Contribution of soil algae to the global carbon cycle

Jassey, Vincent E. J.; Walcker, Romain; Kardol, Paul; Geisen, Stefan; Heger, Thierry J.; Lamentowicz, Mariusz; Hamard, Samuel; Lara, Enrique

doi:10.1111/nph.17950

Cited by 64 publications

(42 citation statements)

References 74 publications

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“…While these photosynthetic microbes have key ecological and biogeochemical roles [ 10 – 13 ], they are thought to make a minor contribution to terrestrial primary productivity, compared to plants (but see refs. [ 14 , 15 ]).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Emerging evidence has shown that photosynthetic microbes occur in a variety of terrestrial habitats, including sub-surface soils [ 15 – 17 ], exposed rocks [ 18 ], and bryophytes [ 19 ]. They encompass myriads of life forms and styles, with Cyanobacteria and Chlorophyta being the most commonly reported phyla in DNA-based global diversity surveys [ 2 , 20 ].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Photosynthetic microorganisms effectively contribute to bryophyte CO2 fixation in boreal and tropical regions

Jassey

Hamard

Lepère

et al. 2022

ISME Communications

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Photosynthetic microbes are omnipresent in land and water. While they critically influence primary productivity in aquatic systems, their importance in terrestrial ecosystems remains largely overlooked. In terrestrial systems, photoautotrophs occur in a variety of habitats, such as sub-surface soils, exposed rocks, and bryophytes. Here, we study photosynthetic microbial communities associated with bryophytes from a boreal peatland and a tropical rainforest. We interrogate their contribution to bryophyte C uptake and identify the main drivers of that contribution. We found that photosynthetic microbes take up twice more C in the boreal peatland (~4.4 mg CO2.h−1.m−2) than in the tropical rainforest (~2.4 mg CO2.h−1.m−2), which corresponded to an average contribution of 4% and 2% of the bryophyte C uptake, respectively. Our findings revealed that such patterns were driven by the proportion of photosynthetic protists in the moss microbiomes. Low moss water content and light conditions were not favourable to the development of photosynthetic protists in the tropical rainforest, which indirectly reduced the overall photosynthetic microbial C uptake. Our investigations clearly show that photosynthetic microbes associated with bryophyte effectively contribute to moss C uptake despite species turnover. Terrestrial photosynthetic microbes clearly have the capacity to take up atmospheric C in bryophytes living under various environmental conditions, and therefore potentially support rates of ecosystem-level net C exchanges with the atmosphere.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Photosynthetic microorganisms effectively contribute to bryophyte CO2 fixation in boreal and tropical regions

Jassey

Hamard

Lepère

et al. 2022

ISME Communications

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“…Sargassum and other biomass-rich species in the oceans has been entertained-again not without polemic-for capturing large amounts of atmospheric CO 2 [42] avoiding the problem of land occupation and forest fires. 3 In either case, the potential of plants and algae (including soil-bound types [43]) could be further increased by engineering specific species for a superior CO 2 fixation job [44]. Possibilities include not just enhancing the efficacy of the utterly suboptimal RuBisCo [33,45,46], but also by increasing the electron flow through the Calvin Cycle [47], improving CO 2 internment [48,49], interfacing biological and abiotic systems [50], engineering overproduction of lignocellulosic materials, suberin and other recalcitrant polymers, e.g.…”

Section: The Players Of Global Carbon Balancementioning

confidence: 99%

Environmental Galenics: large-scale fortification of extant microbiomes with engineered bioremediation agents

de Lorenzo

2022

Phil. Trans. R. Soc. B

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Contemporary synthetic biology-based biotechnologies are generating tools and strategies for reprogramming genomes for specific purposes, including improvement and/or creation of microbial processes for tackling climate change. While such activities typically work well at a laboratory or bioreactor scale, the challenge of their extensive delivery to multiple spatio-temporal dimensions has hardly been tackled thus far. This state of affairs creates a research niche for what could be called Environmental Galenics (EG), i.e. the science and technology of releasing designed biological agents into deteriorated ecosystems for the sake of their safe and effective recovery. Such endeavour asks not just for an optimal performance of the biological activity at stake, but also the material form and formulation of the agents, their propagation and their interplay with the physico-chemical scenario where they are expected to perform. EG also encompasses adopting available physical carriers of microorganisms and channels of horizontal gene transfer as potential paths for spreading beneficial activities through environmental microbiomes. While some of these propositions may sound unsettling to anti-genetically modified organisms sensitivities, they may also fall under the tag of TINA (there is no alternative) technologies in the cases where a mere reduction of emissions will not help the revitalization of irreversibly lost ecosystems. This article is part of the theme issue ‘Ecological complexity and the biosphere: the next 30 years’.

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“…Indeed, changes in landscape structure are likely to modify assembly processes, thereby impacting the composition, functionality and resilience of soil protist communities (Saleem et al, 2019). As soil protists are key players in soil food webs (Xiong et al, 2018), these changes can potentially have a cascading impact on ecosystem functioning and services such as fertility as well as carbon sequestration and storage (Jassey et al, 2022). It is thus likely that the ongoing agricultural abandonment and urbanisation in the Alps (Vannier et al, 2016) will lead to local and regional decreases in protist diversity in meadow soils with potentially important consequences for the functioning of these ecosystems.…”

Section: Landscape Structure Modulates the Rate Of Distance-decay In ...mentioning

confidence: 99%

Landscape structure is a key driver of protist diversity along elevation gradients in the Swiss Alps

Seppey

Lara

Broennimann

et al. 2022

Preprint

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ContextHuman-induced changes in landscape structure are among the main causes of biodiversity loss. However, despite their important contribution to biodiversity and ecosystem functioning, microbes – and particularly protists – remain spatially understudied. Furthermore, soil microbiota are most often related to the local soil properties, whereas the influence of the surrounding landscape is rarely assessed, calling for microbial landscape ecology studies.ObjectivesHere, we assessed for the first time the effect of changes in landscape composition and configuration on soil protist diversity in meadows in the Swiss western Alps.MethodsWe sampled 178 plots along an elevation gradient representing a broad range of climatic, edaphic, and land use conditions, and measured landscape structures in several neighbourhood windows of increasing size.ResultsOur results showed that landscape structures between 500 m and 2000 m around plot centres better predicted microbial diversity than local edaphic and climatic descriptors, with the percentage cover of open habitat and meadows and, to a lesser extent, edge density being the most important descriptors. The patch level descriptors explained the least amount of variation in protist diversity, what is in contradiction with macro-organims where patch size and shape strongly impact the population dynamics. This study also highlights different responses of protist functional groups to changes in landscape structure.ConclusionsOur results importantly show the significance of landscape structure for microbial diversity and the potentially negative consequences of land use change on soil microbial communities and their associated functions.

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Contribution of soil algae to the global carbon cycle

Cited by 64 publications

References 74 publications

Photosynthetic microorganisms effectively contribute to bryophyte CO2 fixation in boreal and tropical regions

Photosynthetic microorganisms effectively contribute to bryophyte CO2 fixation in boreal and tropical regions

Environmental Galenics: large-scale fortification of extant microbiomes with engineered bioremediation agents

Landscape structure is a key driver of protist diversity along elevation gradients in the Swiss Alps

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