Why we need a National Living Soil Repository

The contribution of plant microbiota to economy growth

“…Recently, Manter et al . () claimed that the establishment of Living Soil Repositories is needed and that such repositories represent an investment in our future. Living Soil Repositories could preserve genetic diversity and could serve as a baseline and future tool to monitor changes in community structure and functioning.…”

“…Considering the importance of mostly soil-derived microorganisms and microbial communities for plant growth, health and stress resilience, the commercial impact of soil-borne and plant-associated microbiota is immense. Recently, Manter et al (2017) claimed that the establishment of Living Soil Repositories is needed and that such repositories represent an investment in our future. Living Soil Repositories could preserve genetic diversity and could serve as a baseline and future tool to monitor changes in community structure and functioning.…”

“…Living Soil Repositories could preserve genetic diversity and could serve as a baseline and future tool to monitor changes in community structure and functioning. Such a repository would also open commercial opportunities to make use of microbiota for agricultural needs (Manter et al, 2017). Furthermore, Berg and Raaijmakers (2018) pointed out that the centralized seed production and the global trade of seeds can lead to more homogenous plant microbiomes, potentially loosing important microbial players.…”

Soil organic matter turnover over decadal to millennial timescales

“…However, long-term dry storage of soil samples is known to have profound impacts on soil microbial activity and composition (Chen and Alexander, 1973;Martí et al, 2012;Salonius, 1983;Zelles et al, 1991). While pre-incubation (wetting) of soil samples in laboratory conditions may revive microbial activity, it remains unclear if archived soil samples may be used for incubation studies to accurately determine microbial functions relating to SOM turnover (Bartlett and James, 1980;Clark and Hirsch, 2008;Kaiser et al, 2015;Manter et al, 2017).…”

“…Long term storage and archiving of soils provides an exceedingly valuable resource for scientists as irreplaceable snapshots of marine and terrestrial conditions in space and time (Cary and Fierer, 2014;Manter et al, 2017). It is generally preferred to store soils under cold conditions (4 to −20 C) before experimentation as this largely preserves the physiological profile (Gonzalez-Quiñones et al, 2009) and genetic composition of the soil microbial community (Wang et al, 2015).…”