Wog Wog Forest Fragmentation Soil Metagenome

This study examined the interaction between soil nutrients, microorganisms, leaf litter decomposition, and aboveground biota throughout native Eucalyptus forest fragments embedded within a Pinus radiata plantation matrix in southeastern Australia. Fragmentation effects on soil are accompanied by changes in soil bacterial and fungal communities, with the highest taxonomic diversity seen in small fragments. Soils in matrix pine sites diverged from those of adjacent eucalypt sites, with low soil nutrients and an overabundance of non-decomposing (labile carbon metabolizing) as well as legume-nodulating bacterial clades. We posit that soil nutrient cycling changed in native forest fragments over 26 years as edge effects caused progressive and interactive changes in forest productivity, understory microclimate, decomposer-invertebrates, and microbial communities. Processes associated with fragmentation resulted in altered nutrient levels in soils that feedback into the response of the aboveground biota and help drive ecosystem fragmentation response.