News & Insights

In many ecosystems, the community of plants and animals you see changes with the seasons. Grasses grow tall in the summer, hibernating animals disappear during the winter, and some birds migrate in the fall. Similarly, seasonal changes may be seen in the soil microbiome—the community of microscopic organisms (or microbes) that live in the soil. Since these organisms aren’t visible to human eyes, scientists can use metagenomics—the process of sequencing all DNA in a sample—to learn what microbes are in a soil and how they change over time. Since metagenomics is a new technology, scientists are still learning a lot about how the soil microbiome changes throughout the year. However, many different studies have shown that there are changes in microbial communities as seasons pass (1, 2, 3) which may be because of seasonal changes in moisture and nutrient availability (4). 

At Trace Genomics, we use metagenomics alongside our proprietary database and analytical pipeline to provide growers with the highest-quality information possible about their soil biology. With TraceCOMPLETE™, we provide actionable data based on: 1) what microbes are living in the soil (including pathogen load), and 2) what functional role the microbes have (which can inform soil fertility management).

Since December 2020, our expert team of soil microbiologists have been analyzing agricultural soils from the same fields in Iowa, California, and Texas once per month to understand the best time of year to recommend collecting soil samples for biological analysis. Their findings agree with peer-reviewed literature: the soil microbiome changes across seasons. For this reason, it is important for growers to collect samples around the same time each year to get the most value from their data. Collecting multiple samples within a year may be valuable, however they can only be benchmarked against other samples taken during the same season.