Global patterns in belowground communities

Although belowground ecosystems have been studied extensively and soil biota play integral roles in biogeochemical processes, surprisingly we have a limited understanding of global patterns in belowground biomass and community structure. To address this critical gap, we conducted a meta-analysis of...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Ecology letters 2009-11, Vol.12 (11), p.1238-1249
Main Authors: Fierer, Noah, Strickland, Michael S, Liptzin, Daniel, Bradford, Mark A, Cleveland, Cory C
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
16S rRNA
Acari
Animal and plant ecology
Animal, plant and microbial ecology
Animals
Arachnida
Bacteria - genetics
Bacteria - growth & development
Biological and medical sciences
Biomass
Carbon - analysis
Collembola
Comparative studies
Ecology
Ecosystem
Fundamental and applied biological sciences. Psychology
General aspects
Invertebrates
Meta-analysis
Nematoda
nematodes
Nitrogen - analysis
Plant Development
Ratios
soil bacteria
soil faunal biomass
soil food webs
soil fungi
soil microbial biomass
Soil Microbiology
Soil microorganisms
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Summary:Although belowground ecosystems have been studied extensively and soil biota play integral roles in biogeochemical processes, surprisingly we have a limited understanding of global patterns in belowground biomass and community structure. To address this critical gap, we conducted a meta-analysis of published data (> 1300 datapoints) to compare belowground plant, microbial and faunal biomass across seven of the major biomes on Earth. We also assembled data to assess biome-level patterns in belowground microbial community composition. Our analysis suggests that variation in microbial biomass is predictable across biomes, with microbial biomass carbon representing 0.6-1.1% of soil organic carbon (r² = 0.91) and 1-20% of total plant biomass carbon (r² = 0.42). Approximately 50% of total animal biomass can be found belowground and soil faunal biomass represents < 4% of microbial biomass across all biomes. The structure of belowground microbial communities is also predictable: bacterial community composition and fungal : bacterial gene ratios can be predicted reasonably well from soil pH and soil C : N ratios respectively. Together these results identify robust patterns in the structure of belowground microbial and faunal communities at broad scales which may be explained by universal mechanisms that regulate belowground biota across biomes.
ISSN:1461-023X
1461-0248
DOI:10.1111/j.1461-0248.2009.01360.x