EJP Soil - MINOTAUR project: Microbial bioindicators of soil health and management practices using long-term experiments across Europe

To establish a representative database of soil factors changed by various agriculture management practices as well as factors reflecting local soil conditions and climate, nine long-term experiments covering different regions of Europe were sampled for physical, chemical and biological soil characteristics. Those include also the community composition and quantity of microorganisms, namely bacteria, archaea and fungi, as the most promising soil bioindicators. The composition of soil microbial communities were determined by amplicon sequencing of the V4 variable region of 16S rRNA gene for prokaryotes, and the V9 variable region of 18S rRNA gene for micro-eukaryotes.