A “census” of Britain’s soil bug populations has shown a close connection between plants above the ground and bacteria beneath.
Scientists analysed more than 1,000 core samples from England, Scotland and Wales to produce the most comprehensive study of a country’s soil biodiversity to date.
The findings, published in the journal Environmental Microbiology, suggest that soil bacteria are driven by the same ecological processes that govern higher organisms.
Bugs in the ground appeared to be closely related to the plant communities growing above them.
Soil bacteria play an essential role in maintaining the health of plants and storing carbon.
Lead researcher Robert Griffiths, from the Centre for Ecology and Hydrology, based at four UK sites, said: “Until now our understanding of how bacterial communities vary across the landscape has been extremely limited. Our results provide the first large-scale assessment of bacterial communities across Britain’s soils and provide a baseline to further explore the complex relationships between soil bacterial biodiversity and ecosystem services.
“The new research has revealed how microbial distributions in British soils are linked to both soil pH (acidity) and plant type.”
Co-author Andy Whiteley, also from the Centre for Ecology and Hydrology, said: “People don’t really think about bacteria in soils when they walk across a field or a park, they are microscopic and hidden from view, but the numbers are truly impressive; one footprint covers around 10 billion bacterial cells.
Bacteria are central to maintaining essential functions which we take for granted, such as soil fertility and cycling greenhouse gases.
“In our new study we’ve pulled back the earth’s skin to reveal how and why bacteria in the soil varies across the landscape.
To our surprise it appears that the same ecological processes that operate above ground also seem to determine what happens below ground.
We’re also beginning to understand the key functions that these hidden communities perform for us.”
Soil samples and DNA from the study have been frozen to provide a resource for future research looking at the impacts of climate change on diversity and soil processes.
Professor Mark Bailey, acting director of the Centre for Ecology and Hydrology, said: “We’ve produced the first soil microbial map for any country in the world. This year we will make the samples and raw data from the study available to other researchers, allowing the wider community to explore the exact functions that each of the thousands of species in every gram of soil carry out.”