Manipulated precipitation regulated carbon and phosphorus limitations of microbial metabolisms in a temperate grassland on the Loess Plateau,China

Manipulated precipitation patterns can profoundly influence the metabolism of soil microorganisms.However,the responses of soil organic carbon(SOC)and nutrient turnover to microbial metabolic limitation under changing precipitation conditions remain unclear in semi-arid ecosystems.This study measured the potential activities of enzymes associated with carbon(C:β-1,4-glucosidase(BG)andβ-D-cellobiosidase(CBH)),nitrogen(N:β-1,4-N-acetylglucosaminidase(NAG)and L-leucine aminopeptidase(LAP))and phosphorus(P:alkaline phosphatase(AP))acquisition,to quantify soil microbial metabolic limitations using enzymatic stoichiometry,and then identify the implications for soil microbial metabolic limitations and carbon use efficiency(CUE)under decreased precipitation by 50%(DP)and increased precipitation by 50%(IP)in a temperate grassland.The results showed that soil C and P were the major elements limiting soil microbial metabolism in temperate grasslands.There was a strong positive dependence between microbial C and P limitations under manipulated precipitation.Microbial metabolism limitation was promoted by DP treatment but reversed by IP treatment.Moreover,CUE was inhibited by DP treatment but promoted by IP treatment.Soil microbial metabolism limitation was mainly regulated by soil moisture and soil C,N,and P stoichiometry,followed by available nutrients(i.e.,NO^(-)_(3),NH^(+)_(4),and dissolved organic C)and microbial biomass(i.e.,MBC and MBN).Overall,these findings highlight the potential role of changing precipitation in regulating ecosystem C turnover by limiting microbial metabolism and CUE in temperate grassland ecosystems.

Coupling changes of soil functional gene abundances and extracellular enzyme activities across the diagnostic horizons of agricultural Isohumosols

Soil functional microbial taxa and extracellular enzymes are involved in a variety of biogeochemical cycling processes.Although many studies have revealed the vertical change patterns of microbial communities along soil profile,the general understanding of the coupling changes in the functional gene abundances(FGAs)and extracellular enzyme activities(EEAs)in soil profiles is still limited,which hinders us from revealing soil ecosystem processes.Herein,we comparatively investigated the FGAs and EEAs in the diagnostic A,B,and C horizons of soil profiles obtained from two suborders of Isohumosols(Mollisols),Ustic and Udic Isohumosols,in Northeast China based on quantitative real-time polymerase chain reaction and standard fluorometric techniques,respectively.The distribution patterns of both FGAs and EEAs significantly distinguished by the two soil suborders and were also separated from A to C horizon.Additionally,the variations of EEAs and FGAs were greater in Udic Isohumosols compared to Ustic Isohumosols along soil profiles,and greater changes were observed in C horizon than in A horizon.Both FGAs and EEAs correspondently decreased along the soil profiles.However,when normalized by soil organic carbon,the specific EEAs significantly increased in deep soil horizons,suggesting that microorganisms will input more resources to the production of enzymes to ensure microbial nutrient requirements under resource scarcity.More importantly,we revealed that soil microbial nutrient demands were limited by carbon(C)and phosphorus(P),and the C and P limitations significantly increased along soil profiles with a greater C limitation observed in Ustic Isohumosols than in Udic Isohumosols.Overall,our findings provided solid evidence showing the links between FGAs,EEAs,and microbial nutrient limitations,which would be helpful for a better understanding of the ecosystem processes in soil profiles.

Heavy metal pollution increases soil microbial carbon limitation:Evidence from ecological enzyme stoichiometry

Heavy metals can exist in soil for a long time and seriously affect soil quality.The coexistence of various heavy metal pollutants leads to biotoxicity and alters the activity of microorganisms.Soil microbial metabolism plays an important role in nutrient cycling and biochemical processes of soil ecosystem.However,the effects of heavy metal contamination on microbial metabolism in soil are still unclear.This study aims to reveal the responses of microbial metabolic limitation to heavy metals using extracellular enzyme stoichiometry,and further to evaluate the potential impacts of heavy metal pollution on soil nutrient cycle.The results showed that soil microbial metabolism reflected by the ecoenzymatic activities had a significant response to soil heavy metals pollution.The metabolism was limited by soil carbon(C)and phosphorus(P)under varied heavy metal levels,and the increase of heavy metal concentration significantly increased the microbial C limitation,while had no effect on microbial P limitation.Microorganisms may increase the energy investment in metabolism to resist heavy metal stress and thus induce C release.The results suggest that energy metabolism selected by microorganisms in response to long-term heavy metal stress could increase soil C release,which is not conducive to the soil C sequestration.Our study emphasizes that ecoenzymatic stoichiometry could be a promising methodology for evaluating the toxicity of heavy metal pollution and its ecological effects on nutrient cycling.

Evaluation methods of heavy metal pollution in soils based on enzyme activities:A review

Soil enzyme activities have been suggested as suitable indicators for the evaluation of metal contamination because they are susceptible to microbial changes caused by heavy metal stress and are strictly related to soil nutrient cycles.However,there is a growing lack of recognition and summary of the historic advancements that use soil enzymology as the proposal of evaluation methods.Here,we review the most common methods of heavy metal pollution evaluation based on enzyme activities,which include single enzyme index,combined enzyme index,enzyme-based functional diversity index,microbiological stress index,and ecoenzymatic stoichiometry models.This review critically examines the advantages and disadvantages of these methods based on their execution complexity,performance,and ecological implications and gets a glimpse of avenues to come to improved future evaluation systems.Indices based on a single enzyme are variable and have no consistent response to soil heavy metals,and the following three composite indices are characterized by the loss of many critical microbial processes,which thus not conducive to reflect the effects of heavy metals on soil ecosystems.Considering the dexterity of ecoenzymatic stoichiometry methods in reflecting changes in soil functions under heavy metal stress,we propose that microbial metabolic limitations quantified by ecoenzymatic stoichiometry models could be promising indicators for enhancing the reality and acceptance of results and further improving the potential for actual utility in environmental decision-making.

Enhanced carbon acquisition and use efficiency alleviate microbial carbon relative to nitrogen limitation under soil acidification

Background:Soil microbial communities cope with an imbalanced supply of resources by adjusting their element acquisition and utilization strategies.Although soil pH has long been considered an essential driver of microbial growth and community composition,little is known about how soil acidification affects microbial acquisition and utilization of carbon(C)and nitrogen(N).To close the knowledge gap,we simulated soil acidification and created a pH gradient by adding eight levels of elemental sulfur(S)to the soil in a meadow steppe.Results:We found that S-induced soil acidification strongly enhanced the ratio of fungi to bacteria(F:B)and microbial biomass C to N(MBC:MBN)and subsequently decreased the C:N imbalance between microbial biomass and their resources.The linear decrease in the C:N imbalance with decreasing soil pH implied a conversion from N limitation to C limitation.To cope with enhanced C versus N limitation,soil microbial communities regulated the relative production of enzymes by increasing the ratio ofβ-glucosidase(BG,C-acquiring enzyme)to leucine aminopeptidase(LAP,N-acquiring enzyme),even though both enzymatic activities decreased with S addition.Structural equation modeling(SEM)suggested that higher C limitation and C:N-acquiring enzyme stimulated microbial carbon-use efficiency(CUE),which counteracted the negative effect of metal stress(i.e.,aluminum and manganese)under soil acidification.Conclusions:Overall,these results highlight the importance of stoichiometric controls in microbial adaption to soil acidification,which may help predict soil microbial responses to future acid deposition.

Shifts in chemical and microbiological properties belowground of invader Ageratina adenophora along an altitudinal gradient

Tropical mountain ecosystems are usually colonized by numerous invasive plant species and represent an ideal‘natural laboratory’to study the effects of altitude on plant invasion.The aim of this study was to investigate the soil chemical and microbiological properties along an altitudinal gradient on a mountain colonized by the invader Ageratina adenophora.Rhizosphere soil of A.adenophora was collected over an altitudinal gradient(1400–2400 m)in Ailao Shan,China.We determined soil organic carbon(C),nutrient contents,enzyme activities,bacterial community composition as well as C and nitrogen(N)contents of the plant roots.Ecoenzymatic stoichiometric indices were calculated to estimate the relative C,N or P limitations of the microbial community.There was a significant effect of altitude on soil organic C in the rhizosphere,and a turning point in these measured variables was detected at an altitude of 2000 m.At low elevations,the rapid growth of invasive plants depleted the deficient phosphorus(P)in tropical soils,leading to microbial P limitation;at high elevations,microbes invested more energy to obtain C from resistant litter,leading to microbial C limitation.Bacterial beta diversity and soil pH contributed most to the altitudinal differences in ecoenzymatic stoichiometry,and Proteobacteria and Acidobacteria were the dominant bacterial phyla that determined the nutrient uptake status of microorganisms.These results demonstrate how microbial nutrient acquisition belowground of A.adenophora along an altitudinal gradient,which could contribute to further knowledge about the effects of altitude on biological invasion.

Long-term warming does not affect soil ecoenzyme activity and original microbial nutrient limitation on the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau

Microbes play an important role in the carbon cycle and nutrient flow of the soil ecosystem.However,the response of microbial activities to long-term warming over decades is poorly understood.To determine how warming changes ecoenzyme activity and microbial nutrient limitation,we conducted a long-term,21 years,experiment,on the Qinghai–Tibet Plateau.We selected typical grass-and shrub-covered plots,used fiberglass open-top chambers(OTCs)to raise the temperature,conducted soil sampling at different depths,studied the response of nutrient-acquiring enzyme activity and stoichiometry,and conducted vector analysis of stoichiometry.Our results showed that long-term warming did not have a notable effect on the activity of nutrient-acquiring enzymes or enzymatic stoichiometry.However,Spearman correlation analysis indicated a significant and positive correlation between ecoenzyme activity and the available nutrients and microbial biomass in soil.Vector analysis of stoichiometry showed phosphorus limitation for all soil microbes at different depths,regardless of whether the soil experienced warming.These changes in enzymatic stoichiometry and vector analysis suggested that microbial nutrient limitation was not alleviated substantially by long-term warming,and warming did not considerably affect the stratification of microbial nutrient limitation.Our research has also shown that long-term warming does not significantly change soil ecoenzyme activity and original microbial nutrient limitation at different soil depths within the OTUsʼimpact range.These results could help improve understanding of microbial thermal acclimation and response to future long-term global warming.