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Albert Brangarí - Svalbard

Albert Brangarí

Researcher

Albert Brangarí - Svalbard

Linking soil depth to aridity effects on soil microbial community composition, diversity and resource limitation

Author

  • Haoran He
  • Mingzhe Xu
  • Wenting Li
  • Li Chen
  • Yanan Chen
  • Daryl L. Moorhead
  • Albert C. Brangarí
  • Ji Liu
  • Yongxing Cui
  • Yi Zeng
  • Zhiqin Zhang
  • Chengjiao Duan
  • Min Huang
  • Linchuan Fang
Show all

Summary, in English

With ongoing climate change, aridity is increasing worldwide, affecting biodiversity and ecosystem function in drylands. However, how the depth-profile microbial community structure and metabolic limitations change along aridity gradients are still poorly explored. Here, 16S rRNA and ITS amplicon sequencing and ecoenzymatic stoichiometry analysis were used to investigate both bacterial and fungal diversities and resource limitations in 1 m depth profiles across a wide aridity gradient (0.51–0.78) in a semiarid region. Results showed a sharp decrease in microbial diversity with soil depth, accompanied by an increase in microbial phosphorus (P) vs. N (nitrogen) limitation and a decrease in microbial carbon (C) vs. nutrient limitation. Aridity led to a strong shift in microbial community composition, but aridity has a threshold effect on microbial resource limitation through impacts on soil pH and C/P or N/P. When the aridity threshold (1-precipitation/evapotranspiration) exceeds 0.65, relationship between aridity and microbial resource demand was decoupled; but at aridity threshold = 0.65, microbial relative C limitation and C-acquiring enzyme activity dropped. These results suggest that aridity might have a stronger influence on microbial community composition, than on diversity, shaped by inherent soil biotic factors (i.e., MBC:MBP or MBN:MBP). These findings suggest that soil microbial diversity or enzymatic stoichiometry may be not necessary to mirror changes in water availability in the drylands, while aridity would be well explained by microbial community composition.

Department/s

  • Microbial Biogeochemistry in Lund
  • Microbial Ecology
  • BECC: Biodiversity and Ecosystem services in a Changing Climate

Publishing year

2023-11

Language

English

Publication/Series

Catena

Volume

232

Document type

Journal article

Publisher

Elsevier

Topic

  • Ecology

Keywords

  • Aridity
  • Climate change
  • Community structure
  • Depth profile
  • Metabolism limitation
  • Soil microorganism

Status

Published

Research group

  • Microbial Biogeochemistry in Lund
  • Microbial Ecology

ISBN/ISSN/Other

  • ISSN: 0341-8162