Status: Running (1.10.2021 - 30.9.2024)

Principle investigator: Tine Grebenc. PhD Biotechnology

Department: Forest Physiology and Genetics

Collaborating researchers (at SFI):

Tine Grebenc (21242)

Primož Simončič (10264)

Hojka Kraigher (7127)

Daniel Žlindra (21137)

Matej Rupel (17336)

Magda Špenko (17331)

David Štefanič (54070)

Nataša Šibanc (31877)

Tanja Mrak (24268)

Urša Vilhar (22592)

Tina Unuk (38188)

Barbara Štupar (24777)

Melita Hrenko (28855)

Lado Kutnar (15108)

Aleksander Marinšek (20842)

Matjaž Čater (15493)

Rok Damjanić (52663)

Project consortium (in Slovenia)

Leading institution: Slovenian Forestry Institute

Partner institutions:

University of Ljubljana Biotechnical Faculty

Jožef Stefan Institute

Abstract:

Soil biodiversity had been for long an open question trying to be solved by a plethora of approaches, methods, and research groups around the globe. Soil biodiversity is defined as the variation in dynamic soil life, from genes to communities, and the variation in soil habitats, from micro-aggregates to entire landscapes. The soil biodiversity, including any living being partially or permanently living and functioning in soils, fulfils many services for humans and nature, among most fore standing services are regulating the dynamics of soil organic matter, soil carbon sequestration and greenhouse gas emission, modifying soil physical structure and water regimes, enhancing the amount and efficiency of nutrient acquisition by the vegetation, enhancing plant health, and mitigating a range of human-induced disturbances. It is worth noting that soils harbour one-quarter of all species on Earth and provide a variety of functions like nutrient cycling, water infiltration, climate regulation, etc. The complexity of substrate/soil, high biota diversity, and complex and poorly understood interdependent functional connections do not make solving the soil biodiversity easier.

The focus of the project is question if water extracted or leached from various soils (by mean of lysimeters) contain sufficient eDNA for biodiversity studies that can be compared to the classical “soil biodiversity” approaches.

In an nutshell, the project proposal aims to join in the team relevant national soil research institutions from various soil management environments (forests, arable soils, permanent crops areas, pastures, meadows) for bringing together current soil biodiversity monitoring approaches from different soil managements, standardise them at the comparable level, supplement these approaches with the proposed eDNA methodology, test the feasibility and reproducibility of the eDNA approach on specific research questions in various soil management environments, compare eDNA results with classical soil DNA biodiversity for standardisation, and finally propose the monitoring-level eDNA based methodology to existing soil biodiversity monitoring programmes. Any soil biodiversity study can have a dual objective, firstly the basic and scientific research to obtain new and in depth knowledge of the structure and the functions of soil biodiversity and the second, more operational and directed toward decision makers to facilitate preservation and protection of soils through an informed influence on decision makers and existing monitoring programmes to consider status and fluctuations of soil biodiversity in different environmental protection plans.

The project proposal has six general objectives:

1.            bringing together relevant national stakeholders and motivate them for an active involvement in development of the proposed soil biodiversity assessment approach,

2.            moving towards an eDNA-based study of soil organisms through a step-by-step adoption of existing soil sampling methods from different fields (site/soil management, lysimeter sampling techniques, eDNA in leached water samples, DNA extraction, eDNA-based metabarcoding, building up internationally comparable soil biodiversity database, metanalyses using computer learning and AI, steps towards modelling in soils,

3.            standardization of the final operating procedures, testing them in field conditions and experimental setup, and continuing methodological developments for specific soil types,

4.            run a small-scale analysis of soil depth and soil management system related changes in soil biodiversity and communities of selected functional groups with soil chemistry, structure, respiration, hydrology, etc. as explanatory variables,

5.            creation and sharing databases, proposing a monitoring approach to be included in exiting soil biodiversity programme and referential procedures,

6.            networking with relevant national and international stakeholders.

Publications:

Fan, K., Chu, H., Eldridge, D. J., Gaitan, J. J., Liu, Y. R., Sokoya, B., Grebenc, T., ... & Delgado-Baquerizo, M. (2023). Soil biodiversity supports the delivery of multiple ecosystem functions in urban greenspaces. Nature Ecology & Evolution, 7(1), 113-126. https://www.nature.com/articles/s41559-022-01935-4