Soil microbial communities are extremely complex, being composed of thousands of low-abundance species (<0.1% of total). How such complex communities respond to natural or human-induced fluctuations, including major perturbations such as global climate change, remains poorly understood, severely limiting our predictive ability for soil ecosystem functioning and resilience. In this […]
Arizona and New Mexico receive half of their annual precipitation during the summer monsoon season, making this large-scale rain event critical for ecosystem productivity. We used the monsoon rains to explore the responses of soil bacterial and fungal communities to natural moisture pulses in a semiarid grassland. Through 454 pyrosequencing […]
Microbial necromass is an important source of stabilized organic matter in soil, yet the decomposition dynamics of necromass constituents have not been adequately characterized. This includes DNA, a nutrient-rich molecule that when released into the environment as extracellular DNA (eDNA) can be readily used by soil microorganisms. However, the ecological […]
Climate change-associated sea level rise is expected to cause saltwater intrusion into many historically freshwater ecosystems. Of particular concern are tidal freshwater wetlands, which perform several important ecological functions including carbon sequestration. To predict the impact of saltwater intrusion in these environments, we must first gain a better understanding of […]
Understanding when biodiversity conservation and ecosystem-service maintenance are compatible is needed within the Intergovernmental Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES). Here, we evaluate current understanding and uncertainties of the effects of biodiversity change on selected ecosystem services and suggest ways to further understand the links between biodiversity change and […]
Understanding the response of permafrost microbial communities to climate warming is crucial for evaluating ecosystem feedbacks to global change. This study investigated soil bacterial and archaeal communities by Illumina MiSeq sequencing of 16S rRNA gene amplicons across a permafrost thaw gradient at different depths in Alaska with thaw progression for […]
The efficiency with which microbes use substrate (Carbon Use Efficiency or CUE) to make new microbial biomass is an important variable in soil and ecosystem C cycling models. It is generally assumed that CUE of microbial activity in soils is low, however measured values vary widely. It is hypothesized that […]
Rising temperatures are expected to reduce global soil carbon (C) stocks, driving a positive feedback to climate change1, 2, 3. However, the mechanisms underlying this prediction are not well understood, including how temperature affects microbial enzyme kinetics, growth efficiency (MGE), and turnover4, 5. Here, in a laboratory study, we show […]
Soils and other unconsolidated deposits in the northern circumpolar permafrost region store large amounts of soil organic carbon (SOC). This SOC is potentially vulnerable to remobilization following soil warming and permafrost thaw, but SOC stock estimates were poorly constrained and quantitative error estimates were lacking. This study presents revised estimates […]
Ecoss studies the interactions of plants with their physical and biotic environments at a fundamental level common to all organisms: gas exchange, energy balance, and water relations. We explore how plants make a living in diverse environments ranging from deserts to rainforests. A longstanding interest is the biophysical and ecological […]