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Picture: The photo shows a myxobacteria culture photographed from above in a Petri dish, spreading in a circle over an e-coli culture and eating it.

The main objective of BE_CENSE is to assess the impact of land-use intensity effects on the diversity of the whole grassland soil biota. Deeply sequenced metatranscriptomes of the 150 grassland plots will be generated and analysed via ribosomal RNA and messenger RNA of the microbiomes. Such a holistic approach can provide unique insights into LUI effects, since emergent properties resulting from biotic interactions between groups (i.e. microbial food web structures), are being potentially captured.


We will test four complementary hypotheses in two work packages (WP). WP1 will test to what extend differences in LUI result in changes in the taxonomic composition of the grassland soil biota, and more specifically the structure of the microbial food web. More precisely, we hypothesise that high LUI will, via soil compaction, lead to a lower abundance and diversity of mesofauna, as compared to prokaryotes, protists and viruses. The reduced top-down control of the larger animals will have cascading effects onto the soil microbial food web by increasing the importance of protists, bacterial and viral micro-predators, thus resulting in a trophic downgrading of the soil ecosystem under high LUI. Furthermore, in WP2 we aim to reveal the seasonal and spatial dynamics in the soil microbial food web in top- and subsoils. To master this ambitious task, experts from soil metatranscriptomics, bacterial and archaeal microbiology, and soil protistologists have teamed up to provide the necessary broad methodological and scientific background.


The outcome of BE_CENSE will be an unprecedented view into the effects of land-use intensity (LUI) on the diversity of functional guilds in the belowground biota in grasslands.


Doc
Mehr Komplexität in den Bodennahrungsnetzen: Myxobakterien zeigen ein breites Prädationsspektrum mit Bakterien, Hefen und filamentösen Pilzen in vitro
Groß V., Reinhard A., Petters S., Pichler M., Urich T. (2023): Adding complexity to soil food webs: Myxobacteria have broad predation spectra with bacteria, yeasts and filamentous fungi in vitro. European Journal of Soil Biology 117: 103508. doi: 10.1016/j.ejsobi.2023.103508
More information:  doi.org

Scientific assistants

Prof. Dr. Michael Bonkowski
Project manager
Prof. Dr. Michael Bonkowski
Universität zu Köln
Prof. Dr. Tim Urich
Project manager
Prof. Dr. Tim Urich
Universität Greifswald
Verena Groß
Employee
Verena Groß
Universität Greifswald
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