Core Project 9 "Soil" Linking biodiversity and land use to soil functions

• Applicants: Dr. Marion Schrumpf; Professorin Dr. Susan Trumbore
• Subject Area: Soil Sciences
• Term: since 2011
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 193957772

Core Project 9 - Soil - will continue to organize the coordinated soil sampling and compile important baseline soil properties. It will also support the large multi-site experiments in forest and grassland. To this end, we will organize the fifth coordinated soil sampling on the experimental plots as well as on the multi-site experiments at the beginning of the new project phase. The coordinated soil sampling will allow all soil-related projects in the Biodiversity Exploratories to work on the same samples. To provide comprehensive carbon and nutrient balances of the Biodiversity Exploratories, subsoils will be sampled for the first time at all Experimental Plots (EPs). In addition, and to complement carbon release data, we are investigating microbial carbon-dioxide fixation at all EPs. We will also continue to determine important soil properties such as pH, carbon, and nutrient contents, root contents, clay contents, stone contents that have been monitored since 2011. At the forest plots, we additionally investigate enzyme activities and microbial biomass. In the forest, we have also been recording litter input since 2015. This allows us to capture important ecosystem functions and services related to carbon and nutrient cycling. In addition, we use land use and climate data to analyze their impact on important soil functions, such as soil carbon storage. Our soil data also allow us to analyze important long-term effects of land use and biodiversity change, and climate extremes on soil properties. Overall, this project will provide soil data and information at all study sites that are highly relevant to all other projects, especially to all synthesis projects.

• DFG Programme: Infrastructure Priority Programmes
• Subproject of: SPP 1374: Biodiversity Exploratories