Plants with arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi efficiently acquire nitrogen from substrate additions by shaping the decomposer community composition and their net plant carbon demand

Chowdhury, Somak; Lange, Markus; Malik, Ashish A.; Goodall, Timothy ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1526-4071; Huang, Jianbei; Griffiths, Robert I. ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3341-4547; Gleixner, Gerd. 2022 Plants with arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi efficiently acquire nitrogen from substrate additions by shaping the decomposer community composition and their net plant carbon demand. Plant and Soil, 475 (1-2). 473-490. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11104-022-05380-x

Before downloading, please read NORA policies.

Preview

Text
N532820JA.pdf - Published Version
Available under License Creative Commons Attribution 4.0.
Download (1MB) | Preview

Official URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s11104-022-05380-x

Abstract/Summary

Aims: We investigated the role of plants and their plant-derived carbon in shaping the microbial community that decomposes substrates and traced the return of nutrients from decomposition back to plant shoots in order to understand the importance of plants for ecosystem element cycling. Methods: We performed a greenhouse experiment having plant communities with and without arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi (AMF) and ingrowth cores that held different 15N labeled substrates. We determined the microbial community structure using molecular sequencing and the net assimilation of plant carbon into soil microorganisms using a 13CO2 pulse and 13C measurements of microbial biomarkers. We determined the return of nitrogen back to the shoots using the 15N signal, which was provided from the decomposition of the substrate added to the ingrowth cores. Results: We observed that the microbial community composition in the ingrowth cores and their net 13C assimilation depended on the presence of AMF and the added substrate. Both plant communities had similar 15N uptake into their shoots, but the net N uptake cost was significantly lower in presence of AMF. In the presence of AMF also lower net N uptake cost was observed for the decomposition of plant-derived and microorganism-derived substrates compared to inorganic nitrogen suggesting that AMF actively controls the decomposer comunity and their carbon demand. Conclusion: Our results identify for the first time a functional overlap of soil microorganisms as identical substrate is decomposed by different microorganisms suggesting functional redundancy of microbial communities. In consequence a better understanding of ecosystem element cycling can only be achieved when the whole plant-microorganism-organic matter-soil continuum is investigated.

Item Type:	Publication - Article
Digital Object Identifier (DOI):	https://doi.org/10.1007/s11104-022-05380-x
UKCEH and CEH Sections/Science Areas:	Soils and Land Use (Science Area 2017-)
ISSN:	0032-079X
Additional Information. Not used in RCUK Gateway to Research.:	Open Access paper - full text available via Official URL link.
Additional Keywords:	functional redundancy, pulse labeling, 13C, 15N, ingrowth core, PLFA, 16S rRNA Gene, ITS
NORA Subject Terms:	Ecology and Environment
Date made live:	29 Jun 2022 12:02 +0 (UTC)
URI:	https://nora.nerc.ac.uk/id/eprint/532820

Item Type:

Publication - Article

Digital Object Identifier (DOI):

https://doi.org/10.1007/s11104-022-05380-x

UKCEH and CEH Sections/Science Areas:

Soils and Land Use (Science Area 2017-)

ISSN:

0032-079X

Additional Information. Not used in RCUK Gateway to Research.:

Open Access paper - full text available via Official URL link.

Additional Keywords:

functional redundancy, pulse labeling, 13C, 15N, ingrowth core, PLFA, 16S rRNA Gene, ITS