scholarly journals Asynchronous responses of soil microbial community and understory plant community to simulated nitrogen deposition in a subtropical forest

2013 ◽  
Vol 3 (11) ◽  
pp. 3895-3905 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jianping Wu ◽  
Wenfei Liu ◽  
Houbao Fan ◽  
Guomin Huang ◽  
Songze Wan ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Microbial Community ◽  
Nitrogen Deposition ◽  
Plant Community ◽  
Soil Microbial Community ◽  
Subtropical Forest ◽  
Soil Microbial ◽  
Understory Plant

scholarly journals Evidence of within-species specialization by soil microbes and the implications for plant community diversity

2019 ◽  
Vol 116 (15) ◽  
pp. 7371-7376 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jenalle L. Eck ◽  
Simon M. Stump ◽  
Camille S. Delavaux ◽  
Scott A. Mangan ◽  
Liza S. Comita
Keyword(s):  
Microbial Community ◽  
Seed Dispersal ◽  
Plant Species ◽  
Plant Community ◽  
Plant Communities ◽  
Soil Microbial Community ◽  
Soil Microbes ◽  
Wild Plant ◽  
Soil Microbial ◽  
Species Specific

Microbes are thought to maintain diversity in plant communities by specializing on particular species, but it is not known whether microbes that specialize within species (i.e., on genotypes) affect diversity or dynamics in plant communities. Here we show that soil microbes can specialize at the within-population level in a wild plant species, and that such specialization could promote species diversity and seed dispersal in plant communities. In a shadehouse experiment in Panama, we found that seedlings of the native tree species, Virola surinamensis (Myristicaceae), had reduced performance in the soil microbial community of their maternal tree compared with in the soil microbial community of a nonmaternal tree from the same population. Performance differences were unrelated to soil nutrients or to colonization by mycorrhizal fungi, suggesting that highly specialized pathogens were the mechanism reducing seedling performance in maternal soils. We then constructed a simulation model to explore the ecological and evolutionary consequences of genotype-specific pathogens in multispecies plant communities. Model results indicated that genotype-specific pathogens promote plant species coexistence—albeit less strongly than species-specific pathogens—and are most effective at maintaining species richness when genetic diversity is relatively low. Simulations also revealed that genotype-specific pathogens select for increased seed dispersal relative to species-specific pathogens, potentially helping to create seed dispersal landscapes that allow pathogens to more effectively promote diversity. Combined, our results reveal that soil microbes can specialize within wild plant populations, affecting seedling performance near conspecific adults and influencing plant community dynamics on ecological and evolutionary time scales.

Drought intensity effects on grassland plant communities and soil microbial community function

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Natalie Oram ◽  
Johannes Ingrisch ◽  
Gerd Gleixner ◽  
Nadine Praeg ◽  
Paul Illmer ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Microbial Community ◽  
Plant Community ◽  
Plant Communities ◽  
Soil Microbial Community ◽  
Extracellular Enzyme ◽  
Community Recovery ◽  
Community Functioning ◽  
Drought Intensity ◽  
Soil Microbial ◽  
Acquisition Strategies

<p>Plant and soil communities are intimately connected. Plants shape soil microbial community composition through their resource acquisition strategies and via root carbon (C) inputs, which has cascading effects on biogeochemical cycles. Drought has been shown to disrupt the connection between plants and soil microorganisms. However, the effects of drought intensity on soil microbial community functioning, including the uptake of recent plant-derived C, are largely unknown. Here, we determined how two plant communities with contrasting resource acquisition strategies (acquisitive versus conservative) responded to a gradient of drought (control, and eight drought intensities). Using a <sup>13</sup>C pulse labelling approach, we tracked C allocated from plants to soil and its uptake by the microbial community. We measured potential extracellular enzyme activity as a proxy of microbial community functioning. We hypothesized that (1) drought responses are non-linear, and (2) acquisitive plant communities have lower drought resistance but recover faster than conservative plant communities, which is reflected in lower <sup>13</sup>C transfer and reduced microbial functioning during drought and increases after drought. In general, we found that the responses we measured were non-linearly related to drought intensity. After three weeks of drought, drought intensity decreased aboveground net primary productivity (ANPP) of both plant communities. Soil extractable organic <sup>13</sup>C decreased with increasing drought intensity, indicating that less recently assimilated C was allocated to root exudation. Although microbial biomass remained stable over the drought intensity gradient, <sup>13</sup>C uptake into microbial biomass decreased at peak drought, and was lower in the conservative vs. acquisitive plant community at mild drought levels. Potential enzyme activity of β-1,4-glucosidase, involved in cellulose breakdown, and  β-N-acetyl-glucosaminidase, involved in chitin breakdown, decreased with increasing drought intensity. Urease activity was higher in conservative than acquisitive plant communities exposed to drought. Seven days after re-wetting, we found that microbial uptake of <sup>13</sup>C increased along the drought gradient and was higher than the control in communities previously subjected to high drought intensities. This fast microbial recovery could affect nutrient mobilisation, which could underlie longer-term plant community recovery. Two months after re-wetting, we indeed found that plant communities that had previously experienced high drought intensity (> 75% soil water deficit) had higher ANPP than the control. We conclude that drought intensity has significant non-linear effects on microbial uptake of recent plant C and on potential extracellular enzyme activities both during drought and recovery, with consequences for plant community recovery dynamics.  </p>

Effect of Flaveria bidentis invasion on plant community and soil microbial community of different invaded soil

2019 ◽  
Vol 39 (22) ◽  
Author(s):  
祁小旭 QI Xiaoxu ◽  
张思宇 ZHANG Siyu ◽  
林峰 LIN Feng ◽  
张玲玲 ZHANG Lingling ◽  
杨殿林 YANG Dianlin ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Microbial Community ◽  
Plant Community ◽  
Soil Microbial Community ◽  
Soil Microbial ◽  
Flaveria Bidentis
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