ITS2 metabarcoding of plant communities

Despite significant progress in the exploration of belowground plant diversity, still, knowledge about the patterns of species coexistence, the structure of underground communities and its response to environmental variables is far from being sufficiently explored for most ecosystems. The main aim of the project is to find out the true diversity and species composition of the Central European grasslands by a comparative exploration of the belowground and aboveground part of the phytocoenoses. In this study, we used aboveground plant samples and belowground soil samples from grassland sites near Opole, Poland to perform vascular plant assessment by eDNA metabarcoding.