Soil Community Changes Accompanying Semi-Natural Grassland Restoration
Dry calcareous "alvar" grasslands are unique ecosystems that are found in parts of northern Europe and North America, and are defined by the presence of a thin, lime-rich soil on a limestone bedrock. Alvars are of semi-natural origin and are maintained by anthropogenic activities, such as grazing and mowing. If left unmanaged, spontaneous succession leads towards natural dry forest. A project aimed at restoring abandoned alvars (LIFE to Alvars project) was initiated in western Estonia in 2015, and measurements of the soil biotic community at alvar sites made in July 2019. Each site comprised areas that had experienced different levels of ecosystem degradation prior to restoration: Open: open grassland with grazing reinstated; Scrub: scrub removed and grazing reinstated; Forest: forest removed and grazing reinstated; Control: open grassland (no grazing) with no management change. The composition of prokaryotic, fungal and plant communities in soil samples was measured using metabarcoding approaches, in order to assess taxonomic and functional shifts occurring in biotic communities.