The impact of land use change and the composition of soil organic carbon on microbial abundance and bacterial diversity in soils across Europe. Land use change

This study includes 454 amplicon sequencing of the 16S rRNA gene amplified from soil DNA extracts. The soil samples originate from 19 sites across Europe representing four biogeographical regions (alpine, atlantic, boreal, continental) and three land use types (cropland, grassland, forest). At each site, plots under the original land use type and plots that underwent land use change were sampled. Soil from the upper 10 cm layer were collected at four points within each plot and mixed into a composite sample for DNA extraction.