Selection of cropland sites for long-term monitoring soil microbiomes as indicators for soil health in context of the German Agricultural Soil Inventory (BZE-LW)

In this report we present a selection of 192 cropland sites across Germany for prospective monitoring of soil microbiomes in order to assess their status and potential long-term changes in German agricultural soils. We explain the process by which the soils were selected from the database information generated by the first German Agricultural Soil Inventory (BZE-LW) during 2009 to 2018 which included a total of 2,234 cropland sites. It was the objective to reduce the impact of physicochemical soil properties which are well known to affect the microbial community structure, i.e. pH, total organic carbon (TOC) and CN ratio, in favour of finding indicators for implications of agricultural soil management practices or climate change. More specifically, sites with pH < 5.5 and > 7.5, TOC with < 10 g/kg and > 20 g/kg, CN ratio > 13 and a sand content > 90% were upfront excluded. Multidimensional scaling of the selected properties, including physicochemical soil parameters, textures, crop cover and other factors are presented in this report to demonstrate the range of soil properties which will be analysed for their indicator potential for soil health during the further course of the BZE. – This work is a contribution of the MonViA project (National Monitoring of Biodiversity in Agricultural Landscapes).