Microbial drought resistance may destabilize soil carbon

Allison, Steven D.

doi:10.1016/j.tim.2023.03.002

Cited by 22 publications

(15 citation statements)

References 57 publications

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“…Moreover, the microbial community showed a fast recovery after drought ended. These empirical results are extremely important, as data from drought field studies is largely unavailable and sustained microbial activity during drought and recovery conditions could have large effects on soil carbon storage ( 18 , 49 ). Finally, in contrast to our hypothesis future climate conditions neither buffered nor enforced drought and recovery effects on the microbial community level growth.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Drought can have negative impacts on the soil carbon balance ( 16 ), especially if soil microorganisms can maintain higher respiration activity compared to primary productivity ( 18 , 49 ). Moreover, the increase in respiration and growth following rewetting of dry soils (‘Birch effect’; ( 70 )) can lead to a decoupling of microbial anabolic and catabolic processes, and more C being used for respiration ( 43 ).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Soil fungi remain active and invest in storage compounds during drought independent of future climate conditions

Canarini,

Fuchslueger,

Schnecker

et al. 2023

Preprint

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Microbial growth is central to soil carbon cycling. However, how microbial communities grow under climate change is still largely unexplored. In an experiment simulating future climate conditions (increased atmospheric CO2 and temperature) and drought, we traced 2H or 18O applied via water-vapor exchange into fatty acids or DNA, respectively, allowing to measure community- and group-level adjustments in soil microbial physiology (replication, storage product synthesis, and carbon use efficiency, CUE). We show, that while overall community-level growth decreased by half during drought, fungal growth remained stable demonstrating an astonishing resistance of fungal activity against soil moisture changes. In addition, fungal investment into storage triglycerides increased more than five-fold under drought. CUE (the balance between anabolism and catabolism) was unaffected by drought but decreased in future climate conditions. Our results highlight that accounting for different growth strategies can foster our understanding of soil microbial contribution to C cycling and feedback to climate change.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Soil fungi remain active and invest in storage compounds during drought independent of future climate conditions

Canarini,

Fuchslueger,

Schnecker

et al. 2023

Preprint

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“…The dead microorganisms, as organic matter that can be directly utilized by living organisms, will be decomposed and mineralized by the surviving microorganisms to produce CO 2 (Wang et al, 2023). ( 2) Different conditions (drought stress, water stress, and drying-wetting cycles) benefit different types of fungi/bacteria due based on their tolerances to particular environmental stresses (Figure 7; Allison, 2023).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…This process increases the contact between soil organic matter and soil microorganisms, which ultimately leads to accelerated decomposition and mineralization of soil organic matter. During wet-dry cycles, some soil microorganisms can resist water stress by using thicker cell walls or self-synthesized osmotic adjustment substances (Allison, 2023;Ghanbarzadeh et al, 2020). Soil microorganisms that cannot resist the effects of water stress enter dormant states, form spores, or die (Gadikota, 2021;Nijs et al, 2019).…”

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confidence: 99%

Changes in the biological “regulators” of organic carbon mineralization in silted soils of check dams as a result of wet‐dry cycles

Liu,

Zhang,

et al. 2023

Land Degrad Dev

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Climate change is increasing the frequency of prolonged droughts and extreme rainfall events, with implications for ecosystem carbon (C) cycling and efforts to mitigate climate change. Exploring how wet and dry cycling events affect microbially mediated soil organic carbon (SOC) mineralization processes is critical for achieving global C neutrality targets. This study examines how drought, water stress, and wet‐dry cycles influence microorganisms and the SOC mineralization process. We found that wet‐dry cycles initially excited mineralization of SOC, but that soil mineralization gradually decreased as wet‐dry cycling continued. At the same time, the utilization of C sources by different microbial communities tended to change, from primarily carbohydrate, amines and acids to a single acid, esters, or alcohols. The limiting factors for SOC mineralization also varied when soils were exposed to drought, water stress, and wet‐dry cycles, and we quantified the direct and interactive contributions of each factor to SOC mineralization. The direct effects of the factors under drought and water stress were 0.70 and 0.74, while the interaction of the elements was only 0.29 and 0.24. The direct effects of the factors were only 0.30 under wet‐dry cycling conditions. Based on the results of this study, we propose a pathway for soil biological regulation of SOC mineralization during drought, water stress and wet‐dry cycles, in order to further clarify the microbial regulation mechanism related to SOC mineralization.

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“…decreasing nitrogen mineralization and fluxes) and primary productivity (Borken & Matzner, 2009;Mikha et al, 2005;Schimel, 2018;Schimel et al, 2007). Where soil microorganisms are able to survive, grow and maintain carbon cycling in the face of drought, their drought resistance is considered to be high; at the individual level, mechanisms of drought resistance in soil microbial biomass include physiological acclimation and the production of extracellular metabolites/protective biofilms (Allison, 2023). At the community level, drought resistance of soil microbial biomass also reflects community assembly processes and the presence and abundance of soil microbial taxa which are known to vary widely in their sensitivity to drought (Allison, 2023;Schimel, 2018).…”

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confidence: 99%

Positive plant diversity effects on soil microbial drought resistance are linked to variation in labile carbon and microbial community structure

Chen

Liu

et al. 2023

Functional Ecology

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Biodiversity loss and drought are substantially altering both above‐ and below‐ground terrestrial ecosystem functioning, but mechanistic understanding of plant diversity effects on the drought resistance of soil microbial biomass remains limited. We designed a mesocosm experiment to examine drought resistance of soil microbial biomass along a plant species richness gradient (five plant species richness levels based on old‐field communities). We calculated resistance of microbial biomass to drought and recorded key below‐ground properties which may influence microbial resistance to drought (i.e. microbial diversity, microbial community structure, soil carbon stocks and root biomass). Plant species richness had a positive effect on microbial resistance to drought. Variation in microbial resistance to drought was linked to properties of the fungal community in ambient soil (Shannon diversity, arbuscular mycorrhizal fungal richness and abundance) but not soil bacterial diversity. Moreover, microbial resistance to drought increased with increasing root biomass and dissolved organic carbon recorded under ambient conditions. These results highlight the importance of plant diversity for microbial biomass stability in our old‐field study system with implications for biogeochemical cycling, and suggest that indirect effects of plant species richness on labile soil carbon and soil fungi may drive resistance of soil microbial biomass to drought. Read the free Plain Language Summary for this article on the Journal blog.

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Microbial drought resistance may destabilize soil carbon

Cited by 22 publications

References 57 publications

Soil fungi remain active and invest in storage compounds during drought independent of future climate conditions

Soil fungi remain active and invest in storage compounds during drought independent of future climate conditions

Changes in the biological “regulators” of organic carbon mineralization in silted soils of check dams as a result of wet‐dry cycles

Positive plant diversity effects on soil microbial drought resistance are linked to variation in labile carbon and microbial community structure

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