The influence of soil age on ecosystem structure and function across biomes

Delgado‐Baquerizo, Manuel; Reich, Peter B.; Bardgett, Richard D.; Eldridge, David J.; Lambers, Hans; Wardle, David A.; Reed, Sasha C.; Plaza, César; Png, G. Kenny; Neuhauser, Sigrid; Berhe, Asmeret Asefaw; Hart, Stephen C.; Hu, Hang Wei; Bastida, Felipe; Abades, Sebastián; Alfaro, Fernando D.; Cutler, Nick A.; Gallardo, Antonio; García‐Velázquez, Laura; Hayes, Patrick E.; Hseu, Zeng Yei; Pérez, Cecilia A.; Santos, Fernanda; Siebe, Christina; Trivedi, Pankaj; Sullivan, Benjamin W.; Weber‐Grullon, Luis; Williams, Mark A.; Fierer, Noah

doi:10.1038/s41467-020-18451-3

Cited by 60 publications

(45 citation statements)

References 46 publications

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“…Studies on soil chronosequences have shown that progressing soil age not only implies increasing SOC contents, but also changes in soil organic matter quality (Shi et al 2006;Egli et al 2010;Clark et al 2012;Chaudhuri et al 2015;Kumar et al 2018;Khedim et al 2020), which in turn dictates biogeochemical processes (Shi et al 2006;Banning et al 2008). Recently, Delgado-Baquerizo et al (2020) showed that soil age indeed drives local-scale ecosystem properties associated with biological activity, such as soil N:P and C:P ratios, microbial biomass, fungal:bacterial dominance or SOC stocks. Thus, microbial responses to FT events may be indirectly linked to soil age via temporal changes in soil biogeochemical characteristics (Yanai et al 2004;Allison et al 2005Allison et al , 2007bMoore et al 2010;Delgado-Baquerizo et al 2020).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Recently, Delgado-Baquerizo et al (2020) showed that soil age indeed drives local-scale ecosystem properties associated with biological activity, such as soil N:P and C:P ratios, microbial biomass, fungal:bacterial dominance or SOC stocks. Thus, microbial responses to FT events may be indirectly linked to soil age via temporal changes in soil biogeochemical characteristics (Yanai et al 2004;Allison et al 2005Allison et al , 2007bMoore et al 2010;Delgado-Baquerizo et al 2020). In line with this, the climatic history of soils can lead to a functional reorganization of the soil microbial community towards more tolerant species (Bardgett and Caruso 2020).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…For example, SOC content may influence responses through potentially increased porosity and water retention capacity in high-SOC soils (Yang et al 2013). Soil age was recently identified as an important local-scale driver of ecosystem properties such as soil pH, soil N:P and C:P ratios and total soil C stocks (Delgado-Baquerizo et al 2020). Moreover, a history of soil freezing selects for more frost-tolerant and physiologically adapted microbial communities (Walker et al 2006;Garcia et al 2020), suggesting that soil age might be important too.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

See 2 more Smart Citations

Soil age and soil organic carbon content shape biochemical responses to multiple freeze–thaw events in soils along a postmining agricultural chronosequence

Rosinger

Bonkowski

2021

Biogeochemistry

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Freeze–thaw (FT) events exert a great physiological stress on the soil microbial community and thus significantly impact soil biogeochemical processes. Studies often show ambiguous and contradicting results, because a multitude of environmental factors affect biogeochemical responses to FT. Thus, a better understanding of the factors driving and regulating microbial responses to FT events is required. Soil chronosequences allow more focused comparisons among soils with initially similar start conditions. We therefore exposed four soils with contrasting organic carbon contents and opposing soil age (i.e., years after restoration) from a postmining agricultural chronosequence to three consecutive FT events and evaluated soil biochgeoemical responses after thawing. The major microbial biomass carbon losses occurred after the first FT event, while microbial biomass N decreased more steadily with subsequent FT cycles. This led to an immediate and lasting decoupling of microbial biomass carbon:nitrogen stoichiometry. After the first FT event, basal respiration and the metabolic quotient (i.e., respiration per microbial biomass unit) were above pre-freezing values and thereafter decreased with subsequent FT cycles, demonstrating initially high dissimilatory carbon losses and less and less microbial metabolic activity with each iterative FT cycle. As a consequence, dissolved organic carbon and total dissolved nitrogen increased in soil solution after the first FT event, while a substantial part of the liberated nitrogen was likely lost through gaseous emissions. Overall, high-carbon soils were more vulnerable to microbial biomass losses than low-carbon soils. Surprisingly, soil age explained more variation in soil chemical and microbial responses than soil organic carbon content. Further studies are needed to dissect the factors associated with soil age and its influence on soil biochemical responses to FT events.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Soil age and soil organic carbon content shape biochemical responses to multiple freeze–thaw events in soils along a postmining agricultural chronosequence

Rosinger

Bonkowski

2021

Biogeochemistry

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“…Along the same line, Delgado-Baquerizo et al . [37] studied sixteen chronosequences across the globe. This meta-analysis showed that parent material type, climate, vegetation and topography have an over-ruling impact on ecosystem structure, and functioning and soil age plays a minor role.…”

Section: Role Of Soil Biota In Soil Formation and Habitat Creationmentioning

confidence: 99%

The role of soils in habitat creation, maintenance and restoration

Deyn

Kooistra

2021

Phil. Trans. R. Soc. B

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Soils are the fundament of terrestrial ecosystems. Across the globe we find different soil types with different properties resulting from the interacting soil forming factors: parent material, climate, topography, organisms and time. Here we present the role of soils in habitat formation and maintenance in natural systems, and reflect on how humans have modified soils from local to global scale. Soils host a tremendous diversity of life forms, most of them microscopic in size. We do not yet know all the functionalities of this diversity at the level of individual taxa or through their interactions. However, we do know that the interactions and feedbacks between soil life, plants and soil chemistry and physics are essential for soil and habitat formation, maintenance and restoration. Moreover, the couplings between soils and major cycles of carbon, nutrients and water are essential for supporting the production of food, feed and fibre, drinking water and greenhouse gas balances. Soils take thousands of years to form, yet are lost very quickly through a multitude of stressors. The current status of our soils globally is worrisome, yet with concerted action we can bend the curve and create win–wins of soil and habitat conservation, regeneration and sustainable development. This article is part of the theme issue ‘The role of soils in delivering Nature's Contributions to People’.

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“…To achieve this aim, we used data from a global field survey of 235 natural ecosystems from nine biomes across six continents. The sampling sites included a wide range of vegetation, climate and soil types, and covered c. 73% of the environmental conditions found on Earth (Delgado-Baquerizo et al, 2020). We expected to detect distinct patterns of lichenised soil fungal distribution, driven by various environmental parameters, across different biomes worldwide.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Global diversity and ecological drivers of lichenised soil fungi

et al. 2021

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Lichens play crucial roles in sustaining the functioning of terrestrial ecosystems; however, the diversity and ecological factors associated with lichenised soil fungi remain poorly understood.To address this knowledge gap, we used a global field survey including information on fungal sequences of topsoils from 235 terrestrial ecosystems.We identified 880 lichenised fungal phylotypes across nine biomes ranging from deserts to tropical forests. The diversity and proportion of lichenised soil fungi peaked in shrublands and dry grasslands. Aridity index, plant cover and soil pH were the most important factors associated with the distribution of lichenised soil fungi. Furthermore, we identified Endocarpon, Verrucaria and Rinodina as some of the most dominant lichenised genera across the globe, and they had similar environmental preferences to the lichenised fungal community. In addition, precipitation seasonality and mean diurnal temperature range were also important in predicting the proportion of these dominant genera. Using this information, we were able to create the first global maps of the richness and proportion of the dominant genera of lichenised fungi.This work provides new insight into the global distribution and ecological preferences of lichenised soil fungi, and supports their dominance in drylands across the globe.

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The influence of soil age on ecosystem structure and function across biomes

Cited by 60 publications

References 46 publications

Soil age and soil organic carbon content shape biochemical responses to multiple freeze–thaw events in soils along a postmining agricultural chronosequence

Soil age and soil organic carbon content shape biochemical responses to multiple freeze–thaw events in soils along a postmining agricultural chronosequence

The role of soils in habitat creation, maintenance and restoration

Global diversity and ecological drivers of lichenised soil fungi

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