| Summary: | Soil provides the very basis for all our lives, largely through the provision of nutrients to plants that feed both animals and humans. As such, soil is not merely a passive player as it hosts microbial communities that are primary drivers of soil ecological processes, such as nutrient and carbon cycling, as well as being intimately involved in a range of symbiotic and pathogenic co-evolutionary relationships with plants. The Biome of Australia Soil Environments (BASE) project is collecting DNA sequence information about microbial community composition across a range of different sites in order to create a reference map of Australia’s soil. The datasets are being made publicly available and can be linked with other measurements and data such as overland surveys, meteorological data and geological information to enhance the ecological knowledge of the Australian continent and contribute to land management strategies. This Bioplatforms Australia Framework Data Initiative is employing amplicon (bacterial 16S, archael 16S, fungal ITS and bacterial 18S) and shotgun metagenomics sequencing approaches. Sequencing of cell sorted samples is being investigated in order to augment the dataset with the more abundant bacterial reference genomes. The project is led by Drs Andrew Young (CSIRO), Pauline Mele (VIC Dept. Eco Dev.) and Andrew Bissett (CSIRO) in partnership with Atlas of Living Australia, Australian Antarctic Division, Australian National Data Service (ANDS), Bush Blitz, CSIRO, Department of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries, Department of Parks and Wildlife Western Australia, Department of The Environment (DOTE), Grains Research and Development Corporation, La Trobe University, Science and Industry Endowment Fund (SIEF), South Australian Research and Development Institute (SARDI), Tasmanian Land Conservancy, Terrestrial Ecosystem Research Network (TERN), University of Adelaide, University of New South Wales, University of Queensland, University of Tasmania, University of Western Australia, University of Western ...
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