2012
DOI: 10.1111/j.1461-0248.2012.01844.x
|View full text |Cite
|
Sign up to set email alerts
|

Abiotic drivers and plant traits explain landscape‐scale patterns in soil microbial communities

Abstract: The controls on aboveground community composition and diversity have been extensively studied, but our understanding of the drivers of belowground microbial communities is relatively lacking, despite their importance for ecosystem functioning. In this study, we fitted statistical models to explain landscape-scale variation in soil microbial community composition using data from 180 sites covering a broad range of grassland types, soil and climatic conditions in England. We found that variation in soil microbia… Show more

Help me understand this report

Search citation statements

Order By: Relevance

Paper Sections

Select...
3
1
1

Citation Types

24
552
9
3

Year Published

2015
2015
2020
2020

Publication Types

Select...
9

Relationship

2
7

Authors

Journals

citations
Cited by 554 publications
(588 citation statements)
references
References 49 publications
24
552
9
3
Order By: Relevance
“…For instance, if important traits are constant within species, it could be possible to build trait databases for species and then predict ecosystem services by knowing which species are present, using previously recorded trait data (Box 2). To meet similar data needs in the broader field of ecology, advances have been facilitated by large-scale, coordinated collection and aggregation of trait data [69][70][71][72]. Ecologists working in agroecosystems should also establish a universally accessible agricultural trait database for all species in agroecosystems, across taxa, farm management, and environmental conditions.…”
Section: Resultsmentioning
confidence: 99%
“…For instance, if important traits are constant within species, it could be possible to build trait databases for species and then predict ecosystem services by knowing which species are present, using previously recorded trait data (Box 2). To meet similar data needs in the broader field of ecology, advances have been facilitated by large-scale, coordinated collection and aggregation of trait data [69][70][71][72]. Ecologists working in agroecosystems should also establish a universally accessible agricultural trait database for all species in agroecosystems, across taxa, farm management, and environmental conditions.…”
Section: Resultsmentioning
confidence: 99%
“…This was unexpected because fungi are widely regarded as drought‐tolerant (Harris, 1981; Schimel et al., 2007) and previous studies have reported high resistance of soil fungi to drought treatments (De Vries et al., 2012a; Fuchslueger, Bahn, Fritz, Hasibeder, & Richter, 2014; Yuste et al., 2011). We propose two possible explanations for this apparent discrepancy: Changes in the abundances of fungal taxa may be more important and more readily apparent in grasslands such as Buxton, because fungal decomposers are more important in systems with low soil fertility and slow‐growing perennial plant species (De Vries et al., 2012b). Conversely, many of the studies reporting high resistance of soil fungi to drought were conducted in productive grasslands with bacteria‐dominated soil food webs (e.g.…”
Section: Discussionmentioning
confidence: 99%
“…Conversely, many of the studies reporting high resistance of soil fungi to drought were conducted in productive grasslands with bacteria‐dominated soil food webs (e.g. De Vries et al., 2012a,b; Fuchslueger et al., 2014). …”
Section: Discussionmentioning
confidence: 99%
“…Greater CWM SLA decreased the microbial C : N ratio, apparently alleviating microbial N limitation and potentially indicating a shift towards more bacterial‐dominated microbial communities, which are characterized by a lower C : N ratio than fungal‐dominated communities (Van Veen & Paul, 1979; Bloem et al ., 1997). This link between exploitative plant traits and C‐limited, bacterial‐dominated microbial communities supports similar findings from field observations (Orwin et al ., 2010; De Vries et al ., 2012b; Grigulis et al ., 2013). These linkages between plant traits and microbial communities are often attributed to the quality and quantity of plant litter inputs (Bardgett & Wardle, 2010), but the duration of our experiment was too short to allow for significant litter inputs.…”
Section: Discussionmentioning
confidence: 99%