Land management shapes drought responses of dominant soil microbial taxa across grasslands

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

Electronic versions

Documents

DOI

  • J M Lavallee
    The University of Manchester
  • M Chomel
    The University of Manchester
  • N Alvarez Segura
    University of Aberdeen
  • F de Castro
    Queen's University, Belfast
  • T Goodall
    Centre for Ecology and Hydrology, Wallingford
  • M Magilton
    Queen's University, Belfast
  • J M Rhymes
    Department of Earth and Environmental SciencesThe University of ManchesterCentre for Ecology and Hydrology, Bangor
  • M Delgado-Baquerizo
    Laboratorio de Biodiversidad y Funcionamiento Ecosistémico. Instituto de Recursos Naturales y Agrobiología de Sevilla (IRNAS)
  • R I Griffiths
    Centre for Ecology and Hydrology, Wallingford
  • E M Baggs
    University of Edinburgh
  • T Caruso
    University College Dublin
  • F T de Vries
    The University of Manchester
  • M Emmerson
    Queen's University, Belfast
  • D Johnson
    Department of Earth and Environmental SciencesThe University of Manchester
  • R D Bardgett
    The University of Manchester

Soil microbial communities are dominated by a relatively small number of taxa that may play outsized roles in ecosystem functioning, yet little is known about their capacities to resist and recover from climate extremes such as drought, or how environmental context mediates those responses. Here, we imposed an in situ experimental drought across 30 diverse UK grassland sites with contrasting management intensities and found that: (1) the majority of dominant bacterial (85%) and fungal (89%) taxa exhibit resistant or opportunistic drought strategies, possibly contributing to their ubiquity and dominance across sites; and (2) intensive grassland management decreases the proportion of drought-sensitive and non-resilient dominant bacteria-likely via alleviation of nutrient limitation and pH-related stress under fertilisation and liming-but has the opposite impact on dominant fungi. Our results suggest a potential mechanism by which intensive management promotes bacteria over fungi under drought with implications for soil functioning.

Keywords

  • Ecosystem, Soil, Grassland, Soil Microbiology, Conservation of Natural Resources, Droughts, Bacteria/genetics, Microbiota
Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)29
JournalNature Communications
Volume15
Issue number1
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 2 Jan 2024
View graph of relations