Microbial biomass not diversity drives soil carbon and nitrogen mineralization in Spanish holm oak ecosystems

Kód výsledku v IS VaVaI

<a href="https://www.isvavai.cz/riv?ss=detail&h=RIV%2F61388971%3A_____%2F25%3A00637890" target="_blank" >RIV/61388971:_____/25:00637890 - isvavai.cz</a>

Výsledek na webu

<a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0016706125002460?via%3Dihub" target="_blank" >https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0016706125002460?via%3Dihub</a>

DOI - Digital Object Identifier

<a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.geoderma.2025.117408" target="_blank" >10.1016/j.geoderma.2025.117408</a>

Jazyk výsledku

angličtina

Název v původním jazyce

Microbial biomass not diversity drives soil carbon and nitrogen mineralization in Spanish holm oak ecosystems

Popis výsledku v původním jazyce

Soil microbial communities drive essential ecosystem functions, catalyzing biogeochemical cycles and contributing to climate regulation. However, due to the complexity of microbial communities, the magnitude and direction of microbial biomass and diversity contributions to carbon (C) and nutrient cycling remain unclear. For this reason, most models predicting soil organic matter (SOM) dynamics at the ecosystem level do not explicitly describe the role of microorganisms as mediators of SOM decomposition. Incorporating microbial properties, and especially diversity, into ecosystem models remains an open question, requiring careful consideration of the tradeoff between model complexity and performance. This work addresses this knowledge gap by implementing a simple C and nitrogen (N) cycling model to predict heterotrophic respiration and net N mineralization rates in soils sampled under different land-uses and tree health conditions across Spain. To understand the role of microorganisms on ecosystem functioning, we progressively incorporated microbial biomass and diversity (i.e., alpha diversity of taxa and of fungal functional groups), and selected the model that optimized prediction accuracy, while minimizing complexity. We found that microbial biomass had a strong and positive effect on both C and N mineralization rates, with heterotrophic respiration being nearly linearly controlled by biomass. In contrast, microbial diversity had minimal but negative effects on mineralization processes, with land-use differences explaining part of the variability in these effects. Our study confirms microbial biomass as a key driver of C and N mineralization rates, while highlights that microbial diversity based on taxonomic identification inadequately explains microbial effects on these ecosystem functions.

Název v anglickém jazyce

Microbial biomass not diversity drives soil carbon and nitrogen mineralization in Spanish holm oak ecosystems

Popis výsledku anglicky

Soil microbial communities drive essential ecosystem functions, catalyzing biogeochemical cycles and contributing to climate regulation. However, due to the complexity of microbial communities, the magnitude and direction of microbial biomass and diversity contributions to carbon (C) and nutrient cycling remain unclear. For this reason, most models predicting soil organic matter (SOM) dynamics at the ecosystem level do not explicitly describe the role of microorganisms as mediators of SOM decomposition. Incorporating microbial properties, and especially diversity, into ecosystem models remains an open question, requiring careful consideration of the tradeoff between model complexity and performance. This work addresses this knowledge gap by implementing a simple C and nitrogen (N) cycling model to predict heterotrophic respiration and net N mineralization rates in soils sampled under different land-uses and tree health conditions across Spain. To understand the role of microorganisms on ecosystem functioning, we progressively incorporated microbial biomass and diversity (i.e., alpha diversity of taxa and of fungal functional groups), and selected the model that optimized prediction accuracy, while minimizing complexity. We found that microbial biomass had a strong and positive effect on both C and N mineralization rates, with heterotrophic respiration being nearly linearly controlled by biomass. In contrast, microbial diversity had minimal but negative effects on mineralization processes, with land-use differences explaining part of the variability in these effects. Our study confirms microbial biomass as a key driver of C and N mineralization rates, while highlights that microbial diversity based on taxonomic identification inadequately explains microbial effects on these ecosystem functions.

Druh

J_imp - Článek v periodiku v databázi Web of Science

CEP obor

—

OECD FORD obor

10606 - Microbiology

Projekt

—

Návaznosti

I - Institucionalni podpora na dlouhodoby koncepcni rozvoj vyzkumne organizace

Rok uplatnění

2025

Kód důvěrnosti údajů

S - Úplné a pravdivé údaje o projektu nepodléhají ochraně podle zvláštních právních předpisů

Název periodika

Geoderma

ISSN

0016-7061

e-ISSN

1872-6259

Svazek periodika

460

Číslo periodika v rámci svazku

August 2025

Stát vydavatele periodika

NL - Nizozemsko

Počet stran výsledku

15

Strana od-do

117408

Kód UT WoS článku

001521516300001

EID výsledku v databázi Scopus

2-s2.0-105008910923