Summary Despite their role in soil functioning, the ecology of nitrite‐oxidizing bacteria, NOB, and their response to disturbances such as those generated by agricultural practices are scarcely known. Over the course of 17 months, we surveyed the potential nitrite oxidation, PNO, the abundance of the Nitrobacter ‐ and Nitrospira ‐like NOB (by quantitative PCR) and the community structure of the Nitrobacter ‐like NOB (by PCR‐DG...

Predicting biodiversity effects on ecosystem functioning requires adequate evaluation of the mechanisms explaining why more diverse systems could perform better than less diverse ones. In this context, tackling functional diversity has become an important issue. Even though the aggregation of species into functional groups supposes niche differences among groups, the concept of niche has not been fully exploited in the context...