Summary
Why do we monitor soil condition?
Soils host biodiversity that underpin key ecosystem functions such as decomposition, nutrient cycling and soil formation. These processes are fundamental indicators of soil condition, and changes in soil biodiversity can signal declines in woodland health. Assessing soil fungi and invertebrates is therefore essential to evaluating woodland condition, yet traditional monitoring approaches are constrained by soil heterogeneity and taxonomic challenges.
Survey approach
Environmental DNA (eDNA) metabarcoding is an increasingly used, non-invasive approach that enables detection of multiple taxa from soil samples by analysing genetic material shed into the environment (e.g. spores, eggs, faeces, mucus) (Jabot et al., 2025). Advances in established barcode databases have improved its effectiveness for groups such as fungi, nematodes and arthropods. Soil eDNA metabarcoding represents a viable and scalable option for large-scale woodland ecological condition assessments, such as those conducted under the National Forest Inventory (NFI) and other national monitoring schemes.
What can be learned?
This project integrated soil eDNA metabarcoding into the NFI monitoring framework to establish baselines of species presence, and community composition. Combined with NFI metadata, these data will reveal spatial patterns and trends in biodiversity and woodland condition. This evidence can be used to inform policy and decision making in support of biodiversity and ecological resilience of forest ecosystems at national and regional scales.
Research Objectives
eDNA metabarcoding offers a scalable, non-invasive approach to assess soil biodiversity through monitoring of fungi and invertebrates.
This project aimed to integrate eDNA metabarcoding into the National Forest Inventory monitoring scheme as:
- a tool for routine monitoring of soil biodiversity and
- a measure of woodland ecological condition
This was achieved through:
- conducting large-scale sampling of sub-surface (0-10cm) woodland soil biodiversity (i.e. soil fungi and invertebrates) to identify species making up soil communities.
- obtaining NFI data and easy-to-capture metadata for a range of variables (e.g. woodland type, stand structure & composition, management practice) to consider alongside soil fungal and invertebrate community data.
Evaluation of this data will reveal spatial patterns and trends in soil biodiversity and woodland conditions across England.
Future work: Investigate the potential of integrating this dataset with wider NCEA NFI+ and concurrent NFI survey data to create a powerful spatio‑temporal resource spanning multiple above‑ and below‑ground taxa, including the Environmental Improvement Plan (EIP) and Red List species (e.g. all UK bat species). This integration could unlock new insights into how woodland structure shapes biodiversity across woodland types and landscapes, helping to drive more targeted, evidence‑led forest management to support biodiversity recovery.
Latest Update
We recently published our year 1 (2023-24) analysis ready data (ARD) for Soil chemistry and Fungi and Invertebrate communities in December 2025. Further releases are planned for later this year so watch this space.
Analysis Ready Data – Soil chemistry Analysis Ready Data – Fungi and Invertebrate communities
We are also developing an interactive dashboard which will be launched later this year. The dashboard will enable users to explore the data, displaying the approximate sampling locations, detected species and key information about each site and its associated samples.
Funding & Partners
- Funded by the UK Government through Defra’s Natural Capital and Ecosystem Assessment programme (NCEA)
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