Core Project 8: Soil microbial diversity and community composition of grassland and forest ecosystems along land use gradients in three German Biodiversity Exploratories

• Applicants: Dr. Kezia Goldmann; Professor Dr. Jörg Overmann; Professor Dr. Michael Schloter
• Subject Area: Microbial Ecology and Applied Microbiology ; Ecology and Biodiversity of Plants and Ecosystems
• Term: since 2011
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 193973307

Within the Biodiversity Exploratories, Core Project 8 (Microorganisms) provides a comprehensive service for Contributing and Synthesis Projects by collecting and offering comprehensive datasets on the microbial diversity for all Experimental Plots, the joint multi-site experiments (REX, LUX, FOX), and the 30 new agricultural plots employing state of the art analytical tools. The structure of the soil microbiome is determined using metabarcoding approaches for bacteria, archaea and fungi and by metagenomic analyses for viruses. Metagenomic analysis will be used for elucidating functional patterns of the soil microbiome. Highly standardized bioinformatic pipelines and advanced statistics are employed for data processing. Core Project 8 also archives and provides DNA and RNA extracts for Contributing Projects focussing on more specific molecular analyses. In the upcoming funding period, Core Project 8 will provide data on soil microbial diversity, on the interaction between the different microbial groups, functional properties of the complete soil microbiome, as well as of selected keystone species, and identify active microbial taxa. Based on the joint sampling campaigns coordinated between the different projects of the Biodiversity Exploratories, the data generated can be linked to abiotic and biotic soil properties as well as to data for other organismic groups, and are particularly relevant for a number of Contributing Projects evaluating ecosystem functions and services, multi-taxa analysis and multifunctionality across different management systems and land use intensities. The comprehensive data offer on microbial diversity provided by Core Project 8 will thereby contribute towards an improved understanding of the structure and function of soil ecosystems.

• DFG Programme: Infrastructure Priority Programmes
• Subproject of: SPP 1374: Biodiversity Exploratories
• Co-Investigator: Professor Dr. Francois Buscot