Soil microbial communities with greater investment in resource acquisition have lower growth yield

Resource acquisition and growth yield are fundamental microbial traits that affect biogeochemical processes and have consequences for ecosystem functioning. However, there is a lack of empirical observations linking these traits. Using a landscape-scale survey of temperate near-neutral pH soils, we...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Soil biology & biochemistry 2019-05, Vol.132 (C), p.36-39
Main Authors: Malik, Ashish A., Puissant, Jeremy, Goodall, Tim, Allison, Steven D., Griffiths, Robert I.
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Agriculture
Carbon
Carbon use efficiency
Enzymes
Microbial communities
Nitrogen
Traits
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Summary:Resource acquisition and growth yield are fundamental microbial traits that affect biogeochemical processes and have consequences for ecosystem functioning. However, there is a lack of empirical observations linking these traits. Using a landscape-scale survey of temperate near-neutral pH soils, we show tradeoffs in key community-level parameters linked to these traits. Increased investment into extracellular enzymes estimated using specific potential enzyme activity was associated with reduced growth yield obtained using carbon use efficiency measures from stable isotope tracing. Reduction in growth yield was linked more to carbon than nitrogen acquisition highlighting smaller stoichiometric than energetic constraints on community metabolism in examined soils. •Evidence for tradeoff in microbial resource acquisition and growth yield traits.•Growth yield patterns linked more to carbon than nitrogen enzyme activity.•Smaller stoichiometric than energetic constraints on community metabolism.•Community-aggregated trait tradeoffs have consequences for soil carbon cycling.
ISSN:0038-0717
1879-3428
DOI:10.1016/j.soilbio.2019.01.025