We aim to answer the following set of scientific questions:
To what extend do soil organisms control processes in the aboveground communities of plants and animals?
What is the impact of soil biota on the ecosystem processes vs the impact of soil chemistry and structure?
What is the role of soil organisms in ecosystem succession? Are microbes ‘drivers’ or ‘passengers’ of succession?
We employ full-factorial set of the following experimental treatments:
Transplanting to the initially bare-sand dune area soils originated in dune ecosystems at different stages of successional development: sand dunes, grassland, dune forest
Transplanted soils are sterilized with gamma radiation
We add (or not) mycorrhizal fungi to all these soils, a group of soil organisms that is considered to play a major role in plant community development.
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