Jiao Shuo, Peng Ziheng, Qi Jiejun, Gao Jiamin, Wei Gehong
State Key Laboratory of Crop Stress Biology in Arid Areas, College of Life Sciences, Northwest A&F University, Yangling, Shaanxi, People's Republic of China
Shaanxi Key Laboratory of Agricultural and Environmental Microbiology, College of Life Sciences, Northwest A&F University, Yangling, Shaanxi, People's Republic of China.
mSystems. 2021 Mar 23;6(2):e01052-20. doi: 10.1128/mSystems.01052-20.
Biodiversity is important for supporting ecosystem functioning. To evaluate the factors contributing to the strength of microbial diversity-function relationships in complex terrestrial ecosystems, we conducted a soil survey over different habitats, including an agricultural field, forest, wetland, grassland, and desert. Soil microbial multidiversity was estimated by the combination of bacterial and fungal diversity. Soil ecosystem functions were evaluated using a multinutrient cycling index (MNC) in relation to carbon, nitrate, phosphorus, and potassium cycling. Significant positive relationships between soil multidiversity and multinutrient cycling were observed in all habitats, except the grassland and desert. Specifically, community compositions showed stronger correlations with multinutrient cycling than α-diversity, indicating the crucial role of microbial community composition differences on soil nutrient cycling. Importantly, we revealed that changes in both the neutral processes (Sloan neutral modeling) and the proportion of negative bacterial-fungal associations were linked to the magnitude and direction of the diversity-MNC relationships. The habitats less governed by neutral processes and dominated by negative bacterial-fungal associations exhibited stronger negative microbial -diversity-MNC relationships. Our findings suggested that the balance between positive and negative bacterial-fungal associations was connected to the link between soil biodiversity and ecosystem function in complex terrestrial ecosystems. This study elucidates the potential factors influencing diversity-function relationships, thereby enabling future studies to forecast the effects of belowground biodiversity on ecosystem function. The relationships between soil biodiversity and ecosystem functions are an important yet poorly understood topic in microbial ecology. This study presents an exploratory effort to gain predictive understanding of the factors driving the relationships between microbial diversity and potential soil nutrient cycling in complex terrestrial ecosystems. Our structural equation modeling and random forest analysis revealed that the balance between positive and negative bacterial-fungal associations was clearly linked to the strength of the relationships between soil microbial diversity and multiple nutrients cycling across different habitats. This study revealed the potential factors underpinning diversity-function relationships in terrestrial ecosystems and thus helps us to manage soil microbial communities for better provisioning of key ecosystem services.
生物多样性对于维持生态系统功能至关重要。为了评估复杂陆地生态系统中影响微生物多样性与功能关系强度的因素，我们在不同栖息地开展了土壤调查，包括农田、森林、湿地、草地和沙漠。通过结合细菌和真菌多样性来估算土壤微生物多多样性。使用与碳、硝酸盐、磷和钾循环相关的多养分循环指数（MNC）来评估土壤生态系统功能。在除草地和沙漠之外的所有栖息地中，均观察到土壤多多样性与多养分循环之间存在显著的正相关关系。具体而言，群落组成与多养分循环的相关性比α多样性更强，这表明微生物群落组成差异对土壤养分循环具有关键作用。重要的是，我们发现中性过程（斯隆中性模型）的变化以及负性细菌 - 真菌关联的比例均与多样性 - MNC关系的大小和方向有关。受中性过程影响较小且以负性细菌 - 真菌关联为主的栖息地表现出更强的负性微生物 - 多样性 - MNC关系。我们的研究结果表明，在复杂陆地生态系统中，正负细菌 - 真菌关联之间的平衡与土壤生物多样性和生态系统功能之间的联系相关。本研究阐明了影响多样性 - 功能关系的潜在因素，从而使未来的研究能够预测地下生物多样性对生态系统功能的影响。土壤生物多样性与生态系统功能之间的关系是微生物生态学中一个重要但尚未得到充分理解的课题。本研究进行了探索性努力，以获得对驱动复杂陆地生态系统中微生物多样性与潜在土壤养分循环之间关系的因素的预测性理解。我们的结构方程模型和随机森林分析表明，正负细菌 - 真菌关联之间的平衡与不同栖息地土壤微生物多样性和多种养分循环之间关系的强度明显相关。本研究揭示了陆地生态系统中多样性 - 功能关系的潜在驱动因素，从而有助于我们管理土壤微生物群落，以更好地提供关键生态系统服务。
