scholarly journals Linking Bacterial-Fungal Relationships to Microbial Diversity and Soil Nutrient Cycling

mSystems ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 6 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Shuo Jiao ◽  
Ziheng Peng ◽  
Jiejun Qi ◽  
Jiamin Gao ◽  
Gehong Wei

ABSTRACT Biodiversity is important for supporting ecosystem functioning. To evaluate the factors contributing to the strength of microbial diversity-function relationships in complex terrestrial ecosystems, we conducted a soil survey over different habitats, including an agricultural field, forest, wetland, grassland, and desert. Soil microbial multidiversity was estimated by the combination of bacterial and fungal diversity. Soil ecosystem functions were evaluated using a multinutrient cycling index (MNC) in relation to carbon, nitrate, phosphorus, and potassium cycling. Significant positive relationships between soil multidiversity and multinutrient cycling were observed in all habitats, except the grassland and desert. Specifically, community compositions showed stronger correlations with multinutrient cycling than α-diversity, indicating the crucial role of microbial community composition differences on soil nutrient cycling. Importantly, we revealed that changes in both the neutral processes (Sloan neutral modeling) and the proportion of negative bacterial-fungal associations were linked to the magnitude and direction of the diversity-MNC relationships. The habitats less governed by neutral processes and dominated by negative bacterial-fungal associations exhibited stronger negative microbial α-diversity–MNC relationships. Our findings suggested that the balance between positive and negative bacterial-fungal associations was connected to the link between soil biodiversity and ecosystem function in complex terrestrial ecosystems. This study elucidates the potential factors influencing diversity-function relationships, thereby enabling future studies to forecast the effects of belowground biodiversity on ecosystem function. IMPORTANCE The relationships between soil biodiversity and ecosystem functions are an important yet poorly understood topic in microbial ecology. This study presents an exploratory effort to gain predictive understanding of the factors driving the relationships between microbial diversity and potential soil nutrient cycling in complex terrestrial ecosystems. Our structural equation modeling and random forest analysis revealed that the balance between positive and negative bacterial-fungal associations was clearly linked to the strength of the relationships between soil microbial diversity and multiple nutrients cycling across different habitats. This study revealed the potential factors underpinning diversity-function relationships in terrestrial ecosystems and thus helps us to manage soil microbial communities for better provisioning of key ecosystem services.

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Felipe Bastida ◽  
David J. Eldridge ◽  
Carlos García ◽  
G. Kenny Png ◽  
Richard D. Bardgett ◽  
...  

AbstractThe relationship between biodiversity and biomass has been a long standing debate in ecology. Soil biodiversity and biomass are essential drivers of ecosystem functions. However, unlike plant communities, little is known about how the diversity and biomass of soil microbial communities are interlinked across globally distributed biomes, and how variations in this relationship influence ecosystem function. To fill this knowledge gap, we conducted a field survey across global biomes, with contrasting vegetation and climate types. We show that soil carbon (C) content is associated to the microbial diversity–biomass relationship and ratio in soils across global biomes. This ratio provides an integrative index to identify those locations on Earth wherein diversity is much higher compared with biomass and vice versa. The soil microbial diversity-to-biomass ratio peaks in arid environments with low C content, and is very low in C-rich cold environments. Our study further advances that the reductions in soil C content associated with land use intensification and climate change could cause dramatic shifts in the microbial diversity-biomass ratio, with potential consequences for broad soil processes.


PeerJ ◽  
2022 ◽  
Vol 10 ◽  
pp. e12753
Author(s):  
Ahmad Yusuf Abubakar ◽  
Muhammed Mustapha Ibrahim ◽  
Caifang Zhang ◽  
Muhammad Tayyab ◽  
Nyumah Fallah ◽  
...  

Background Exploring high-quality organic amendments has been a focus of sustainable agriculture. Filtered mud (FM), a sugar factory waste derived from sugarcane stems, could be an alternative organic amendment for sugarcane production. However, the effects of its application proportions on soil fertility, nutrient cycling, structure of soil bacterial and fungal communities, and the growth of sugarcane in clay-loam soils remain unexplored. Methods Three application proportions of FM: (FM1-(FM: Soil at 1:4), FM2-(FM: Soil at 2:3), and FM3-(FM: Soil at 3:2)) were evaluated on sugarcane growth and soil nutrient cycling. High throughput sequencing was also employed to explore soil microbial dynamics. Results We observed that FM generally increased the soil’s nutritional properties while improving NO3− retention compared to the control, resulting in increased growth parameters of sugarcane. Specifically, FM1 increased the concentration of NH4+−N, the N fraction preferably taken up by sugarcane, which was associated with an increase in the plant height, and more improved growth properties, among other treatments. An increase in the proportion of FM also increased the activity of soil nutrient cycling enzymes; urease, phosphatase, and β-glucosidase. High throughput sequencing revealed that FM reduced the diversity of soil bacteria while having insignificant effects on fungal diversity. Although increasing FM rates reduced the relative abundance of the phyla Proteobacteria, its class members, the Gammaproteobacteria and Betaproteobacteria containing some N-cycling related genera, were stimulated. Also, FM stimulated the abundance of beneficial and lignocellulose degrading organisms. These included the bacterial phyla Actinobacteria, Bacteroidetes, Acidobacteria, Chloroflexi, and the fungal phylum Ascomycota. The distribution of the soil microbial community under FM rates was regulated by the changes in soil pH and the availability of soil nutrients. Since FM1 showed more promise in improving the growth properties of sugarcane, it could be more economical and sustainable for sugarcane production in clay-loam soils.


2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Cameron Wagg ◽  
Yann Hautier ◽  
Sarah Pellkofer ◽  
Samiran Banerjee ◽  
Bernhard Schmid ◽  
...  

AbstractTheoretical and empirical advances have revealed the importance of biodiversity for stabilizing ecosystem functions through time. Yet despite the global degradation of soils, how the loss of soil microbial diversity can de-stabilizes ecosystem functioning is unknown. Here we experimentally quantified the contribution diversity and the temporal dynamics in the composition of soil microbial communities to the temporal stability of four key ecosystem functions related to nutrient and carbon cycling. Soil microbial diversity loss reduced the temporal stability of all ecosystem functions and was particularly strong when over 50% of microbial taxa were lost. The stabilizing effect of soil biodiversity was linked to asynchrony among microbial taxa whereby different soil fungi and bacteria were associated with different ecosystem functions at different times. Our results emphasize the need to conserve soil biodiversity in order to ensure the reliable provisioning of multiple ecosystems functions that soils provide to society.


eLife ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 10 ◽  
Author(s):  
Cameron Wagg ◽  
Yann Hautier ◽  
Sarah Pellkofer ◽  
Samiran Banerjee ◽  
Bernhard Schmid ◽  
...  

Theoretical and empirical advances have revealed the importance of biodiversity for stabilizing ecosystem functions through time. Despite the global degradation of soils, whether the loss of soil microbial diversity can destabilize ecosystem functioning is poorly understood. Here, we experimentally quantified the contribution of soil fungal and bacterial communities to the temporal stability of four key ecosystem functions related to biogeochemical cycling. Microbial diversity enhanced the temporal stability of all ecosystem functions and this pattern was particularly strong in plant-soil mesocosms with reduced microbial richness where over 50% of microbial taxa were lost. The stabilizing effect of soil biodiversity was linked to asynchrony among microbial taxa whereby different soil fungi and bacteria promoted different ecosystem functions at different times. Our results emphasize the need to conserve soil biodiversity for the provisioning of multiple ecosystem functions that soils provide to the society.


Biochar ◽  
2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Zhongmin Dai ◽  
Xinquan Xiong ◽  
Hang Zhu ◽  
Haojie Xu ◽  
Peng Leng ◽  
...  

AbstractSoil microorganisms play crucial roles in soil nutrient cycling, carbon sequestration, fertility maintenance and crop health and production. To date, the responses of microorganisms, such as microbial activity, diversity, community structure and nutrient cycling processes, to biochar addition have been widely reported. However, the relationships between soil microbial groups (bacteria, fungi and microscopic fauna) and biochar physicochemical properties have not been summarized. In this review, we conclude that biochar affects soil microbial growth, diversity and community compositions by directly providing growth promoters for soil biota or indirectly changing soil basic properties. The porous structure, labile C, high pH and electrochemical properties of biochar play an important role in determining soil microbial abundance and communities, and their mediated N and P cycling processes, while the effects and underlying mechanisms vary with biochar types that are affected by pyrolysis temperature and feedstock type. Finally, we highlight some issues related to research methodology and subjects that are still poorly understood or controversial, and the perspectives for further research in microbial responses to biochar addition.


2021 ◽  
Vol 9 (7) ◽  
pp. 1400
Author(s):  
Marta Bertola ◽  
Andrea Ferrarini ◽  
Giovanna Visioli

Soil is one of the key elements for supporting life on Earth. It delivers multiple ecosystem services, which are provided by soil processes and functions performed by soil biodiversity. In particular, soil microbiome is one of the fundamental components in the sustainment of plant biomass production and plant health. Both targeted and untargeted management of soil microbial communities appear to be promising in the sustainable improvement of food crop yield, its nutritional quality and safety. –Omics approaches, which allow the assessment of microbial phylogenetic diversity and functional information, have increasingly been used in recent years to study changes in soil microbial diversity caused by agronomic practices and environmental factors. The application of these high-throughput technologies to the study of soil microbial diversity, plant health and the quality of derived raw materials will help strengthen the link between soil well-being, food quality, food safety and human health.


2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Douglas Landblom ◽  
Songul Senturklu

<p>Beef cattle grazing, soil microbial respiration, and Rhizobia spp. populations serve important roles in soil nutrient cycling and during periods of drought, when abnormal precipitation declines, forage production for animal grazing and performance are negatively impacted. Soil nutrient availability is essential for adequate crop production and extended drought reduces soil microbial activity and therefore nutrient cycling. During the 2017 growing season between April and October in the northern Great Plains region of the USA, effective precipitation for crop production and animal grazing was severely reduced due an exceptional drought as classified by the US Drought Monitor. At the NDSU – Dickinson Research Extension Center, Dickinson, North Dakota, USA, a long-term integrated system that includes yearling steer grazing within a diverse multi-crop rotation (spring wheat, cover crop, corn, pea-barley intercrop, and sunflower). Within the rotation of cash and forage crops, beef cattle graze the pea-barley, corn, and cover crop (13-specie) within the rotation and is being utilized to monitor the effects of animal, microbial and fungal activity over time and space in the crop and animal production system. Nitrogen fertilizer has been replaced in the system by soil microbial and fungal activity (Potential Mineralizable Nitrogen: 8.4 mg N/kg) such that for each 1% increase in SOM there is a corresponding increase of 18.8 kg of potential nitrogen mineralized per ha. Animal grazing days are severely reduced when precipitation is inadequate for soil microbial respiration to occur. What is even more concerning, when relying on microbial activity to supply plant nutrients, is recovery time for microbial activity to fully recover from exceptional drought as was the case in this research project. Compared to the 2016 crop production year that preceded the 2017 drought, cover crop (13-specie), pea-barley, and corn yields were reduced 86, 33, and 64% during the 2017 drought. This decline in crop production reduced the number of days of grazing by an average 50% and average daily gains were also reduced. Steer average daily gains were 1.05 0.95, and 0.83 kg/steer/day in 2017 when grazing pea-barley, corn, and cover crop, respectively. For this research that relies on soil derived plant nutrients soil analysis for microbial and Rhizobia spp. biomass began recovery in 2018 and continued into 2019 as evidenced by large percentage increases in organism biomass; however, complete production recovery did not occur by the end of the 2019 grazing season in which days of grazing were reduced compared to the 2016 grazing season. Biological animal, crop, microbial, fungal, and nutrient replacement recovery will be presented in the poster.</p>


Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document