Bahram, Mohammad
- Department of Ecology, Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences
- Aarhus University
- University of Tartu
Research article2024Peer reviewed
Land use intensification homogenizes soil protist communities and alters their diversity across Europe
Aslani, Farzad; Bahram, Mohammad; Geisen, Stefan; Pent, Mari; Otsing, Eveli; Tamm, Heidi; Jones, Arwyn; Panagos, Panos; Koninger, Julia; Orgiazzi, Alberto; Tedersoo, Leho
Abstract
Soil protists have vital roles as major microbiome predators in soil functioning and plant performance. Protists are also suggested to be the most responsive microbial group to external changes, such as anthropogenic land use types. While protists were long used as models for biogeography such as to investigate if 'everything is everywhere ' among microbes, their biogeography at the taxonomic level has never been explored in depth at the continental scale and linked to anthropogenic drivers. Here we evaluated how land -use types affect the diversity and structure of soil protist communities across 885 locations in Europe based on the European Commission 's Land Use and Coverage Area frame Survey (LUCAS). We observed higher alpha-diversity of soil protists but lower community structure dissimilarity ( beta-diversity) in croplands compared with woodlands, with grasslands in an intermediate position. The diversity of protist groups with a broader spatial niche was higher in croplands, whereas taxa with a narrower niche increased in woodlands. The importance of climate factors on alpha-diversity variations reduced as land use intensity increased, but the opposite trend was observed for the effect of soil properties. Our study suggests that there is an interaction between land use type, environmental effects, and spatial niche attributes of soil protist groups, highlighting the importance of land -use type on the dynamics of protist communities.
Keywords
Agricultural activity; Anthropogenic effects; Biohomogenization; Ecological niche; Generalists; Niche breadth; Soil health; Specialists
Published in
Soil Biology and Biochemistry
2024, volume: 195, article number: 109459
Publisher: PERGAMON-ELSEVIER SCIENCE LTD
SLU Authors
UKÄ Subject classification
Soil Science
Environmental Sciences related to Agriculture and Land-use
Publication identifier
- DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.soilbio.2024.109459
Permanent link to this page (URI)
https://res.slu.se/id/publ/130885