Vegetation, topography, and soil depth drive microbial community structure in two Swedish grasslands

• Soil microbial diversity and community composition are shaped by various factors linked to land management, topographic position,and vegetation. To study the effects of these drivers, we characterized fungal and bacterial communities from bulk soil at four soildepths ranging from the surface to below the rooting zone of two Swedish grasslands with differing land-use histories, each includingboth an upper and a lower catenary position. We hypothesized that differences in plant species richness and plant functional groupcomposition between the four study sites would drive the variation in soil microbial community composition and correlate withmicrobial diversity, and that microbial biomass and diversity would decrease with soil depth following a decline in resource availability.While vegetation was identified as the main driver of microbial community composition, the explained variation was significantlyhigher for bacteria than for fungi, and the communities differed more between grasslands than between catenary positions. Microbialbiomass derived from DNA abundance decreased with depth, but diversity remained relatively stable, indicating diverse microbialcommunities even below the rooting zone. Finally, plant-microbial diversity correlations were significant only for specific plant andfungal functional groups, emphasizing the importance of functional interactions over general species richness

Ämnesord

NATURVETENSKAP  -- Biologi -- Ekologi (hsv//swe)

NATURAL SCIENCES  -- Biological Sciences -- Ecology (hsv//eng)

LANTBRUKSVETENSKAPER  -- Lantbruksvetenskap, skogsbruk och fiske -- Markvetenskap (hsv//swe)

AGRICULTURAL SCIENCES  -- Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries -- Soil Science (hsv//eng)

Nyckelord

16S

grassland

ITS

mycorrhizal fungi

plant community

saprotrophic fungi

Publikations- och innehållstyp

ref (ämneskategori)

art (ämneskategori)