Soil biodiversity and ecosystem functions in grasslands

In this study, we investigate the importance of the presence and richness of broad soil functional groups (prokaryotes, fungi, protists, nematodes) in experimental grassland systems consisting of different soil types. We selected five contrasting European grasslands, three with relatively fertile soils and two with poorer soils, as donors of inoculum and substrate. Communities from each soil type were filtered by size to form four biodiversity treatments, representing a gradient in completeness with respect to organism size, each inoculated with seeds of grassland-specific plant species. We sequenced 16s rRNA gene (V4 region), ITS1 gene and 18s gene (V4 region), for prokaryotes, fungi and general eukaryotes (protists, nematodes), respectively.