Micro-Environmental Variation in Soil Microbial Biodiversity in Forest Frontier Ecosystems—Implications for Sustainability Assessments

Valeria Esther Álvarez, Verónica Andrea El Mujtar, Joana Falcão Salles, Xiu Jia, Elisa Castán, Andrea Gabriela Cardozo and Pablo Adrián Tittonell ()
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Valeria Esther Álvarez: Agroecology, Environment and Systems Group, Instituto de Investigaciones Forestales y Agropecuarias de Bariloche (IFAB)—Instituto Nacional de Tecnología Agropecuaria-Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas (INTA-CONICET), Modesta Victoria 4450, San Carlos de Bariloche 8400, Río Negro, Argentina
Verónica Andrea El Mujtar: Agroecology, Environment and Systems Group, Instituto de Investigaciones Forestales y Agropecuarias de Bariloche (IFAB)—Instituto Nacional de Tecnología Agropecuaria-Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas (INTA-CONICET), Modesta Victoria 4450, San Carlos de Bariloche 8400, Río Negro, Argentina
Joana Falcão Salles: Groningen Institute of Evolutionary Life Sciences (GELIFES), Groningen University, 9700 CC Groningen, The Netherlands
Xiu Jia: Groningen Institute of Evolutionary Life Sciences (GELIFES), Groningen University, 9700 CC Groningen, The Netherlands
Elisa Castán: Agroecology, Environment and Systems Group, Instituto de Investigaciones Forestales y Agropecuarias de Bariloche (IFAB)—Instituto Nacional de Tecnología Agropecuaria-Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas (INTA-CONICET), Modesta Victoria 4450, San Carlos de Bariloche 8400, Río Negro, Argentina
Andrea Gabriela Cardozo: Agroecology, Environment and Systems Group, Instituto de Investigaciones Forestales y Agropecuarias de Bariloche (IFAB)—Instituto Nacional de Tecnología Agropecuaria-Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas (INTA-CONICET), Modesta Victoria 4450, San Carlos de Bariloche 8400, Río Negro, Argentina
Pablo Adrián Tittonell: Agroecology, Environment and Systems Group, Instituto de Investigaciones Forestales y Agropecuarias de Bariloche (IFAB)—Instituto Nacional de Tecnología Agropecuaria-Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas (INTA-CONICET), Modesta Victoria 4450, San Carlos de Bariloche 8400, Río Negro, Argentina

Sustainability, 2024, vol. 16, issue 3, 1-26

Abstract: Soil health indicators based on microbial biodiversity are increasingly used in agricultural sustainability assessments. However, little is known about how microbial communities vary within micro-environmental gradients across different land uses, which is crucial for designing field sampling and monitoring protocols. Our objective was to assess how soil microbial communities changed with soil depth and spatial distance across land-use types. We sampled soils in four spatial distances (within 0.1–70 m) and four depths (within 0–40 cm) in forests, grasslands, and horticultural lands, and combined 16S rRNA gene sequencing, DNA quantification and soil chemical characterization to explore micro-environmental variation in microbial biomass, α-β-diversity, and communities’ assembly processes. Depth and spatial distance had differential effects on microbial biodiversity within different land uses. Microbial biomass was most sensitive to depth, α-diversity to spatial distance, and β-diversity to both depth and spatial distance. Deterministic processes dominate microbial communities’ assembly along depth in all land uses, which is a promising result for developing soil quality indicators based on microbial biodiversity. Overall, our results suggest that collecting soil samples separated by at least 12 m is adequate to capture biodiversity changes across land uses. However, collecting randomly within the first 10 cm is recommended for native forests, while systematic sampling within the first 20 cm is advised for grasslands and horticultural lands. Our findings underscore the need for land use-specific sampling frameworks in soil life-based sustainability assessments for meaningful regional comparisons.

Keywords: microbial ecology; soil biota; soil depth; spatial autocorrelation; evolutionary processes; Patagonia (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O13 Q Q0 Q2 Q3 Q5 Q56 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2024
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