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Summary Microbial nitrogen (N) fixation accounts forc. 97% of natural N inputs to terrestrial ecosystems. These microbes can be free‐living in the soil and leaf litter (asymbiotic) or in symbiosis with plants. Warming is expected to increase N‐fixation rates because warmer temperatures favor the growth and activity of N‐fixing microbes.We investigated the effects of warming on asymbiotic components of N fixation at a field warming experiment in Puerto Rico. We analyzed the function and composition of bacterial communities from surface soil and leaf litter samples.Warming significantly increased asymbiotic N‐fixation rates in soil by 55% (to 0.002 kg ha−1 yr−1) and by 525% in leaf litter (to 14.518 kg ha−1 yr−1). This increase in N fixation was associated with changes in the N‐fixing bacterial community composition and soil nutrients.Our findings suggest that warming increases the natural N inputs from the atmosphere into this tropical forest due to changes in microbial function and composition, especially in the leaf litter. Given the importance of leaf litter in nutrient cycling, future research should investigate other aspects of N cycles in the leaf litter under warming conditions.
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Investigating eco-evolutionary processes of microbial community assembly in the wild using a model leaf litter system
Abstract Microbial communities are not the easiest to manipulate experimentally in natural ecosystems. However, leaf litter—topmost layer of surface soil—is uniquely suitable to investigate the complexities of community assembly. Here, we reflect on over a decade of collaborative work to address this topic using leaf litter as a model system in Southern California ecosystems. By leveraging a number of methodological advantages of the system, we have worked to demonstrate how four processes—selection, dispersal, drift, and diversification—contribute to bacterial and fungal community assembly and ultimately impact community functioning. Although many dimensions remain to be investigated, our initial results demonstrate that both ecological and evolutionary processes occur simultaneously to influence microbial community assembly. We propose that the development of additional and experimentally tractable microbial systems will be enormously valuable to test the role of eco-evolutionary processes in natural settings and their implications in the face of rapid global change.
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- Award ID(s):
- 2113004
- PAR ID:
- 10548252
- Publisher / Repository:
- Oxford Academic
- Date Published:
- Journal Name:
- The ISME Journal
- Volume:
- 18
- Issue:
- 1
- ISSN:
- 1751-7362
- Format(s):
- Medium: X
- Sponsoring Org:
- National Science Foundation
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- Free Publicly Accessible Full Text
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Accepted Manuscript
- Journal Article:
- https://doi.org/10.1093/ismejo/wrae043
