Patterns in soil microbial diversity across Europe
University of Zurich · Joint Research Centre · +4 more institutions
Abstract
Factors driving microbial community composition and diversity are well established but the relationship with microbial functioning is poorly understood, especially at large scales. We analysed microbial biodiversity metrics and distribution of potential functional groups along a gradient of increasing land-use perturbation, detecting over 79,000 bacterial and 25,000 fungal OTUs in 715 sites across 24 European countries. We found the lowest bacterial and fungal diversity in less-disturbed environments (woodlands) compared to grasslands and highly-disturbed environments (croplands). Highly-disturbed environments contain significantly more bacterial chemoheterotrophs, harbour a higher proportion of fungal plant…
Citation impact
- FWCI
- 49.53
- Percentile
- 100%
- References
- 108
Authors
13Topics & keywords
- Diversity (politics)
- Soil microbiology
- Biology
- Ecology
- Soil water
- Political science