Reduced microbial diversity induces larger volatile organic compound emissions from soils

Abstract

Microorganisms in soil are known to be a source and a sink of volatile organic compounds (Vocs). the role of the microbial Vocs on soil ecosystem regulation has been increasingly demonstrated in the recent years. Nevertheless, little is known about the influence of the microbial soil community structure and diversity on VOC emissions. This novel study analyzed the effect of reduced microbial diversity in soil on Voc emissions. We found that reduced levels of microbial diversity in soil increased VOC emissions from soils, while the number of different VOCs emitted decreased. Furthermore, we found that Proteobacteria, Bacteroidetes and fungi phyla were positively correlated to VOC emissions, and other prokaryotic phyla were either negatively correlated or very slightly positively correlated to Vocs emissions. our interpretation is that Proteobacteria, Bacteroidetes and fungi were Voc producers while the other prokaryotic phyla were consumers. Finally, we discussed the possible role of VOCs as mediators of microbial interactions in soil.

Trends and applications in plant volatile sampling and analysis

“…Several studies show that aboveground stress (e.g., herbivory) influences belowground plant activity and vice versa (for an extended review see van Dam et al, 2016)). In addition, bacterial volatiles play an important role in the assembly of microbial communities in the soil as well as in the defense against pathogens (de la Fuente Cant o et al, 2020; Abis et al, 2020;Garbeva and Weisskopf, 2020). Hence, sampling of belowground VOCs is becoming more important, despite the challenges of a non-homogeneous trapping environment (van Dam et al, 2016).…”

Insights into the Intraspecific Variability of the above and Belowground Emissions of Volatile Organic Compounds in Tomato

“…In our study, the total amount of VOCs released from the soil surface varied between 1 and 10 ng s −1 m −2 , with terpenes contributing more than half (monoterpenes, 52%; sesquiterpenes, 6%). An increasing body of literature is available on VOC fluxes from forest soils and, to a lesser extent, from agricultural soils (for an overview, see e.g., [52][53][54]). Monoterpene soil emissions were regularly recorded in ecosystems with terpene storing litter covering the ground.…”

Source identification of atmospheric organic vapors in two European pine forests: Results from Vocus PTR-TOF observations

“…As discussed in Section 4.2.1, these lightly oxygenated molecules can be directly emitted from anthropogenic and biogenic sources or come from oxidation processes of various VOC precursors (Conley et al, 2005;Pandya et al, 2006;Rantala et al, 2015;Hartikainen et al, 2018). For instance, C7H10O has been found from direct soil emissions (Abis et al, 2020) or oxidation processes of 1,2,4-trimethyl benzene (Mehra et al, 2020). Therefore, we expect the molecules in this factor to be either directly emitted or as oxidation products of forest emissions.…”