LIFEPLAN soil sampling v1

Lifeplan is a global biodiversity monitoring project with the aim of assessing the current state of biodiversity worldwide, and using this knowledge to generate predictions of how biodiversity might look in the future. In this protocol, we describe the method used within the Lifeplan project for collecting soil samples on a global scale in a wide variety of environmental conditions and habitats. The aim is to use this data to identify species of fungi and create species lists for the different locations across the globe. This protocol contains a detailed description on the materials needed to take soil samples, the steps for preparing the samples for further analysis (e.g. DNA sequencing), as well as necessary information to help in species identification. We identify the equipment used in Lifeplan, but also give technical specifications of that equipment so that other users of this protocol can find equivalent alternative equipment. We also specify which metadata should be collected along with the soil samples. The technical solution we use to collect metadata in the Lifeplan project is described in detail in the full Lifeplan protocol. The expected outcome of this method is soil samples with associated metadata. The soil fungal species identification process in LIFEPLAN is based on metabarcoding and is outside the scope of this protocol. DNA sequencing and species identification will be described elsewhere.