric. Soil Biology and Biochemistry, 177, 108920. 5, pp. 10.1016/j.soilbio.2022.108920

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Official URL: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.soilbio.2022.108920

Abstract/Summary

Increasing interest in the use of microbial metrics to evaluate soil health raises the issue of how fine-scale heterogeneity can affect microbial community measurements. Here we analyse bacterial and fungal communities of over 100 soil samples across 17 pasture farms and evaluate beta diversity at different scales. We find large variation in microbial communities between different points in the same field, and if Aitchison distance is used we find that within-field variation is as high as between-farm variation. However, if Bray-Curtis or Jaccard distance are used this variation is partially explained by differences in soil pH and vegetation and is higher under mob grazing for fungi. Hence, field scale variation in microbial communities can impact the evaluation of soil health.

Item Type:	Publication - Article
Digital Object Identifier (DOI):	10.1016/j.soilbio.2022.108920
UKCEH and CEH Sections/Science Areas:	Soils and Land Use (Science Area 2017-)
ISSN:	0038-0717
Additional Information. Not used in RCUK Gateway to Research.:	Open Access paper - full text available via Official URL link.
Additional Keywords:	pasture, bacteria, fungi, spatial variability, mob grazing. set stocking, rotational grazing
NORA Subject Terms:	Agriculture and Soil Science Biology and Microbiology
Date made live:	07 Jan 2023 17:04 +0 (UTC)
URI:	https://nora.nerc.ac.uk/id/eprint/533827

Item Type:

Publication - Article

Digital Object Identifier (DOI):

10.1016/j.soilbio.2022.108920

UKCEH and CEH Sections/Science Areas:

Soils and Land Use (Science Area 2017-)

ISSN:

0038-0717

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

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

Additional Keywords:

pasture, bacteria, fungi, spatial variability, mob grazing. set stocking, rotational grazing