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

Paul B. L. George (), Delphine Lallias, Simon Creer, Fiona M. Seaton, John G. Kenny, Richard M. Eccles, Robert I. Griffiths, Inma Lebron, Bridget A. Emmett, David A. Robinson and Davey L. Jones
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Paul B. L. George: Bangor University
Delphine Lallias: Université Paris-Saclay
Simon Creer: Bangor University
Fiona M. Seaton: Bangor University
John G. Kenny: University of Liverpool
Richard M. Eccles: University of Liverpool
Robert I. Griffiths: Environment Centre Wales
Inma Lebron: Environment Centre Wales
Bridget A. Emmett: Environment Centre Wales
David A. Robinson: Environment Centre Wales
Davey L. Jones: Bangor University

Nature Communications, 2019, vol. 10, issue 1, 1-11

Abstract: 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.

Date: 2019
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DOI: 10.1038/s41467-019-09031-1

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