TY - JOUR
T1 - Trade-off between microbial ecophysiological features regulated by soil fertility governs plant residue decomposition
AU - Bao, Yuanyuan
AU - Dolfing, Jan
AU - Chen, Ruirui
AU - Li, Zhongpei
AU - Lin, Xiangui
AU - Feng, Youzhi
N1 - Funding Information:
The authors thank Bingqian Yu and Yushan Zhan for their assistance in soil sampling and lab analyses. This work was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Project No. 42177297 and 42207365 ), the CAS Strategic Priority Research Program (Project No. XDA28010302 ), the Knowledge Innovation Program of Chinese Academy of Sciences (Project No. ISSASIP2205 ), the Natural Science Foundation of Jiangsu Province (Grants No. BK20221161 ), the China Postdoctoral Science Foundation (Project No. 2022M723236 and 2022TQ0347 ), and the Jiangsu Funding Program for Excellent Postdoctoral Talent (Project No. 2022ZB462 ).
PY - 2023/5/1
Y1 - 2023/5/1
N2 - Soil fertility influences microbial-driven plant residue decomposition, thus further affecting soil organic carbon (C) formation. Both ecological and physiological features of microbial communities change with soil fertilities, however, the mechanism of how soil fertility influences microbial ecophysiological features (both the taxonomic and functional profiles) driving plant residue decomposition is unclear. Here, four series of microcosms were set up, inoculated with two distinct soils, each with low and high fertility levels as a result of contrasting long-term fertilization regimes, and incubated with 13C-labeled rice straw amendments. DNA stable-isotope probing (DNA-SIP) based amplicon sequencing and shotgun metagenomic sequencing were conducted. We found that both bacterial community composition (including the relative abundance, α- and β-diversities, and taxonomic composition) and carbohydrate metabolic efficiency were significantly changed under different soil fertilities. High fertile soils gave rise to greater increases in bacterial populations and straw decomposition than low fertile soils, yet DNA-SIP-based shotgun metagenomic sequencing showed that the bacterial average carbohydrate metabolic efficiency, characterized by the average carbohydrate-active enzyme (CAZyme) abundance within each bacterial phylum was significantly lower. Linear regressions between bacterial ribosomal RNA operon (rrn) copy number and bacterial carbohydrate metabolic efficiency under contrasting soil fertilities suggested that high fertile soils select for fast-but-inefficient bacteria to degrade rice straw while low fertile soils select for slow-but-efficient ones. Collectively, the data demonstrate a fundamental trade-off between the ecological and physiological attributes of straw-degrading microbial communities. The trade-off is regulated by soil fertility and in turn governs plant residue decomposition. This work provides novel insights for better understanding the ecological and physiological roles of microbes in organic matter decomposition and global terrestrial C cycling, especially in the context of crop straw degradation under contrasting soil fertilities.
AB - Soil fertility influences microbial-driven plant residue decomposition, thus further affecting soil organic carbon (C) formation. Both ecological and physiological features of microbial communities change with soil fertilities, however, the mechanism of how soil fertility influences microbial ecophysiological features (both the taxonomic and functional profiles) driving plant residue decomposition is unclear. Here, four series of microcosms were set up, inoculated with two distinct soils, each with low and high fertility levels as a result of contrasting long-term fertilization regimes, and incubated with 13C-labeled rice straw amendments. DNA stable-isotope probing (DNA-SIP) based amplicon sequencing and shotgun metagenomic sequencing were conducted. We found that both bacterial community composition (including the relative abundance, α- and β-diversities, and taxonomic composition) and carbohydrate metabolic efficiency were significantly changed under different soil fertilities. High fertile soils gave rise to greater increases in bacterial populations and straw decomposition than low fertile soils, yet DNA-SIP-based shotgun metagenomic sequencing showed that the bacterial average carbohydrate metabolic efficiency, characterized by the average carbohydrate-active enzyme (CAZyme) abundance within each bacterial phylum was significantly lower. Linear regressions between bacterial ribosomal RNA operon (rrn) copy number and bacterial carbohydrate metabolic efficiency under contrasting soil fertilities suggested that high fertile soils select for fast-but-inefficient bacteria to degrade rice straw while low fertile soils select for slow-but-efficient ones. Collectively, the data demonstrate a fundamental trade-off between the ecological and physiological attributes of straw-degrading microbial communities. The trade-off is regulated by soil fertility and in turn governs plant residue decomposition. This work provides novel insights for better understanding the ecological and physiological roles of microbes in organic matter decomposition and global terrestrial C cycling, especially in the context of crop straw degradation under contrasting soil fertilities.
KW - Amplicon and metagenomic sequencing
KW - Community ecophysiological roles
KW - DNA-SIP
KW - Litter degradation
KW - Soil nutrient status
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85148538757&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1016/j.still.2023.105679
DO - 10.1016/j.still.2023.105679
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:85148538757
SN - 0167-1987
VL - 229
JO - Soil and Tillage Research
JF - Soil and Tillage Research
M1 - 105679
ER -