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Microbial resilience to drying-rewetting is partly driven by selection for quick colonizers

Hicks, Lettice LU ; Lin, Simon and Rousk, Johannes LU (2022) In Soil Biology and Biochemistry 167.
Abstract
Rewetting dry soil induces enormous changes in microbial growth and biogeochemistry. Upon drying-rewetting (D/RW), bacteria have been shown to exhibit two different responses: (1) a more resilient response where bacteria start growing immediately with a quick recovery after rewetting and (2) a less resilient response where there is a pronounced lag-period before bacterial growth starts to increase exponentially. A shift towards a more resilient bacterial growth response has previously been shown to be induced by exposing soils to repeated cycles of D/RW. Here, we test the hypothesis that this response is driven by selection for a bacterial community with traits for quick colonization of labile carbon (C) resources made available upon D/RW.... (More)
Rewetting dry soil induces enormous changes in microbial growth and biogeochemistry. Upon drying-rewetting (D/RW), bacteria have been shown to exhibit two different responses: (1) a more resilient response where bacteria start growing immediately with a quick recovery after rewetting and (2) a less resilient response where there is a pronounced lag-period before bacterial growth starts to increase exponentially. A shift towards a more resilient bacterial growth response has previously been shown to be induced by exposing soils to repeated cycles of D/RW. Here, we test the hypothesis that this response is driven by selection for a bacterial community with traits for quick colonization of labile carbon (C) resources made available upon D/RW. To do so, we compared the responses of soils that had been exposed to either (i) three cycles of D/RW, (ii) three pulses of glucose addition to moist soil or (iii) three pulses of litter addition to moist soil, before all soils were subjected to a D/RW event where bacterial growth, fungal growth and respiration rates were monitored. As expected, exposing the soil to a series of D/RW events resulted in a more resilient bacterial growth response, as well as a faster recovery of fungal growth. Pre-treating the soils with pulses of glucose accelerated the recovery of bacteria after D/RW, but did not select for a bacterial resilience that could match the pre-treatment with exposure to D/RW. Pre-treatment with pulses of litter showed a trend for an accelerated recovery of bacterial growth to D/RW, but to a lesser extent than that induced by pulses of glucose. In contrast, pre-treatment of soil with either pulses of glucose or pulses of litter both led to a faster recovery of fungal growth following D/RW, matching that induced by repeated D/RW cycles. These results suggest that selection for quick colonizers partly explains the shift to a more resilient microbial response to repeated cycles of D/RW, accounting for ca. 60% increase in bacterial resilience and 100% of the increase in fungal resilience compared that induced by repeated D/RW cycles. (Less)
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author
; and
organization
publishing date
type
Contribution to journal
publication status
published
subject
keywords
Birch effect, C cycling, Decomposition, Drying-rewetting, Glucose, Labile C substrate, Litter inputs, Microbial community traits, Microbial resilience
in
Soil Biology and Biochemistry
volume
167
article number
108581
pages
7 pages
publisher
Elsevier
external identifiers
  • scopus:85124271089
  • scopus:85124271089
ISSN
0038-0717
DOI
10.1016/j.soilbio.2022.108581
language
English
LU publication?
yes
id
2405bd24-207c-4797-9981-262e5f319c8d
date added to LUP
2022-02-16 11:38:35
date last changed
2024-05-04 22:41:16
@article{2405bd24-207c-4797-9981-262e5f319c8d,
  abstract     = {{Rewetting dry soil induces enormous changes in microbial growth and biogeochemistry. Upon drying-rewetting (D/RW), bacteria have been shown to exhibit two different responses: (1) a more resilient response where bacteria start growing immediately with a quick recovery after rewetting and (2) a less resilient response where there is a pronounced lag-period before bacterial growth starts to increase exponentially. A shift towards a more resilient bacterial growth response has previously been shown to be induced by exposing soils to repeated cycles of D/RW. Here, we test the hypothesis that this response is driven by selection for a bacterial community with traits for quick colonization of labile carbon (C) resources made available upon D/RW. To do so, we compared the responses of soils that had been exposed to either (i) three cycles of D/RW, (ii) three pulses of glucose addition to moist soil or (iii) three pulses of litter addition to moist soil, before all soils were subjected to a D/RW event where bacterial growth, fungal growth and respiration rates were monitored. As expected, exposing the soil to a series of D/RW events resulted in a more resilient bacterial growth response, as well as a faster recovery of fungal growth. Pre-treating the soils with pulses of glucose accelerated the recovery of bacteria after D/RW, but did not select for a bacterial resilience that could match the pre-treatment with exposure to D/RW. Pre-treatment with pulses of litter showed a trend for an accelerated recovery of bacterial growth to D/RW, but to a lesser extent than that induced by pulses of glucose. In contrast, pre-treatment of soil with either pulses of glucose or pulses of litter both led to a faster recovery of fungal growth following D/RW, matching that induced by repeated D/RW cycles. These results suggest that selection for quick colonizers partly explains the shift to a more resilient microbial response to repeated cycles of D/RW, accounting for ca. 60% increase in bacterial resilience and 100% of the increase in fungal resilience compared that induced by repeated D/RW cycles.}},
  author       = {{Hicks, Lettice and Lin, Simon and Rousk, Johannes}},
  issn         = {{0038-0717}},
  keywords     = {{Birch effect; C cycling; Decomposition; Drying-rewetting; Glucose; Labile C substrate; Litter inputs; Microbial community traits; Microbial resilience}},
  language     = {{eng}},
  publisher    = {{Elsevier}},
  series       = {{Soil Biology and Biochemistry}},
  title        = {{Microbial resilience to drying-rewetting is partly driven by selection for quick colonizers}},
  url          = {{http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.soilbio.2022.108581}},
  doi          = {{10.1016/j.soilbio.2022.108581}},
  volume       = {{167}},
  year         = {{2022}},
}