Soils are important environments that support all terrestrial life and are major components of global systems (e.g., climate, C and N cycling, etc) . They are extremely complex: they harbour diverse microbial communities responsible for major biogeochemical transformations and are spatially and temporally heterogeneous. Many factors interact to determine soil microbial community composition and functions on which we depend, but because of their complexity our ability to manipulate and control these factors is currently extremely limited. Managed soil ecosystems, (e.g., agriculture, forestry) provide an opportunity to investigate important ecological questions that may provide insight into opportunities to better manipulate microbial assets for positive outcomes, while constraining some of the heterogeneity evident in completely natural systems.
We have investigated the effects of land-use and management on microbial community structure and function in diverse Australian soils, including those from intensively managed and natural ecosystems, using a variety of methods including sequencing, microarrays and biogeochemical methods. Land-use and management is a major driver of microbial community structure, with communities from intensively managed soils often appearing less well connected than those from natural systems. The fact that land-use and management are important in structuring soil microbial parameters suggest there is at least some scope to push microbial communities in desired directions and thus influence ecosystem service provision.