Herbaria as repositories of past soil properties and historical soil DNA

Abstract

Societal Impact Statement Soil health is fundamental to agriculture, food security, and the sustainable management of terrestrial ecosystems under ongoing climate and land‐use changes. Soil microorganisms play a key role in these processes, yet how soils and their microbial communities have changed over time in response to global environmental change remains poorly understood. The study shows that soils preserved with herbarium crop specimens constitute unique historical archives for tracking past soil conditions and microbial diversity over two centuries. Insights from historical herbarium analyses should inform sustainable agricultural practices promoting soil conservation and microbial biodiversity management, thereby supporting plant health and agroecosystem functioning.

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BibTeX RIS

BibTeX

@article{grasso2026herbaria,
  title = {{Herbaria as repositories of past soil properties and historical soil DNA}},
  author = {Gianluca Grasso and Régis Debruyne and Martino Adamo and Eva Perez Pimparé and Olivier Rué and Naoise Nunan and Valeria Bianciotto and Roland Marmeisse},
  journal = {Plants, People, Planet},
  year = {2026},
  month = oct,
  doi = {10.1002/ppp3.70241},
  url = {https://hal.science/hal-05796964v1},
  note = {CC BY-NC-ND 4.0},
}

RIS

TY  - JOUR
TI  - Herbaria as repositories of past soil properties and historical soil DNA
AU  - Gianluca Grasso
AU  - Régis Debruyne
AU  - Martino Adamo
AU  - Eva Perez Pimparé
AU  - Olivier Rué
AU  - Naoise Nunan
AU  - Valeria Bianciotto
AU  - Roland Marmeisse
PY  - 2026
DA  - 2026/10/12
JO  - Plants, People, Planet
DO  - 10.1002/ppp3.70241
UR  - https://hal.science/hal-05796964v1
AB  - Societal Impact Statement Soil health is fundamental to agriculture, food security, and the sustainable management of terrestrial ecosystems under ongoing climate and land‐use changes. Soil microorganisms play a key role in these processes, yet how soils and their microbial communities have changed over time in response to global environmental change remains poorly understood. The study shows that soils preserved with herbarium crop specimens constitute unique historical archives for tracking past soil conditions and microbial diversity over two centuries. Insights from historical herbarium analyses should inform sustainable agricultural practices promoting soil conservation and microbial biodiversity management, thereby supporting plant health and agroecosystem functioning.
SN  - 2572-2611
ER  -

Abstract

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