Faculty Opinions recommendation of Multiple elements of soil biodiversity drive ecosystem functions across biomes.

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.

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Impacts of Intensive Land use on Soil Biodiversity and Ecosystem Functions in Central China

10.21203/rs.3.rs-27185/v1 ◽

2020 ◽

Author(s):

QUANCHAO ZENG ◽

Yingze Meitang ◽

Manuel Delgado-Baquerizo ◽

Yonghong Wu ◽

Wenfeng Tan

Keyword(s):

Land Use ◽

Soil Acidification ◽

Natural Vegetation ◽

Central China ◽

Ecosystem Functions ◽

Soil Biodiversity ◽

C Cycle ◽

Citrus Orchards ◽

Soil Bacterial ◽

Bacteria And Fungi

Abstract Background: The impacts of the conversion of natural to agricultural ecosystem on soil biodiversity and ecosystem functions are still disputable. Here, we compared the soil biodiversity (bacteria and fungi) and ecosystem functions of citrus orchards in different stages of succession (5–30 years) with those in adjacent natural ecosystems. Different management strategies were also considered for one of this stage (15 years). Results: The results indicate that changes from natural vegetation land to citrus orchards would lead to reduced soil bacterial diversity, as well as significant declines in multiple ecosystem functions associated with C cycle after 30 years of citrus plantation. However, the functions associated with N and P cycle were enhanced by the plantation. Citrus plantation negatively affected the C cycle by reducing the soil microbial diversity. Reduction in soil bacterial biodiversity was indirectly driven by increased soil acidification resulting from citrus plantation, while wheat straw addition could alleviate the reduction (15-year stage). Compared with natural vegetation, citrus plantation also reduced the relative abundance of multiple phylotypes, including Alphaproteobacteria, Deltaproteobacteria, Subgroup_6, Subgroup_4, Anaerolineae and Bacteroidia. The ecological clusters of soil bacteria and fungi were significantly associated with multiple ecosystem functions, suggesting that citrus planting altered multiple ecosystem functions via ecological clusters. Conclusions: Taken together, our results indicate that soil biodiversity, soil functions and C:N:P coupling are sensitive to the conversion of natural vegetation land to agricultural land, and further suggest that proper management of soil acidification can address some negative impacts of land use conversion on soil biodiversity and functions.

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Suppressed N fixation and diazotrophs after four decades of fertilization

Microbiome ◽

10.1186/s40168-019-0757-8 ◽

2019 ◽

Vol 7 (1) ◽

Cited By ~ 21

Author(s):

Kunkun Fan ◽

Manuel Delgado-Baquerizo ◽

Xisheng Guo ◽

Daozhong Wang ◽

Yanying Wu ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Ecosystem Processes ◽

Ecosystem Functions ◽

N Fixation ◽

Long Term Effects ◽

Organic Fertilization ◽

Soil Biodiversity ◽

Fertilization Experiment ◽

Fundamental Process ◽

Diazotrophic Community

Abstract Background N fixation is one of the most important microbially driven ecosystem processes on Earth, allowing N to enter the soil from the atmosphere, and regulating plant productivity. A question that remains to be answered is whether such a fundamental process would still be that important in an over-fertilized world, as the long-term effects of fertilization on N fixation and associated diazotrophic communities remain to be tested. Here, we used a 35-year fertilization experiment, and investigated the changes in N fixation rates and the diazotrophic community in response to long-term inorganic and organic fertilization. Results It was found that N fixation was drastically reduced (dropped by 50%) after almost four decades of fertilization. Our results further indicated that functionality losses were associated with reductions in the relative abundance of keystone and phylogenetically clustered N fixers such as Geobacter spp. Conclusions Our work suggests that long-term fertilization might have selected against N fixation and specific groups of N fixers. Our study provides solid evidence that N fixation and certain groups of diazotrophic taxa will be largely suppressed in a more and more fertilized world, with implications for soil biodiversity and ecosystem functions.

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Vegetation structure determines the spatial variability of soil biodiversity across biomes

Scientific Reports ◽

10.1038/s41598-020-78483-z ◽

2020 ◽

Vol 10 (1) ◽

Author(s):

Jorge Durán ◽

Manuel Delgado-Baquerizo

Keyword(s):

Spatial Variability ◽

Vegetation Structure ◽

Field Survey ◽

Plant Cover ◽

Ecosystem Functions ◽

Soil Organisms ◽

Soil Biodiversity ◽

Soil Age ◽

Low Levels ◽

Composition Changes

AbstractThe factors controlling the spatial variability of soil biodiversity remain largely undetermined. We conducted a global field survey to evaluate how and why the within-site spatial variability of soil biodiversity (i.e. richness and community composition) changes across global biomes with contrasting soil ages, climates and vegetation types. We found that the spatial variability of bacteria, fungi, protists, and invertebrates is positively correlated across ecosystems. We also show that the spatial variability of soil biodiversity is mainly controlled by changes in vegetation structure driven by soil age and aridity. Areas with high plant cover, but low spatial heterogeneity, were associated with low levels of spatial variability in soil biodiversity. Further, our work advances the existence of significant, undescribed links between the spatial variability of soil biodiversity and key ecosystem functions. Taken together, our findings indicate that reductions in plant cover (e.g., via desertification, increases in aridity, or deforestation), are likely to increase the spatial variability of multiple soil organisms and that such changes are likely to negatively impact ecosystem functioning across global biomes.

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The Selective Effects of Environmental Change on the Functional Diversity of Soil Decomposers

Forests ◽

10.3390/f12121650 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 12 (12) ◽

pp. 1650

Author(s):

Herman A. Verhoef

Keyword(s):

Species Richness ◽

Functional Diversity ◽

Resource Use ◽

Environmental Changes ◽

Ecosystem Functions ◽

Soil Organisms ◽

Soil Biodiversity ◽

Complementary Resource ◽

Low Levels ◽

Facilitative Interactions

Whether decomposition can be affected by the biodiversity of soil organisms is an important question. Biodiversity is commonly expressed through indices that are based on species richness and abundances. Soil processes tend to saturate at low levels of species richness. A component of biodiversity is functional diversity, and we have shown that the absence of the influence of species richness on decomposition switched into a positive relationship between fauna diversity and decomposition when we expressed biodiversity in terms of interspecific functional dissimilarity. Communities with functionally dissimilar species are characterized by complementary resource use and facilitative interactions among species. It is suggested that the effects of environmental changes on ecosystem functions such as decomposition can be better understood if we have more knowledge about the selective effect of these changes on specific facets of soil biodiversity, such as functional diversity.

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Diversity and asynchrony in soil microbial communities stabilizes ecosystem functioning

10.1101/2020.10.02.324012 ◽

2020 ◽

Author(s):

Cameron Wagg ◽

Yann Hautier ◽

Sarah Pellkofer ◽

Samiran Banerjee ◽

Bernhard Schmid ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Microbial Diversity ◽

Microbial Communities ◽

Ecosystem Functioning ◽

Temporal Dynamics ◽

Temporal Stability ◽

Soil Microbial Communities ◽

Ecosystem Functions ◽

Soil Microbial Diversity ◽

Soil Biodiversity ◽

Soil Microbial

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.

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Conventional agriculture and not drought alters relationships between soil biota and functions

Scientific Reports ◽

10.1038/s41598-021-03276-x ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 11 (1) ◽

Author(s):

Klaus Birkhofer ◽

Andreas Fliessbach ◽

María Pilar Gavín-Centol ◽

Katarina Hedlund ◽

María Ingimarsdóttir ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Agricultural Practices ◽

Growing Season ◽

Significant Loss ◽

Climatic Conditions ◽

Soil Biota ◽

Ecosystem Functions ◽

Conventional Farming ◽

Soil Biodiversity ◽

Conventional Agriculture

AbstractSoil biodiversity constitutes the biological pillars of ecosystem services provided by soils worldwide. Soil life is threatened by intense agricultural management and shifts in climatic conditions as two important global change drivers which are not often jointly studied under field conditions. We addressed the effects of experimental short-term drought over the wheat growing season on soil organisms and ecosystem functions under organic and conventional farming in a Swiss long term trial. Our results suggest that activity and community metrics are suitable indicators for drought stress while microbial communities primarily responded to agricultural practices. Importantly, we found a significant loss of multiple pairwise positive and negative relationships between soil biota and process-related variables in response to conventional farming, but not in response to experimental drought. These results suggest a considerable weakening of the contribution of soil biota to ecosystem functions under long-term conventional agriculture. Independent of the farming system, experimental and seasonal (ambient) drought conditions directly affected soil biota and activity. A higher soil water content during early and intermediate stages of the growing season and a high number of significant relationships between soil biota to ecosystem functions suggest that organic farming provides a buffer against drought effects.

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Diversity and asynchrony in soil microbial communities stabilizes ecosystem functioning

eLife ◽

10.7554/elife.62813 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 10 ◽

Author(s):

Cameron Wagg ◽

Yann Hautier ◽

Sarah Pellkofer ◽

Samiran Banerjee ◽

Bernhard Schmid ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Microbial Diversity ◽

Ecosystem Functioning ◽

Temporal Stability ◽

Soil Microbial Communities ◽

Ecosystem Functions ◽

Soil Microbial Diversity ◽

Soil Biodiversity ◽

Soil Microbial ◽

Plant Soil ◽

Soil Mesocosms

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.

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The EXCALIBUR project: novel microbial-based bioproducts improving soil biodiversity and the effectiveness of biocontrol and biofertilization practices in horticulture

10.5194/egusphere-egu2020-11850 ◽

2020 ◽

Author(s):

Stefano Mocali ◽

Loredana Canfora ◽

Flavia Pinzari ◽

Eligio Malusà

Keyword(s):

Management Practices ◽

Cropping Systems ◽

Process Analysis ◽

Integrated Approach ◽

Molecular Techniques ◽

Ecosystem Functions ◽

Soil Biodiversity ◽

The Road ◽

Plant Soil ◽

New Strategy

The H2020 project Excalibur will be presented. It has the ambition of making the road to a biodiversity-driven change in the soil management of crops through the acknowledgement of the important role of soil biodiversity conservation and exploitation. The project applies integrated approach of research, development and field implementation to achieve its goals. Excalibur will deploy the knowledge gained by new molecular techniques, such as genomic sequences characteristics to specific groups of microorganisms and functions, in the creation of tools, indicators and evaluation systems. Co- innovation is fostered by collaboration of researchers with farmers and manufacturers, with a mutual exchange of information and feedback. Project&#8217;s results will bring new insights and practical solutions to stakeholders, validated by process analysis. For this purpose Excalibur plans to: 1) focus on multiscale plant-soil-microbes interactions be to exploit the potential of multifunctional bio-inocula and bio-effectors; 2) optimize the formulation and the application methods of these products based on native soil biodiversity dynamics; 3) develop a strategy to improve the exploitation of soil biodiversity interactions with bio-effectors and bio-inocula by assessing their impacts on crops and biodiversity under contrasting agricultural management practices (conventional, organic) and biotic/abiotic stress conditions; 4) to build a multi-criteria model to assess soil biodiversity status of cropping systems for a more efficient use of bio-effectors and bio-inocula; 5) develop technical tools to monitor the persistence and dispersion of bio-inocula under field conditions for eco-toxicological and agronomical purposes; 6) evaluate the effects of the new strategy on economy, environment quality and ecosystem functions; 7) disseminate results to all stakeholders with a dynamic and comprehensive methodology and encourage the adoption of best practices derived from the new strategy at local, regional and global level.

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How energy crops (Maize, Field grass, Cup Plant) affect soil microarthropods and their decomposition services

10.5194/egusphere-egu2020-6624 ◽

2020 ◽

Author(s):

Pascaline Dioh Lobe ◽

Stefan Schrader

Keyword(s):

Mesh Size ◽

Plant Litter ◽

Energy Crops ◽

Agricultural Landscapes ◽

Ecosystem Functions ◽

Soil Biodiversity ◽

Litter Bags ◽

Soil Microarthropods ◽

Fine Mesh ◽

Maize Field

Energy crops are grown at low cost and low maintenance used in making biofuels, such as bioethanol, or combusted to generate electricity or heat. Production of energy crops as an alternative to fossil fuels will help to reduce CO2 emission, thus leading to large scale changes in agricultural landscapes. Increase in the cultivation of annual energy crops such as maize (Zea mays) is assumed to decrease biodiversity in the agrarian landscape. This may lead to changes in soil properties, thereby affecting the soil biodiversity and its ecosystem functions and services like for instance soil microarthropod communities and their contribution to decomposition of plant litter. Perennial crops such as field grass (a mixture of Festulolium, &#160;Dactylis glomerate, Loliuim perenne, Festuca pratensis and Festuca arundinacea) and cup plant (Silphium perfoliatum) are assumed to protect and promote soil biodiversity through less intensive management. The relationship between decomposer diversity and ecosystem functioning is little understood. So far, the role of soil microarthropods in decomposition is the most disputed aspect due to scarce empirical data.The main aim of this field study was to assess the effect of soil microarthropods on litter of maize, field grass and cup plant, via decomposition using litter bags with 2 different mesh sizes (0.02 mm and 0.5 mm) for a period of 3 months during the vegetation period. At the end of the experiment, the decomposition rate was higher in cup plant followed by maize and field grass in the coarse mesh size, and higher in the cup plant followed by field grass and maize in the fine mesh size. A total of 55,464 soil microarthropods (73% mites, 25% collembola and 2% others) were extracted from the litter bags. The diversity and abundance of soil microarthropods was higher under cup plant cultivation followed by field grass and maize.

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