Development of DNA metabarcoding tools for soil fauna

Characterization of the huge soil faunal diversity still relies heavily on the slow and expert-dependent morphological identification. This hampers our ecological understanding of spatial and temporal diversity of many faunal groups, as screening many samples at high taxonomic detail is not a realistic proposition. DNA-based approaches, such as high-throughput DNA metabarcoding, potentially solve this issue. Within the EU FP7 project EcoFINDERS, a large effort has been spent to develop such tools.. Here, I will show results of direct comparisons between different strategies: conventional morphological identification, as well as DNA metabarcoding based on either animals that were removed from the soil or direct soil DNA extracts. Furthermore, I will show some examples of how these tools can be applied to advance our ecological understanding of soil food webs and dispersal patterns.