Microbial Taxa and Soil Organic Carbon Accumulation Driven by Tree Roots

Wenchen Song,Yanhong Liu

doi:10.3390/f9060333

Abstract

Rhizosphere microbes in forests are key elements for carbon accumulation in terrestrial ecosystems. To date, little is known on the rhizomicrobial community changes occurring during soil carbon accumulation. Using high-throughput DNA sequencing, we identified the phyla composing the rhizomicrobial communities of Pinus tabuliformis Carr. and Quercus variabilis Blume forests in North China and their abundance. These results were correlated with the soil organic carbon (SOC) accumulation driven by tree roots. Rhizomicrobial community composition and abundance and SOC accumulation varied with tree species, but root presence benefited SOC accumulation significantly. Different phyla played different roles in root-driven carbon accumulation during the succession of a recovery forest ecosystem, but Proteobacteria and Basidiomycota were keystones for root-driven carbon accumulation.

Highlights

Carbon (C) input from plants into soil is an important flux in the terrestrial C cycle, and it is crucial for C accumulation, and for the maintenance of soil fertility and ecosystem stability and function [1,2]
We demonstrated that microbial community composition changed according to root-associated Soil organic carbon (SOC) accumulation along the primary succession of forest ecosystems
Proteobacteria were keystone organisms for root-driven C accumulation in primary succession and Basidiomycota were the keystone for root-driven C accumulation in climax communities

Summary

Introduction

Carbon (C) input from plants into soil is an important flux in the terrestrial C cycle, and it is crucial for C accumulation, and for the maintenance of soil fertility and ecosystem stability and function [1,2]. Soil organic carbon (SOC) is thought to derive mostly from the decomposition of litter [3]. Plant-microbe interactions in soil play a central role in terrestrial ecosystem functions and may control up to half of the total carbon dioxide (CO2 ) released from terrestrial ecosystems at the global scale [5]. The root-microbial system can transfer organic C directly from the plant to the soil carbon pool [8], and the biomass and secretions of microbes are large sources of SOC [9]

Methods

Results

Discussion

Conclusion