Soil invertebrate and mycorrhizal activity in diverse grasslands: benefits for ecosystem service provision - PhD thesis dataset

Data collected for PhD thesis. The thesis aim was to identify which of the commercially viable grasslands within the Diverse Forages Project had the most positive effect on the soil biota (earthworms, mesofauna and AMF) and whether changes in belowground biota affected aboveground biomass productivity. The thesis consists of three manuscript research chapters which address the soil biodiversity research gaps identified by comparing a conventionally fertilised forage pasture to three commercially available diverse grasslands. Chapter 2 covered the changes in soil invertebrates, namely earthworms, a selection of soil mesofauna under grazed systems, and measuring arbuscular mycorrhizal (AMF) activity through trap plant root colonisation. Chapter 3 looked at overall fungal community diversity and microbial functional diversity, with modelling effects on provisioning ecosystem service delivery of aboveground biomass. And finally, Chapter 4 focused solely on AMF community’s contribution to the commercially available diverse grasslands in dry, stressed environments, suggestive of future climate change conditions.