SUSALPS: Sustainable use of alpine and pre-alpine grassland soils in a changing climate

This study is part of project Sustainable use of alpine and pre-alpine grassland soils in a changing climate. In this study, we investigated the effect of land use intensity (extensive (EXT) and intensive (INT) management) and climate change (CC) on the microbial abundance and community composition considering short- (one year) and long-term (four years) constraints. We made use of a translocation experiment where intact plant-soil mesocosms from 1260 m a.s.l. were transplanted to two lower altitudes (860 m a.s.l., moderate climate change: CC1 and 600 m a.s.l. strong climate change: CC2). In addition, we used mesocosms which were taken at 1260 m a.s.l. and reestablished them on the same side as controls (CC0). Mesocosms were treated either by an EXT (two mowing and slurry applications) or INT management (four mowing, five slurry applications). Sampling was conducting after one and four years at two different depths (0-5 cm and 5- 15 cm) during summer of 2017 and 2020. We measured bacterial abundance and diversity, respectively, by quantitative real time PCR (qPCR) and 16S rRNA gene amplicon sequencing. Library preparation by 25-cycle PCR (using the primer pair 515F and 806R for amplifying the V4 region of 16S rRNA) and sequencing on Illumina MiSeq platform.