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Convergence of microbial assimilations of soil carbon, nitrogen, phosphorus, and sulfur in terrestrial ecosystems

How soil microbes assimilate carbon-C, nitrogen-N, phosphorus-P, and sulfur-S is fundamental for understanding nutrient cycling in terrestrial ecosystems. We compiled a global database of C, N, P, and S concentrations in soils and microbes and developed relationships between them by using a power fu...

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Autores principales: Xu, Xiaofeng, Hui, Dafeng, King, Anthony W., Song, Xia, Thornton, Peter E., Zhang, Lihua
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: Nature Publishing Group 2015
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4661723/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/26612423
http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/srep17445
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author Xu, Xiaofeng
Hui, Dafeng
King, Anthony W.
Song, Xia
Thornton, Peter E.
Zhang, Lihua
author_facet Xu, Xiaofeng
Hui, Dafeng
King, Anthony W.
Song, Xia
Thornton, Peter E.
Zhang, Lihua
author_sort Xu, Xiaofeng
collection PubMed
description How soil microbes assimilate carbon-C, nitrogen-N, phosphorus-P, and sulfur-S is fundamental for understanding nutrient cycling in terrestrial ecosystems. We compiled a global database of C, N, P, and S concentrations in soils and microbes and developed relationships between them by using a power function model. The C:N:P:S was estimated to be 287:17:1:0.8 for soils, and 42:6:1:0.4 for microbes. We found a convergence of the relationships between elements in soils and in soil microbial biomass across C, N, P, and S. The element concentrations in soil microbial biomass follow a homeostatic regulation curve with soil element concentrations across C, N, P and S, implying a unifying mechanism of microbial assimilating soil elements. This correlation explains the well-constrained C:N:P:S stoichiometry with a slightly larger variation in soils than in microbial biomass. Meanwhile, it is estimated that the minimum requirements of soil elements for soil microbes are 0.8 mmol C Kg(−1) dry soil, 0.1 mmol N Kg(−1) dry soil, 0.1 mmol P Kg(−1) dry soil, and 0.1 mmol S Kg(−1) dry soil, respectively. These findings provide a mathematical explanation of element imbalance in soils and soil microbial biomass, and offer insights for incorporating microbial contribution to nutrient cycling into Earth system models.
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spelling pubmed-46617232015-12-01 Convergence of microbial assimilations of soil carbon, nitrogen, phosphorus, and sulfur in terrestrial ecosystems Xu, Xiaofeng Hui, Dafeng King, Anthony W. Song, Xia Thornton, Peter E. Zhang, Lihua Sci Rep Article How soil microbes assimilate carbon-C, nitrogen-N, phosphorus-P, and sulfur-S is fundamental for understanding nutrient cycling in terrestrial ecosystems. We compiled a global database of C, N, P, and S concentrations in soils and microbes and developed relationships between them by using a power function model. The C:N:P:S was estimated to be 287:17:1:0.8 for soils, and 42:6:1:0.4 for microbes. We found a convergence of the relationships between elements in soils and in soil microbial biomass across C, N, P, and S. The element concentrations in soil microbial biomass follow a homeostatic regulation curve with soil element concentrations across C, N, P and S, implying a unifying mechanism of microbial assimilating soil elements. This correlation explains the well-constrained C:N:P:S stoichiometry with a slightly larger variation in soils than in microbial biomass. Meanwhile, it is estimated that the minimum requirements of soil elements for soil microbes are 0.8 mmol C Kg(−1) dry soil, 0.1 mmol N Kg(−1) dry soil, 0.1 mmol P Kg(−1) dry soil, and 0.1 mmol S Kg(−1) dry soil, respectively. These findings provide a mathematical explanation of element imbalance in soils and soil microbial biomass, and offer insights for incorporating microbial contribution to nutrient cycling into Earth system models. Nature Publishing Group 2015-11-27 /pmc/articles/PMC4661723/ /pubmed/26612423 http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/srep17445 Text en Copyright © 2015, Macmillan Publishers Limited http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article’s Creative Commons license, unless indicated otherwise in the credit line; if the material is not included under the Creative Commons license, users will need to obtain permission from the license holder to reproduce the material. To view a copy of this license, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
spellingShingle Article
Xu, Xiaofeng
Hui, Dafeng
King, Anthony W.
Song, Xia
Thornton, Peter E.
Zhang, Lihua
Convergence of microbial assimilations of soil carbon, nitrogen, phosphorus, and sulfur in terrestrial ecosystems
title Convergence of microbial assimilations of soil carbon, nitrogen, phosphorus, and sulfur in terrestrial ecosystems
title_full Convergence of microbial assimilations of soil carbon, nitrogen, phosphorus, and sulfur in terrestrial ecosystems
title_fullStr Convergence of microbial assimilations of soil carbon, nitrogen, phosphorus, and sulfur in terrestrial ecosystems
title_full_unstemmed Convergence of microbial assimilations of soil carbon, nitrogen, phosphorus, and sulfur in terrestrial ecosystems
title_short Convergence of microbial assimilations of soil carbon, nitrogen, phosphorus, and sulfur in terrestrial ecosystems
title_sort convergence of microbial assimilations of soil carbon, nitrogen, phosphorus, and sulfur in terrestrial ecosystems
topic Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4661723/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/26612423
http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/srep17445
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