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Interactions between microbial diversity and substrate chemistry determine the fate of carbon in soil.

ABSTRACT: Microbial decomposition drives the transformation of plant-derived substrates into microbial products that form stable soil organic matter (SOM). Recent theories have posited that decomposition depends on an interaction between SOM chemistry with microbial diversity and resulting function (e.g., enzymatic capabilities, growth rates). Here, we explicitly test these theories by coupling quantitative stable isotope probing and metabolomics to track the fate of ¹³C enriched substrates that vary in chemical composition as they are assimilated by microbes and transformed into new metabolic products in soil. We found that differences in forest nutrient economies (e.g., nutrient cycling, microbial competition) led to arbuscular mycorrhizal (AM) soils harboring greater diversity of fungi and bacteria than ectomycorrhizal (ECM) soils. When incubated with ¹³C enriched substrates, substrate type drove shifts in which species were active decomposers and the abundance of metabolic products that were reduced or saturated in the highly diverse AM soils. The decomposition pathways were more static in the less diverse, ECM soil. Importantly, the majority of these shifts were driven by taxa only present in the AM soil suggesting a strong link between microbial identity and their ability to decompose and assimilate substrates. Collectively, these results highlight an important interaction between ecosystem-level processes and microbial diversity; whereby the identity and function of active decomposers impacts the composition of decomposition products that can form stable SOM.

SUBMITTER: Raczka NC

PROVIDER: S-EPMC8481224 | biostudies-literature |

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

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Project description:Mathematical models do not explicitly represent the influence of soil microbial diversity on soil organic carbon (SOC) dynamics despite recent evidence of relationships between them. The objective of the present study was to statistically investigate relationships between bacterial and fungal diversity indexes (richness, evenness, Shannon index, inverse Simpson index) and decomposition of different pools of soil organic carbon by measuring dynamics of CO2 emissions under controlled conditions. To this end, 20 soils from two different land uses (cropland and grassland) were incubated with or without incorporation of 13C-labelled wheat-straw residue. 13C-labelling allowed us to study residue mineralisation, basal respiration and the priming effect independently. An innovative data-mining approach was applied, based on generalized additive models and a predictive criterion. Results showed that microbial diversity indexes can be good covariates to integrate in SOC dynamics models, depending on the C source and the processes considered (native soil organic carbon vs. fresh wheat residue). Specifically, microbial diversity indexes were good candidates to help explain mineralisation of native soil organic carbon, while priming effect processes seemed to be explained much more by microbial composition, and no microbial diversity indexes were found associated with residue mineralisation. Investigation of relationships between diversity and mineralisation showed that higher diversity, as measured by the microbial diversity indexes, seemed to be related to decreased CO2 emissions in the control soil. We suggest that this relationship can be explained by an increase in carbon yield assimilation as microbial diversity increases. Thus, the parameter for carbon yield assimilation in mathematical models could be calculated as a function of microbial diversity indexes. Nonetheless, given limitations of the methods used, these observations should be considered with caution and confirmed with more experimental studies. Overall, along with other studies on relationships between microbial community composition and SOM dynamics, this study suggests that overall measures of microbial diversity may constitute relevant ways to include microbial diversity in models of SOM dynamics.

Project description:Returning crop residues is a possible practice for balancing soil carbon (C) loss. The turnover rate of organic C from crop residues to soil C is dependent on soil microbial community dynamics. However, the relationship between any temporal changes in the soil microbial community after crop straw inputs and the dynamics of straw-C distribution in the soil organic carbon (SOC) pool remains unclear. The present study investigated the allocation of straw-C into soil dissolved organic carbon (DOC), microbial biomass carbon (MBC), particulate organic carbon (POC) and mineral-associated organic carbon (MaOC) using stable isotope probing, as well as the temporal changes in the soil bacterial and fungal communities using high-throughput sequencing. After the first 180 days of straw decomposition, approximately 3.93% and 19.82% of straw-C was transformed into soil MaOC and POC, respectively, while 0.02% and 2.25% of straw-C was transformed into soil DOC and MBC, respectively. The temporal change of the soil microbial community was positively correlated with the dynamics of straw-C distribution to SOC (R > 0.5, P < 0.05). The copiotrophic bacteria (e.g., Streptomyces, Massilia and Sphingobacterium), cellulolytic bacteria and fungi (e.g., Dyella and Fusarium, Talaromyces), acidophilic bacteria (e.g., Edaphobacter and unclassified Acidobacteriaceae), denitrifying and N-fixing microbes (e.g., Burkholderia-Paraburkholderia, Paraphaeosphaeria and Bradyrhizobium), and fungi unclassified Sordariomycetes were significantly correlated with straw-C distribution to specific SOC fractions (P < 0.05), which explained more than 90% of the variation of straw-C allocation into soils. Copiotrophic, certain cellulolytic and denitrifying microbes had positively correlated with DOC- and MaOC-derived from straw, and other cellulolytic fungi (e.g., Talaromyces) and specific bacteria (e.g. Bradyrhizobium) were positively correlated with POC-derived from straw. Our results highlight that the temporal change of soil microbial community structure well reflects the conversion and distribution process of straw-C to SOC fractions.

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Interactions between microbial diversity and substrate chemistry determine the fate of carbon in soil.

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