Summary
This field-based study from a long-term grassland fertilisation experiment interrogates how sustained nutrient enrichment over ~100 years reshapes the ecological processes governing soil microbial community assembly. The research suggests that prolonged fertilisation reduces stochastic (random) components of microbial succession, indicating that chronic nutrient enrichment strengthens deterministic selective pressures on community structure. The findings contribute to understanding how agricultural legacy effects constrain microbial diversity and assembly pathways in managed grasslands.
UK applicability
The study was conducted on United Kingdom grassland (Park Grass Experiment, Rothamsted Research), making findings directly applicable to UK managed grassland soils under long-term fertilisation regimes. Results may inform UK soil management practices and policy on sustainable intensification and soil health in pastoral systems.
Key measures
Microbial community composition (as suggested by sequencing methods typical to the field); stochasticity indices; community assembly processes (null model framework); temporal succession patterns
Outcomes reported
The study examined how ~100 years of continuous fertilisation altered the processes governing grassland soil microbial community succession. It measured shifts in the relative contributions of stochastic versus deterministic (selective) forces driving microbial community assembly.
Topic tags
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