Trophic level mediates soil microbial community composition and function

Lucas, Jane M.; McBride, Steven G.; Strickland, Michael S.

doi:10.1016/j.soilbio.2020.107756

Cited by 29 publications

(41 citation statements)

References 52 publications

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“…Notably, the addition of the collembolan wash also significantly modified the bacterial community composition. Although it has long been assumed that microorganisms from the body surface of microarthropods may affect soil microbiota (Lussenhop, 1992;, our results provide experimental evidence for it through the separate addition of a microbial wash. This effect highlights the importance of processes of community coalescence (Rillig et al, 2015) caused by the carriage of microorganisms on the body of the consumers.…”

Section: Fungi-based Prey-consumer Systemmentioning

confidence: 63%

“…In fact, the composition of the bacterial community was significantly modified by collembolans. Presumably, these changes were due to selective feeding of H. nitidus on certain bacterial strains and/or through modifications in competitive interactions between certain bacterial strains and C. globosum (Lussenhop, 1992;Coulibaly et al, 2019;Thakur and Geisen, 2019). In addition, other non-consumptive effects may have occurred.…”

Section: Fungi-based Prey-consumer Systemmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…For example, comminution of the added litter by collembolans (Coleman et al, 2002) may have contributed to changes in bacterial community composition . Further, the release of specific organic compounds by living or dead collembolans, such as urine, faeces (Lussenhop, 1992) or chitin (Lucas et al, 2020), may also have modified the composition of the bacterial community. Notably, the addition of the collembolan wash also significantly modified the bacterial community composition.…”

Section: Fungi-based Prey-consumer Systemmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…For example, the release of N by protists and nematodes (Griffiths and Bardgett, 1997) and the excretion of urine or faeces by microarthropods (Cragg and Bardgett, 2001;Milcu et al, 2006), as well as their necromass (Coleman et al, 2002), modify the quality of organic matter processed by soil microorganisms, with expected effects on their biomass and composition. The comminution of plant debris (Lussenhop, 1992) as well as the transport of microbes on the body of soil microarthropods (Griffiths and Bardgett, 1997;Bardgett et al, 1998;Gormsen et al, 2004) is also assumed to contribute to non-consumptive effects of microarthropods on soil microbial communities. Further, consumers of soil microorganisms can modify microbial activity and physiology, such as the production of bacterial EPSs (Matz and Kjelleberg, 2005;Queck et al, 2006) and antibiotic compounds (Jousset and Bonkowski, 2010).…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Variations in enzymatic activity of wood-decomposing fungi in the presence of microbivores have also been reported (Crowther et al, 2015). Overall, the influence of trophic interactions on the structure and activity of soil microbial communities is an active research topic (Jiang et al, 2017;Thakur and Geisen, 2019;Lucas et al, 2020). By contrast, the integration of higher trophic levels into soil aggregation studies lags far behind, with only one study investigating how collembolans modify the effect of fungi on soil aggregation (Siddiky et al, 2012) and no studies targeting effects of protists or nematodes.…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

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Protists and collembolans alter microbial community composition, C dynamics and soil aggregation in simplified consumer–prey systems

Erktan¹,

Rillig

Carminati

et al. 2020

Biogeosciences

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Abstract. Microbes play an essential role in soil functioning including biogeochemical cycling and soil aggregate formation. Yet, a major challenge is to link microbes to higher trophic levels and assess consequences for soil functioning. Here, we aimed to assess how microbial consumers modify microbial community composition (PLFA markers), as well as C dynamics (microbial C use, SOC concentration and CO2 emission) and soil aggregation. We rebuilt two simplified soil consumer–prey systems: a bacterial-based system comprising amoebae (Acanthamoeba castellanii) feeding on a microbial community dominated by the free-living bacterium Pseudomonas fluorescens and a fungal-based system comprising collembolans (Heteromurus nitidus) grazing on a microbial community dominated by the saprotrophic fungus Chaetomium globosum. The amoeba A. castellanii did not affect microbial biomass and composition, but it enhanced the formation of soil aggregates and tended to reduce their stability. Presumably, the dominance of P. fluorescens, able to produce antibiotic toxins in response to the attack by A. castellanii, was the main cause of the unchanged microbial community composition, and the release of bacterial extracellular compounds, such as long-chained polymeric substances or proteases, in reaction to predation was responsible for the changes in soil aggregation as a side effect. In the fungal system, collembolans significantly modified microbial community composition via consumptive and non-consumptive effects including the transport of microbes on the body surface. As expected, fungal biomass promoted soil aggregation and was reduced in the presence of H. nitidus. Remarkably, we also found an unexpected contribution of changes in bacterial community composition to soil aggregation. In both the bacterial and fungal systems, bacterial and fungal communities mainly consumed C from soil organic matter (rather than the litter added). Increased fungal biomass was associated with an increased capture of C from added litter, and the presence of collembolans levelled off this effect. Neither amoebae nor collembolans altered SOC concentrations and CO2 production. Overall, the results demonstrated that trophic interactions are important for achieving a mechanistic understanding of biological contributions to soil aggregation and may occur without major changes in C dynamics and with or without changes in the composition of the microbial community.

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Section: Fungi-based Prey-consumer Systemmentioning

confidence: 63%

Section: Fungi-based Prey-consumer Systemmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Fungi-based Prey-consumer Systemmentioning

confidence: 99%

mentioning

confidence: 99%

mentioning

confidence: 99%

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Protists and collembolans alter microbial community composition, C dynamics and soil aggregation in simplified consumer–prey systems

Erktan¹,

Rillig

Carminati

et al. 2020

Biogeosciences

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The stoichiometric signature of high‐frequency fire in forest floor food webs

Butler

Lewis

Maunsell

et al. 2021

Ecological Monographs

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Fire regimes are shifting under climate change. Decadal-scale shifts in fire regime can disrupt the biogeochemical cycling of carbon (C), nitrogen (N), and phosphorus (P) within forest ecosystems, but the full extent of these disruptions is unknown. It is also unclear whether these disruptions have consequences for the ecological characteristics (e.g., biomass, abundance, and composition) of microbial and invertebrate communities, which together comprise the majority of terrestrial biodiversity and underpin many ecosystem processes. The theoretical framework of ecological stoichiometry has great potential in this context, but it has rarely been used to develop an integrated understanding of the biogeochemical and ecological effects of altered fire regime across trophic levels. Using one of the world's longest-running fire experiments, located in Queensland, Australia, we carried out a comprehensive investigation into the stoichiometric consequences of a decadal-scale divergence in prescribed fire frequency and their links to coinciding changes in various ecological characteristics of forest floor microbial and invertebrate communities. Compared to long-term fire exclusion, forty-three years of biennial burning led to significantly N-depleted and/or P-enriched stoichiometry in soil, leaf litter, leaf litter-associated microbial biomass, and certain groups of invertebrates, although total invertebrate community stoichiometry was not affected. Microbial biomass was 42% lower in biennially burned soils. Invertebrate community composition differed between fire regime treatments on some sampling dates, but fire regime did not have consistent effects on invertebrate biomass or abundance. Microbial biomass and the abundances of some invertebrate taxa were depressed at particularly low and/or high resource N:P, consistent with a coupling of these variables to the stoichiometric effects of decadal-scale fire regime. Litter transplants likewise indicated that some invertebrate abundances were sensitive to litter properties over 12 months. Together, our results indicate that long-term changes in fire regime can decouple the within-ecosystem cycling of N and P, with N and P cycling growing more and less conservative, respectively, under high-frequency fire in a way that propagates throughout forest floor food webs. Our study provides new insights into the coupled biogeochemical and ecological responses of forest ecosystems to novel fire regimes and establishes a basis for a stoichiometric framework for fire ecology.

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Accelerated temporal turnover of the soil nematode community under alpine grassland degradation

et al. 2022

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Soil nematodes play pivotal roles in the soil food web. However, the trophic regulation on nematodes in the soil micro-food web and its temporal dynamics are less explored. Here, we investigated the seasonal dynamics of soil nematode community in an alpine grassland on the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau at non-degraded (ND), moderately degraded (MD) and severely degraded (SD) stages, either under open-top chamber warming (W) or not (NW). Nematode richness was higher in SD than in MD and ND that did not differ, accompanied by a clear shift from the bottom-up regulation via belowground productivity in ND to the top-down regulation via omnivore and predator nematodes in SD. The intensified top-down regulation in SD was explained by increased proportions of predator and omnivore nematodes, likely induced by the expanded soil pore size in SD. As a result, accelerated temporal turnover of nematode community was observed under grassland degradation, which were 0.006 (slope, p = 0.78), 0.045 (p = 0.07), and 0.077 (p = 0.001) in ND, MD, and SD, respectively. Moreover, grassland degradation strengthened the association between nematode density and ecosystem respiration, whose slope was higher in SD (0.0025, p < 0.05) than in MD (0.0008, p < 0.01) or ND (insignificant). In contrast, warming did not affect the temporal turnover of the nematode community, richness, nor its role in ecosystem respiration. Overall, we revealed the accelerated temporal turnover of nematode community and its strengthened role in determining ecosystem respiration under alpine grassland degradation, suggesting that trophic cascade changes under ecosystem degradation may alter the ecosystem functioning.Kui Wang and Kai Xue contributed equally to this study.

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Trophic level mediates soil microbial community composition and function

Cited by 29 publications

References 52 publications

Protists and collembolans alter microbial community composition, C dynamics and soil aggregation in simplified consumer–prey systems

Protists and collembolans alter microbial community composition, C dynamics and soil aggregation in simplified consumer–prey systems

The stoichiometric signature of high‐frequency fire in forest floor food webs

Accelerated temporal turnover of the soil nematode community under alpine grassland degradation

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