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Experimental drought reduces the transfer of recently fixed plant carbon to soil microbes and alters the bacterial community composition in a mountain meadow

Drought affects plants and soil microorganisms, but it is still not clear how it alters the carbon (C) transfer at the plant–microbial interface. Here, we tested direct and indirect effects of drought on soil microbes and microbial turnover of recent plant-derived C in a mountain meadow. Microbial c...

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Autores principales: Fuchslueger, Lucia, Bahn, Michael, Fritz, Karina, Hasibeder, Roland, Richter, Andreas
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: Blackwell Publishing Ltd 2014
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3908363/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/24171922
http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/nph.12569
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author Fuchslueger, Lucia
Bahn, Michael
Fritz, Karina
Hasibeder, Roland
Richter, Andreas
author_facet Fuchslueger, Lucia
Bahn, Michael
Fritz, Karina
Hasibeder, Roland
Richter, Andreas
author_sort Fuchslueger, Lucia
collection PubMed
description Drought affects plants and soil microorganisms, but it is still not clear how it alters the carbon (C) transfer at the plant–microbial interface. Here, we tested direct and indirect effects of drought on soil microbes and microbial turnover of recent plant-derived C in a mountain meadow. Microbial community composition was assessed using phospholipid fatty acids (PLFAs); the allocation of recent plant-derived C to microbial groups was analysed by pulse-labelling of canopy sections with (13)CO(2) and the subsequent tracing of the label into microbial PLFAs. Microbial biomass was significantly higher in plots exposed to a severe experimental drought. In addition, drought induced a shift of the microbial community composition, mainly driven by an increase of Gram-positive bacteria. Drought reduced belowground C allocation, but not the transfer of recently plant-assimilated C to fungi, and in particular reduced tracer uptake by bacteria. This was accompanied by an increase of (13)C in the extractable organic C pool during drought, which was even more pronounced after plots were mown. We conclude that drought weakened the link between plant and bacterial, but not fungal, C turnover, and facilitated the growth of potentially slow-growing, drought-adapted soil microbes, such as Gram-positive bacteria.
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spelling pubmed-39083632014-02-04 Experimental drought reduces the transfer of recently fixed plant carbon to soil microbes and alters the bacterial community composition in a mountain meadow Fuchslueger, Lucia Bahn, Michael Fritz, Karina Hasibeder, Roland Richter, Andreas New Phytol Research Drought affects plants and soil microorganisms, but it is still not clear how it alters the carbon (C) transfer at the plant–microbial interface. Here, we tested direct and indirect effects of drought on soil microbes and microbial turnover of recent plant-derived C in a mountain meadow. Microbial community composition was assessed using phospholipid fatty acids (PLFAs); the allocation of recent plant-derived C to microbial groups was analysed by pulse-labelling of canopy sections with (13)CO(2) and the subsequent tracing of the label into microbial PLFAs. Microbial biomass was significantly higher in plots exposed to a severe experimental drought. In addition, drought induced a shift of the microbial community composition, mainly driven by an increase of Gram-positive bacteria. Drought reduced belowground C allocation, but not the transfer of recently plant-assimilated C to fungi, and in particular reduced tracer uptake by bacteria. This was accompanied by an increase of (13)C in the extractable organic C pool during drought, which was even more pronounced after plots were mown. We conclude that drought weakened the link between plant and bacterial, but not fungal, C turnover, and facilitated the growth of potentially slow-growing, drought-adapted soil microbes, such as Gram-positive bacteria. Blackwell Publishing Ltd 2014-02 2013-10-31 /pmc/articles/PMC3908363/ /pubmed/24171922 http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/nph.12569 Text en Copyright © 2014 New Phytologist Trust http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/ This is an open access article under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits use, distribution and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
spellingShingle Research
Fuchslueger, Lucia
Bahn, Michael
Fritz, Karina
Hasibeder, Roland
Richter, Andreas
Experimental drought reduces the transfer of recently fixed plant carbon to soil microbes and alters the bacterial community composition in a mountain meadow
title Experimental drought reduces the transfer of recently fixed plant carbon to soil microbes and alters the bacterial community composition in a mountain meadow
title_full Experimental drought reduces the transfer of recently fixed plant carbon to soil microbes and alters the bacterial community composition in a mountain meadow
title_fullStr Experimental drought reduces the transfer of recently fixed plant carbon to soil microbes and alters the bacterial community composition in a mountain meadow
title_full_unstemmed Experimental drought reduces the transfer of recently fixed plant carbon to soil microbes and alters the bacterial community composition in a mountain meadow
title_short Experimental drought reduces the transfer of recently fixed plant carbon to soil microbes and alters the bacterial community composition in a mountain meadow
title_sort experimental drought reduces the transfer of recently fixed plant carbon to soil microbes and alters the bacterial community composition in a mountain meadow
topic Research
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3908363/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/24171922
http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/nph.12569
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