Ecosystem type drives soil eukaryotic diversity and composition in Europe

Soil eukaryotes play a crucial role in maintaining ecosystem functions and services, yet the factors driving their diversity and distribution remain poorly understood. While many studies focus on some eukaryotic groups (mostly fungi), they are limited in their spatial scale. Here, we analyzed an unprecedented amount of observational data of soil eukaryomes at continental scale (787 sites across Europe) to gain further insights into the impact of a wide range of environmental conditions (climatic and edaphic) on their community composition and structure. We found that the diversity of fungi, protists, rotifers, tardigrades, nematodes, arthropods, and annelids was predominantly shaped by ecosystem type (annual and permanent croplands, managed and unmanaged grasslands, coniferous and broadleaved woodlands), and higher diversity of fungi, protists, nematodes, arthropods, and annelids was observed in croplands than in less intensively managed systems, such as coniferous and broadleaved woodlands. Also in croplands, we found more specialized eukaryotes, while the composition between croplands was more homogeneous compared to the composition of other ecosystems. The observed high proportion of overlapping taxa between ecosystems also indicates that DNA has accumulated from previous land uses, hence mimicking the land transformations occurring in Europe in the last decades.

KOENINGER Julia;  BALLABIO Cristiano;  PANAGOS Panagiotis;  JONES Arwyn;  SCHMID Marc W.;  ORGIAZZI Alberto;  BRIONES María; 

2023-09-22

WILEY

JRC131943

1354-1013 (online),   

https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1111/gcb.16871,    https://publications.jrc.ec.europa.eu/repository/handle/JRC131943,   

10.1111/gcb.16871 (online),