Soil microbiome sampling

The metagenomic revolution enabled environmental microbial biodiversity studies which for the past 20 years, have sampled multiple local and large scale regions (e.g. France microbiome, Earth Microbiome). These studies indicated that microbes are omnipresent and impact global ecosystem processes through their abundance, versatility and biotic interactions (i.e. interactomes). Additionally, microbes influence the major nutrient cycles and ecosystem functions, such as plant and animal productivity. Changes in the structure of microbial communities can be indicative of ecosystem tipping points e.g aridification.

Island sampling day and replicability

The Island Sampling Day draws inspiration from the Ocean Sampling Day that is a consortium that facilitates yearly samplings in stations from all around the world. This has great applications in monitoring and comprehending the complexity of the ocean microbiome and it’s drivers.

The Island Sampling Day has been organised in two islands, Moorea in the French Polynisia and Crete in Greece.

Standards, metadata and curation

These samplings are focused on standards and metadate to demonstrate their value in future samplings of the microbiome community.