It is elemental: soil nutrient stoichiometry drives bacterial diversity

• Published in: Environmental microbiology Vol. 19; no. 3; pp. 1176 - 1188
• Main Authors: Delgado‐Baquerizo, Manuel, Reich, Peter B., Khachane, Amit N., Campbell, Colin D., Thomas, Nadine, Freitag, Thomas E., Abu Al‐Soud, Waleed, Sørensen, Søren, Bardgett, Richard D., Singh, Brajesh K.
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: England Wiley Subscription Services, Inc 01.03.2017
• Subjects: Abiotic factors; Bacteria; Bacteria - classification; Bacteria - genetics; Bacteria - isolation & purification; Bacteria - metabolism; Biodiversity; Biomass; carbon; Carbon - analysis; Carbon - metabolism; Climate; Ecosystem; ecosystems; environmental factors; Heterogeneity; Land use; microbial biomass; nitrogen; Nitrogen - analysis; Nitrogen - metabolism; phosphorus; Phosphorus - analysis; Phosphorus - metabolism; Plant Roots - microbiology; Plants - microbiology; Scotland; Soil - chemistry; soil bacteria; Soil Microbiology; Soil microorganisms; Soil nutrients; Soil pH; Soils; spatial variation; Statistical models; stoichiometry; British Isles, Scotland; Scotland
• DOI: 10.1111/1462-2920.13642
• ISSN: 1462-2912

Summary It is well established that resource quantity and elemental stoichiometry play major roles in shaping below and aboveground plant biodiversity, but their importance for shaping microbial diversity in soil remains unclear. Here, we used statistical modeling on a regional database covering 179 locations and six ecosystem types across Scotland to evaluate the roles of total carbon (C), nitrogen (N) and phosphorus (P) availabilities and ratios, together with land use, climate and biotic and abiotic factors, in determining regional scale patterns of soil bacterial diversity. We found that bacterial diversity and composition were primarily driven by variation in soil resource stoichiometry (total C:N:P ratios), itself linked to different land uses, and secondarily driven by other important biodiversity drivers such as climate, soil spatial heterogeneity, soil pH, root influence (plant‐soil microbe interactions) and microbial biomass (soil microbe‐microbe interactions). In aggregate, these findings provide evidence that nutrient stoichiometry is a strong predictor of bacterial diversity and composition at a regional scale.