Summary
This large-scale European study quantified soil microbial biodiversity and functional composition across 715 sites in 24 countries, revealing that less-disturbed woodlands paradoxically harbour lower microbial diversity than grasslands and croplands. Highly-disturbed cropland environments showed elevated proportions of chemoheterotrophic bacteria and fungal plant pathogens, whilst harbouring fewer beneficial fungal symbionts compared to woodlands and extensively-managed grasslands. The authors propose that simultaneous monitoring of taxonomic and functional diversity is essential for environmental policy, and that interactions among vegetation, climate, and soil properties best explain observed microbial spatial patterns.
UK applicability
Findings are directly applicable to UK soil microbiology monitoring and policy, as the United Kingdom was among the 24 European countries sampled. The results support UK efforts to assess soil health through microbial diversity monitoring and suggest that extensively-managed grasslands may offer greater beneficial microbial function than intensive croplands.
Key measures
Bacterial and fungal operational taxonomic units (OTUs); microbial biodiversity metrics; distribution of functional groups (chemoheterotrophs, plant pathogens, saprotrophs, plant symbionts); spatial patterns explained by vegetation cover, climate, and soil properties
Outcomes reported
The study measured bacterial and fungal diversity metrics and predicted functional groups across 715 sites in 24 European countries, spanning a gradient from woodlands to grasslands to croplands. The research characterised shifts in microbial community composition and functional potential in relation to land-use perturbation intensity.
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