Co-Innovation Center for Sustainable Forestry in Southern China, Jiangsu Province Key Laboratory of Soil and Water Conservation and Ecological Restoration, Nanjing Forestry University, Nanjing, China.
Institute of Plant Ecology, Justus-Liebig University Giessen, Giessen, Germany.
Nat Ecol Evol. 2024 Jul;8(7):1270-1284. doi: 10.1038/s41559-024-02437-1. Epub 2024 Jun 7.
Microbial inoculation involves transplanting microorganisms from their natural habitat to new plants or soils to improve plant performance, and it is being increasingly used in agriculture and ecological restoration. However, microbial inoculants can invade and alter the composition of native microbial communities; thus, a comprehensive analysis is urgently needed to understand the overall impact of microbial inoculants on the biomass, diversity, structure and network complexity of native communities. Here we provide a meta-analysis of 335 studies revealing a positive effect of microbial inoculants on soil microbial biomass. This positive effect was weakened by environmental stress and enhanced by the use of fertilizers and native inoculants. Although microbial inoculants did not alter microbial diversity, they induced major changes in the structure and bacterial composition of soil microbial communities, reducing the complexity of bacterial networks and increasing network stability. Finally, higher initial levels of soil nutrients amplified the positive impact of microbial inoculants on fungal biomass, actinobacterial biomass, microbial biomass carbon and microbial biomass nitrogen. Together, our results highlight the positive effects of microbial inoculants on soil microbial biomass, emphasizing the benefits of native inoculants and the important regulatory roles of soil nutrient levels and environmental stress.
微生物接种涉及将微生物从其自然栖息地移植到新的植物或土壤中，以改善植物性能，并且它在农业和生态恢复中越来越多地被使用。然而，微生物接种剂可能会入侵并改变本地微生物群落的组成；因此，迫切需要进行全面分析，以了解微生物接种剂对本地群落生物量、多样性、结构和网络复杂性的整体影响。在这里，我们提供了对 335 项研究的荟萃分析，这些研究表明微生物接种剂对土壤微生物生物量有积极影响。这种积极影响会被环境压力减弱，并会因使用肥料和本地接种剂而增强。尽管微生物接种剂不会改变微生物多样性，但它们会引起土壤微生物群落结构和细菌组成的重大变化，降低细菌网络的复杂性并增加网络稳定性。最后，较高的初始土壤养分水平会放大微生物接种剂对真菌生物量、放线菌生物量、微生物生物量碳和微生物生物量氮的积极影响。总之，我们的研究结果强调了微生物接种剂对土壤微生物生物量的积极影响，突出了本地接种剂的益处以及土壤养分水平和环境压力的重要调节作用。
