title: Tree diversity and species identity effects on soil fungi, protists and animals are context dependent.
abstract: Plant species richness and the presence of certain influential species (sampling effect) drive the stability and functionality of ecosystems as well as primary production and biomass of consumers. However, little is known about these floristic effects on richness and community composition of soil biota in forest habitats owing to methodological constraints. We developed a DNA metabarcoding approach to identify the major eukaryote groups directly from soil with roughly species-level resolution. Using this method, we examined the effects of tree diversity and individual tree species on soil microbial biomass and taxonomic richness of soil biota in two experimental study systems in Finland and Estonia and accounted for edaphic variables and spatial autocorrelation. Our analyses revealed that the effects of tree diversity and individual species on soil biota are largely context dependent. Multiple regression and structural equation modelling suggested that biomass, soil pH, nutrients and tree species directly affect richness of different taxonomic groups. The community composition of most soil organisms was strongly correlated due to similar response to environmental predictors rather than causal relationships. On a local scale, soil resources and tree species have stronger effect on diversity of soil biota than tree species richness per se.
authors.affiliation: Natural History Museum, University of Tartu, Tartu, Estonia.
authors.forename: Leho
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Tedersoo
authors.affiliation: Institute of Ecology and Earth Sciences, University of Tartu, Tartu, Estonia.
authors.forename: Mohammad
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Bahram
authors.affiliation: Institute of Microbiology AS CR, Prague, Czech Republic.|Institute for Environmental Studies, Faculty of Science, Charles University in Prague, Prague, Czech Republic.
authors.forename: Tomáš
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Cajthaml
authors.affiliation: Natural History Museum, University of Tartu, Tartu, Estonia.
authors.forename: Sergei
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Põlme
authors.affiliation: Institute of Ecology and Earth Sciences, University of Tartu, Tartu, Estonia.
authors.forename: Indrek
authors.initials: I
authors.lastname: Hiiesalu
authors.affiliation: Institute of Ecology and Earth Sciences, University of Tartu, Tartu, Estonia.
authors.forename: Sten
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Anslan
authors.affiliation: Institute of Ecology and Earth Sciences, University of Tartu, Tartu, Estonia.
authors.forename: Helery
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Harend
authors.affiliation: Helmholtz Zentrum München, Neuherberg, Germany.
authors.forename: Franz
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Buegger
authors.affiliation: Helmholtz Zentrum München, Neuherberg, Germany.
authors.forename: Karin
authors.identifier: http://orcid.org/0000-0001-6384-2473
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Pritsch
authors.affiliation: School of Biological Sciences, Royal Holloway University of London, Surrey, UK.
authors.forename: Julia
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Koricheva
authors.affiliation: Natural History Museum, University of Tartu, Tartu, Estonia.
authors.forename: Kessy
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Abarenkov
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D044822:Biodiversity; D018533:Biomass; D058448:Biota; D056890:Eukaryota / Q000145:classification / Q000235:genetics / Q000302:isolation & purification*; D005387:Finland; D005658:Fungi / Q000145:classification / Q000235:genetics / Q000302:isolation & purification*; D012987:Soil / Q000737:chemistry / Q000469:parasitology*; D012988:Soil Microbiology; D014197:Trees / Q000382:microbiology
chemical_list: D012987:Soil