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

Paul B L George,Simon Creer,David A Robinson,Bridget A Emmett,Delphine Lallias,Robert I Griffiths,Fiona M Seaton,Inma Lebron,John G Kenny,Davey L Jones,Richard M Eccles

doi:10.1038/s41467-019-09031-1

Abstract

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.

Highlights

Soil biota accounts for ~25% of global biodiversity and is vital to nutrient cycling and primary production
Sample sites were categorised into Aggregate Vegetation Classes (AVCs) based on plant species assessments using established criteria
An explanation of the composition of AVCs is described in Supplementary Table 1

Summary

Introduction

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; it is unclear whether this extends across heterogeneous ecosystems. 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. Soil biota, including bacteria, archaea, protists, fungi, and animals, underpin globally important ecosystem functions. Fundamental functions of soil communities include nutrient and hydrological cycling, decomposition, pollution mitigation, and supporting terrestrial primary production, which are inextricably linked to global food security, climate regulation, and other ecosystem services[1,2]. Relatively few studies have attempted to assess all components of belowground communities using a multi-marker metabarcoding approach[22]

Methods

Results

Conclusion