Bacterial and fungal diversity of serpentine biocrusts

Here we investigated the bacterial and fungal diversity of biological soil crusts from serpentine and non-serpentine soils from the Barberton Greenstone Belt in South Africa. The bacterial and fungal communities were characterised using 16S rDNA and ITS metabarcoding, respectively. Biological soil crusts were sampled at eight different localities along the Barberton Greenstone belt in Mpumalanga, South Africa, paired with one on serpentine soil and one-off serpentine to give 16 sampling sites in total. Half of the localities (four serpentine and four non-serpentine) were sampled along the temperate Highveld escarpment with a cool mean annual temperature of 17 C with frequent fog and precipitation levels of more than 1000 mm per annum. The datasets resulting from analysing these biocrust samples are referred to as serpentine wet (SW: four sites), and non-serpentine wet (NSW: four sites). The other half of the paired samples (four serpentine and four non-serpentine) were obtained in subtropical Lowveld with higher mean annual temperature (19.7 C) and lower precipitation (<800 mm).