A genomic perspective on stoichiometric regulation of soil carbon cycling

Similar to plant growth, soil carbon (C) cycling is constrained by the availability of nitrogen (N) and phosphorus (P). We hypothesized that stoichiometric control over soil microbial C cycling may be shaped by functional guilds with distinct nutrient substrate preferences. Across a series of rice fields spanning 5–25% soil C (N:P from 1:12 to 1:70), C turnover was best correlated with P availability and increased with experimental N addition only in lower C (mineral) soils with N:P⩽16. Microbial community membership also varied with soil stoichiometry but not with N addition. Shotgun metagenome data revealed changes in community functions with increasing C turnover, including a shift from aromatic C to carbohydrate utilization accompanied by lower N uptake and P scavenging. Similar patterns of C, N and P acquisition, along with higher ribosomal RNA operon copy numbers, distinguished that microbial taxa positively correlated with C turnover. Considering such tradeoffs in genomic resource allocation patterns among taxa strengthened correlations between microbial community composition and C cycling, suggesting simplified guilds amenable to ecosystem modeling. Our results suggest that patterns of soil C turnover may reflect community-dependent metabolic shifts driven by resource allocation strategies, analogous to growth rate–stoichiometry coupling in animal and plant communities.