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

ABSTRACT: 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 soil depths ranging from the surface to below the rooting zone of two Swedish grasslands with differing land-use histories, each including both an upper and a lower catenary position. We hypothesized that differences in plant species richness and plant functional group composition between the four study sites would drive the variation in soil microbial community composition and correlate with microbial diversity, and that microbial biomass and diversity would decrease with soil depth following a decline in resource availability. While v

SUBMITTER: Guasconi D 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC10370287 | biostudies-literature | 2023 Jul

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature