Department of Evolutionary Biology and Environmental Studies, University of Zurich, Zurich, Switzerland.
Université Paris-Saclay, INRAE, AgroParisTech, UMR EcoSys, Palaiseau, France.
Nat Commun. 2024 Sep 14;15(1):8065. doi: 10.1038/s41467-024-52449-5.
Expanding and intensifying agriculture has led to a loss of soil carbon. As agroecosystems cover over 40% of Earth's land surface, they must be part of the solution put in action to mitigate climate change. Development of efficient management practices to maximize soil carbon retention is currently limited, in part, by a poor understanding of how plants, which input carbon to soil, and microbes, which determine its fate there, interact. Here we implement a diversity gradient by intercropping undersown species with barley in a large field trial, ranging from one to eight undersown species. We find that increasing plant diversity strengthens positive associations within the rhizosphere soil microbial community in relation to negative associations. These associations, in turn, enhance community carbon use efficiency. Jointly, our results highlight how increasing plant diversity in agriculture can be used as a management strategy to enhance carbon retention potential in agricultural soils.
农业的扩张和集约化导致了土壤碳的流失。由于农业生态系统覆盖了地球表面的 40%以上，它们必须成为应对气候变化所采取措施的一部分。目前，开发高效的管理实践以最大程度地保留土壤碳的做法受到限制，部分原因是对向土壤输入碳的植物和决定其命运的微生物之间如何相互作用的理解不足。在这里，我们通过在大田试验中混播间作物种来实施多样性梯度，间作物种从一种到八种不等。我们发现，增加植物多样性会增强根际土壤微生物群落中与负相关的正相关关系。反过来，这些关联又会提高群落的碳利用效率。总之，我们的研究结果强调了如何在农业中增加植物多样性作为一种管理策略，以提高农业土壤的碳封存潜力。
