Soil fungal: Bacterial ratios are linked to altered carbon cycling

Ashish A. Malik; Somak Chowdhury; Veronika Schlager; Anna Oliver; Jeremy Puissant; Perla G.M. Vazquez; Nico Jehmlich; Martin von Bergen; Robert I. Griffiths; Gerd Gleixner

doi:10.3389/fmicb.2016.01247

Soil fungal: Bacterial ratios are linked to altered carbon cycling

Ashish A. Malik^* (Corresponding Author), Somak Chowdhury, Veronika Schlager, Anna Oliver, Jeremy Puissant, Perla G.M. Vazquez, Nico Jehmlich, Martin von Bergen, Robert I. Griffiths, Gerd Gleixner

^*Corresponding author for this work

Aberdeen Centre For Environmental Sustainability

Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review

256 Citations (Scopus)

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Abstract

Despite several lines of observational evidence, there is a lack of consensus on whether higher fungal:bacterial (F:B) ratios directly cause higher soil carbon (C) storage. We employed RNA sequencing, protein profiling and isotope tracer techniques to evaluate whether differing F:B ratios are associated with differences in C storage. A mesocosm ¹³C labeled foliar litter decomposition experiment was performed in two soils that were similar in their physico-chemical properties but differed in microbial community structure, specifically their F:B ratio (determined by PLFA analyses, RNA sequencing and protein profiling; all three corroborating each other). Following litter addition, we observed a consistent increase in abundance of fungal phyla; and greater increases in the fungal dominated soil; implicating the role of fungi in litter decomposition. Litter derived ¹³C in respired CO₂ was consistently lower, and residual ¹³C in bulk SOM was higher in high F:B soil demonstrating greater C storage potential in the F:B dominated soil. We conclude that in this soil system, the increased abundance of fungi in both soils and the altered C cycling patterns in the F:B dominated soils highlight the significant role of fungi in litter decomposition and indicate that F:B ratios are linked to higher C storage potential.

Original language	English
Article number	1247
Number of pages	11
Journal	Frontiers in Microbiology
Volume	7
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.3389/fmicb.2016.01247
Publication status	Published - 9 Aug 2016

Bibliographical note

Acknowledgments
We thank Steffen Ruehlow, Agnes Fastnacht, Karl Kuebler, Iris Kuhlmann, Heike Geilmann, and Petra Linke for technical support in establishing the experiment and with stable isotope analyses. We also thank Markus Lange, Daniel Read, and Hyun Gweon for helpful discussions.

Funding
AM has received funding from Max Planck Society and the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation program under the Marie Sklodowska-Curie grant agreement No 655240. AM has also received a career orientation grant from the Jena School for Microbial Communication (JSMC) that funded the laboratory visits. DFG SFB Aquadiva funded part of this work.

Keywords

Bacteria
Fungi
Litter decomposition
Proteomics
RNA sequencing
Soil carbon
Stable isotopes

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© 2016 Malik, Chowdhury, Schlager, Oliver, Puissant, Vazquez, Jehmlich, von Bergen, Griffiths and Gleixner. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
Final published version, 1.91 MBLicence: CC BY

Cite this

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title = "Soil fungal: Bacterial ratios are linked to altered carbon cycling",

abstract = "Despite several lines of observational evidence, there is a lack of consensus on whether higher fungal:bacterial (F:B) ratios directly cause higher soil carbon (C) storage. We employed RNA sequencing, protein profiling and isotope tracer techniques to evaluate whether differing F:B ratios are associated with differences in C storage. A mesocosm 13C labeled foliar litter decomposition experiment was performed in two soils that were similar in their physico-chemical properties but differed in microbial community structure, specifically their F:B ratio (determined by PLFA analyses, RNA sequencing and protein profiling; all three corroborating each other). Following litter addition, we observed a consistent increase in abundance of fungal phyla; and greater increases in the fungal dominated soil; implicating the role of fungi in litter decomposition. Litter derived 13C in respired CO2 was consistently lower, and residual 13C in bulk SOM was higher in high F:B soil demonstrating greater C storage potential in the F:B dominated soil. We conclude that in this soil system, the increased abundance of fungi in both soils and the altered C cycling patterns in the F:B dominated soils highlight the significant role of fungi in litter decomposition and indicate that F:B ratios are linked to higher C storage potential.",

keywords = "Bacteria, Fungi, Litter decomposition, Proteomics, RNA sequencing, Soil carbon, Stable isotopes",

author = "Malik, {Ashish A.} and Somak Chowdhury and Veronika Schlager and Anna Oliver and Jeremy Puissant and Vazquez, {Perla G.M.} and Nico Jehmlich and {von Bergen}, Martin and Griffiths, {Robert I.} and Gerd Gleixner",

note = "Acknowledgments We thank Steffen Ruehlow, Agnes Fastnacht, Karl Kuebler, Iris Kuhlmann, Heike Geilmann, and Petra Linke for technical support in establishing the experiment and with stable isotope analyses. We also thank Markus Lange, Daniel Read, and Hyun Gweon for helpful discussions. Funding AM has received funding from Max Planck Society and the European Union{\textquoteright}s Horizon 2020 research and innovation program under the Marie Sklodowska-Curie grant agreement No 655240. AM has also received a career orientation grant from the Jena School for Microbial Communication (JSMC) that funded the laboratory visits. DFG SFB Aquadiva funded part of this work.",

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AU - Malik, Ashish A.

AU - Chowdhury, Somak

AU - Schlager, Veronika

AU - Oliver, Anna

AU - Puissant, Jeremy

AU - Vazquez, Perla G.M.

AU - Jehmlich, Nico

AU - von Bergen, Martin

AU - Griffiths, Robert I.

AU - Gleixner, Gerd

N1 - Acknowledgments We thank Steffen Ruehlow, Agnes Fastnacht, Karl Kuebler, Iris Kuhlmann, Heike Geilmann, and Petra Linke for technical support in establishing the experiment and with stable isotope analyses. We also thank Markus Lange, Daniel Read, and Hyun Gweon for helpful discussions. Funding AM has received funding from Max Planck Society and the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation program under the Marie Sklodowska-Curie grant agreement No 655240. AM has also received a career orientation grant from the Jena School for Microbial Communication (JSMC) that funded the laboratory visits. DFG SFB Aquadiva funded part of this work.

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N2 - Despite several lines of observational evidence, there is a lack of consensus on whether higher fungal:bacterial (F:B) ratios directly cause higher soil carbon (C) storage. We employed RNA sequencing, protein profiling and isotope tracer techniques to evaluate whether differing F:B ratios are associated with differences in C storage. A mesocosm 13C labeled foliar litter decomposition experiment was performed in two soils that were similar in their physico-chemical properties but differed in microbial community structure, specifically their F:B ratio (determined by PLFA analyses, RNA sequencing and protein profiling; all three corroborating each other). Following litter addition, we observed a consistent increase in abundance of fungal phyla; and greater increases in the fungal dominated soil; implicating the role of fungi in litter decomposition. Litter derived 13C in respired CO2 was consistently lower, and residual 13C in bulk SOM was higher in high F:B soil demonstrating greater C storage potential in the F:B dominated soil. We conclude that in this soil system, the increased abundance of fungi in both soils and the altered C cycling patterns in the F:B dominated soils highlight the significant role of fungi in litter decomposition and indicate that F:B ratios are linked to higher C storage potential.

AB - Despite several lines of observational evidence, there is a lack of consensus on whether higher fungal:bacterial (F:B) ratios directly cause higher soil carbon (C) storage. We employed RNA sequencing, protein profiling and isotope tracer techniques to evaluate whether differing F:B ratios are associated with differences in C storage. A mesocosm 13C labeled foliar litter decomposition experiment was performed in two soils that were similar in their physico-chemical properties but differed in microbial community structure, specifically their F:B ratio (determined by PLFA analyses, RNA sequencing and protein profiling; all three corroborating each other). Following litter addition, we observed a consistent increase in abundance of fungal phyla; and greater increases in the fungal dominated soil; implicating the role of fungi in litter decomposition. Litter derived 13C in respired CO2 was consistently lower, and residual 13C in bulk SOM was higher in high F:B soil demonstrating greater C storage potential in the F:B dominated soil. We conclude that in this soil system, the increased abundance of fungi in both soils and the altered C cycling patterns in the F:B dominated soils highlight the significant role of fungi in litter decomposition and indicate that F:B ratios are linked to higher C storage potential.

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KW - Fungi

KW - Litter decomposition

KW - Proteomics

KW - RNA sequencing

KW - Soil carbon

KW - Stable isotopes

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JO - Frontiers in Microbiology

JF - Frontiers in Microbiology

M1 - 1247

ER -

Soil fungal: Bacterial ratios are linked to altered carbon cycling

Abstract

Bibliographical note

Keywords

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Ashish Malik

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Soil fungal: Bacterial ratios are linked to altered carbon cycling

Abstract

Bibliographical note

Keywords

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Ashish Malik

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