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Abstract
Soil organic matter (SOM) and the carbon and nutrients therein drive fundamental submicron- to global-scale biogeochemical processes and influence carbon-climate feedbacks. Consensus is emerging that microbial materials are an important constituent of stable SOM, and new conceptual and quantitative SOM models are rapidly incorporating this view. However, direct evidence demonstrating that microbial residues account for the chemistry, stability and abundance of SOM is still lacking. Further, emerging models emphasize the stabilization of microbial-derived SOM by abiotic mechanisms, while the effects of microbial physiology on microbial residue production remain unclear. Here we provide the first direct evidence that soil microbes produce chemically diverse, stable SOM. We show that SOM accumulation is driven by distinct microbial communities more so than clay mineralogy, where microbial-derived SOM accumulation is greatest in soils with higher fungal abundances and more efficient microbial biomass production.
Department
Soil Biogeochemistry and Microbial Ecology
Publication Date
11-28-2016
Journal Title
Nature Communications
Publisher
Springer Nature
Digital Object Identifier (DOI)
Document Type
Article
Recommended Citation
Kallenbach, C., Frey, S. & Grandy, A. Direct evidence for microbial-derived soil organic matter formation and its ecophysiological controls. Nat Commun 7, 13630 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1038/ncomms13630
Comments
This is an open access article published by Springer Nature in Nature Communications in 2016, available online: https://dx.doi.org/10.1038/ncomms13630