Effects of resource quality and availability on soil microorganisms and their carbon assimilation
Final Report Abstract
The role of subproject 4 in the research group was to specify the importance of bacteria and fungi for carbon transfer from different resources (simple carbon compounds to complex material like root and leave litter) to the micro-food web. We used two established field experiments, to clarify the spatial and temporal incorporation of carbon into different members of the soil microbial communities. We provided data on bacterial and fungal carbon derived from direct incorporation of maize carbon and by indirect incorporation by cross-feeding. Over a period of five years fungi incorporated up to 80 percent of carbon derived from maize into their biomass. These comparable to bacteria high incorporation rates of fungi might be caused by two different reasons: Fungi are characterised by higher carbon use efficiency than bacteria and/or fungi could store the assimilated carbon longer than bacteria. We will be able to answer this question after finalizing the last microcosm experiment using a reciprocal transfer of litter material on top of soil cores. SIP techniques under lab conditions were used to follow over a period of 32 days the early incorporation of carbon into different members of the microbial communities. The unexpected result underpin the new theory that newly added substrates are not used by a strict succession of different members of the soil microbial community starting with bacterial colonization using easily available substrates followed by fungi using more recalcitrant compounds. Instead, our microcosms experiment support the view that different members of bacteria, fungi as well as protists make immediately use of a new resource in soil. Consequently, we have to carefully modify the idea of separate bacterial and fungal energy channels.
Publications
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(2012) Carbon flow into microbial and fungal biomass as basis for the belowground food web of agroecosystems. Pedobiologia 55, 111-119
Kramer, S., Marhan, S., Ruess, L., Armbruster, W., Butenschoen, O., Haslwimmer, H., Kuzyakov, Y., Pausch, J., Scheunemann, N., Schoene, J., Schmalwasser, A., Totsche, K.U., Walker, F., Scheu, S., Kandeler, E.
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(2012) Effects of resource availability and quality on the structure of the micro-food web of an arable soil across depth. Soil Biology and Biochemistry 50, 1-11
Scharroba, A., Dibbern, D., Hünninghaus, M., Kramer, S., Moll, J., Butenschoen, O., Bonkowski, M., Buscot, F., Kandeler, E., Koller, R. Krüger, D., Lueders, T., Scheu, S., Ruess, L.
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(2013) Temporal variation of surface and subsoil abundance and function of the soil microbial community in an arable soil. Soil Biology and Biochemistry 61, 76-85
Kramer, S., Marhan, S., Haslwimmer, H., Kandeler, E.
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(2015) Resource type and availability regulate fungal communities along arable soil profiles. Microbial Ecology, 70, 390-399
Moll, J., Goldmann, K., Kramer, S., Hempel, S., Kandeler, E., Ruess, L., Krüger, D., Marhan, S., Buscot, F.
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(2015) Small but active – the fungal channel drives carbon flow in the food web of an arable soil. Functional Ecology, 30, 479-489
Pausch, J., Kramer, S., Scharroba, A., Scheunemann, N., Butenschoen, O., Kandeler, E., Marhan, S., Riederer, M., Scheu, S., Kuzyakov, Y., Ruess, L.
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(2016) Carbon transfer from maize roots and litter into bacteria and fungi depends on soil depth and time. Soil Biology and Biochemistry 93, 79–89
Müller, K., Kramer, S., Haslwimmer, H., Marhan, S., Scheunemann, N., Butenschön, N., Scheu, S., Kandeler, E.
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(2016) Incorporation of root C and fertilizer N into the food web of an arable soil: Variations with taxonomic and trophic position. Food Webs 9, 39-45
Scheunemann, N., Pausch, J., Digel, C., Kramer, S., Scharroba, A., Kuzyakov, Y., Kandeler, E., Ruess, L., Butenschoen, O., Scheu, S.
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(2016) Resource partitioning between bacteria, fungi and protists in the detritusphere of an agricultural soil. Frontiers Microbiology 7, 1524
Kramer, S., Dibbern, D., Moll, J., Huenninghaus, M., Krueger, D., Marhan, S., Urich, T., Wubet, T., Bonkowski, M., Buscot, F., Lueders, T., Kandeler, E.
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(2016) Spatial and temporal variation in resource allocation in an arable soil drives community structure and biomass of nematodes and their role in the micro-food web. Pedobiologia 59, 111-120
Scharroba, A., Kramer, S., Kandeler, E., Ruess, L.
