Land management shapes drought responses of dominant soil microbial taxa across grasslands

Jocelyn M.  Lavallee; Mathilde Chomel; Nil Alvarez-Segura; Francisco De Castro; Tim Goodall; Matthew  Magilton; Jennifer M.  Rhymes; Manuel Delgado-Baquerizo; Robert I. Griffiths; Liz Baggs; Tancredi Caruso; Franciska T. De Vries; Mark C. Emmerson; D. Johnson; Richard D. Bardgett

doi:10.1038/s41467-023-43864-1

Land management shapes drought responses of dominant soil microbial taxa across grasslands

Jocelyn M. Lavallee, Mathilde Chomel, Nil Alvarez-Segura, Francisco De Castro, Tim Goodall, Matthew Magilton, Jennifer M. Rhymes, Manuel Delgado-Baquerizo, Robert I. Griffiths, Liz Baggs, Tancredi Caruso , Franciska T. De Vries, Mark C. Emmerson , D. Johnson, Richard D. Bardgett

Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review

Abstract / Description of output

Soil microbial communities are dominated by a relatively small number of taxa that may play outsized roles in ecosystem functioning, yet little is known about their capacities to resist and recover from climate extremes such as drought, or how environmental context mediates those responses. Here, we imposed an in situ experimental drought across 30 diverse UK grassland sites with contrasting management intensities and found that: (1) the majority of dominant bacterial (85%) and fungal (89%) taxa exhibit resistant or opportunistic drought strategies, possibly contributing to their ubiquity and dominance across sites; and (2) intensive grassland management decreases the proportion of drought-sensitive and non-resilient dominant bacteria-likely via alleviation of nutrient limitation and pH-related stress under fertilisation and liming-but has the opposite impact on dominant fungi. Our results suggest a potential mechanism by which intensive management promotes bacteria over fungi under drought with implications for soil functioning.

Original language	English
Article number	29
Pages (from-to)	1-11
Number of pages	11
Journal	Nature Communications
Volume	15
Issue number	1
Early online date	2 Jan 2024
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-023-43864-1
Publication status	Published - 2 Jan 2024

Keywords / Materials (for Non-textual outputs)

Bacteria/genetics
Conservation of Natural Resources
Droughts
Ecosystem
Grassland
Microbiota
Soil
Soil Microbiology

Access to Document

10.1038/s41467-023-43864-1

Lavelle et al NCOMMS-23-21119BAccepted author manuscript, 3.72 MBLicence: Creative Commons: Attribution (CC-BY)
s41467-023-43864-1Final published version, 1.65 MBLicence: Creative Commons: Attribution (CC-BY)

Cite this

Lavallee, J. M., Chomel, M., Alvarez-Segura, N., De Castro, F., Goodall, T., Magilton, M., Rhymes, J. M., Delgado-Baquerizo, M., Griffiths, R. I., Baggs, L., Caruso , T., De Vries, F. T., Emmerson , M. C., Johnson, D., & Bardgett, R. D. (2024). Land management shapes drought responses of dominant soil microbial taxa across grasslands. Nature Communications, 15(1), 1-11. Article 29. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-023-43864-1

@article{bfe5adf507344cca8de1768f39a51562,

title = "Land management shapes drought responses of dominant soil microbial taxa across grasslands",

abstract = "Soil microbial communities are dominated by a relatively small number of taxa that may play outsized roles in ecosystem functioning, yet little is known about their capacities to resist and recover from climate extremes such as drought, or how environmental context mediates those responses. Here, we imposed an in situ experimental drought across 30 diverse UK grassland sites with contrasting management intensities and found that: (1) the majority of dominant bacterial (85%) and fungal (89%) taxa exhibit resistant or opportunistic drought strategies, possibly contributing to their ubiquity and dominance across sites; and (2) intensive grassland management decreases the proportion of drought-sensitive and non-resilient dominant bacteria-likely via alleviation of nutrient limitation and pH-related stress under fertilisation and liming-but has the opposite impact on dominant fungi. Our results suggest a potential mechanism by which intensive management promotes bacteria over fungi under drought with implications for soil functioning.",

keywords = "Bacteria/genetics, Conservation of Natural Resources, Droughts, Ecosystem, Grassland, Microbiota, Soil, Soil Microbiology",

author = "Lavallee, {Jocelyn M.} and Mathilde Chomel and Nil Alvarez-Segura and {De Castro}, Francisco and Tim Goodall and Matthew Magilton and Rhymes, {Jennifer M.} and Manuel Delgado-Baquerizo and Griffiths, {Robert I.} and Liz Baggs and Tancredi Caruso and {De Vries}, {Franciska T.} and Emmerson, {Mark C.} and D. Johnson and Bardgett, {Richard D.}",

note = "Funding Information: This study was supported by a consortium grant from the Natural Environment Research Council (NERC) Soil Security Programme led by R.D.B., with component grants NE/M017028/1 to R.D.B. and F.d.V., NE/ M01701X/2 to D.J. and E.M.B. and NE/M017036/1 to T.C. and M.E. We are very grateful to the landowners and farmers for allowing us to perform our experiment and sample their fields. We also thank Debbie Ashworth, Lucy Frotin, Juliette Papelard, Lupe Leon Sanchez, Heather Stott, Felix Terrell, Jake Taylor, and Tom Fenwick for help in the laboratory and field, and C. Collins for his support as coordinator of the NERC Soil Security Programme. For the purpose of open access, the author has applied a CC-BY public copyright license to any Author Accepted Manuscript version arising from this submission. Publisher Copyright: {\textcopyright} 2024, The Author(s).",

year = "2024",

month = jan,

day = "2",

doi = "10.1038/s41467-023-43864-1",

language = "English",

volume = "15",

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journal = "Nature Communications",

issn = "2041-1723",

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Lavallee, JM, Chomel, M, Alvarez-Segura, N, De Castro, F, Goodall, T, Magilton, M, Rhymes, JM, Delgado-Baquerizo, M, Griffiths, RI, Baggs, L, Caruso , T, De Vries, FT, Emmerson , MC, Johnson, D & Bardgett, RD 2024, 'Land management shapes drought responses of dominant soil microbial taxa across grasslands', Nature Communications, vol. 15, no. 1, 29, pp. 1-11. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-023-43864-1

TY - JOUR

T1 - Land management shapes drought responses of dominant soil microbial taxa across grasslands

AU - Lavallee, Jocelyn M.

AU - Chomel, Mathilde

AU - Alvarez-Segura, Nil

AU - De Castro, Francisco

AU - Goodall, Tim

AU - Magilton, Matthew

AU - Rhymes, Jennifer M.

AU - Delgado-Baquerizo, Manuel

AU - Griffiths, Robert I.

AU - Baggs, Liz

AU - Caruso , Tancredi

AU - De Vries, Franciska T.

AU - Emmerson , Mark C.

AU - Johnson, D.

AU - Bardgett, Richard D.

N1 - Funding Information: This study was supported by a consortium grant from the Natural Environment Research Council (NERC) Soil Security Programme led by R.D.B., with component grants NE/M017028/1 to R.D.B. and F.d.V., NE/ M01701X/2 to D.J. and E.M.B. and NE/M017036/1 to T.C. and M.E. We are very grateful to the landowners and farmers for allowing us to perform our experiment and sample their fields. We also thank Debbie Ashworth, Lucy Frotin, Juliette Papelard, Lupe Leon Sanchez, Heather Stott, Felix Terrell, Jake Taylor, and Tom Fenwick for help in the laboratory and field, and C. Collins for his support as coordinator of the NERC Soil Security Programme. For the purpose of open access, the author has applied a CC-BY public copyright license to any Author Accepted Manuscript version arising from this submission. Publisher Copyright: © 2024, The Author(s).

PY - 2024/1/2

Y1 - 2024/1/2

N2 - Soil microbial communities are dominated by a relatively small number of taxa that may play outsized roles in ecosystem functioning, yet little is known about their capacities to resist and recover from climate extremes such as drought, or how environmental context mediates those responses. Here, we imposed an in situ experimental drought across 30 diverse UK grassland sites with contrasting management intensities and found that: (1) the majority of dominant bacterial (85%) and fungal (89%) taxa exhibit resistant or opportunistic drought strategies, possibly contributing to their ubiquity and dominance across sites; and (2) intensive grassland management decreases the proportion of drought-sensitive and non-resilient dominant bacteria-likely via alleviation of nutrient limitation and pH-related stress under fertilisation and liming-but has the opposite impact on dominant fungi. Our results suggest a potential mechanism by which intensive management promotes bacteria over fungi under drought with implications for soil functioning.

AB - Soil microbial communities are dominated by a relatively small number of taxa that may play outsized roles in ecosystem functioning, yet little is known about their capacities to resist and recover from climate extremes such as drought, or how environmental context mediates those responses. Here, we imposed an in situ experimental drought across 30 diverse UK grassland sites with contrasting management intensities and found that: (1) the majority of dominant bacterial (85%) and fungal (89%) taxa exhibit resistant or opportunistic drought strategies, possibly contributing to their ubiquity and dominance across sites; and (2) intensive grassland management decreases the proportion of drought-sensitive and non-resilient dominant bacteria-likely via alleviation of nutrient limitation and pH-related stress under fertilisation and liming-but has the opposite impact on dominant fungi. Our results suggest a potential mechanism by which intensive management promotes bacteria over fungi under drought with implications for soil functioning.

KW - Bacteria/genetics

KW - Conservation of Natural Resources

KW - Droughts

KW - Ecosystem

KW - Grassland

KW - Microbiota

KW - Soil

KW - Soil Microbiology

U2 - 10.1038/s41467-023-43864-1

DO - 10.1038/s41467-023-43864-1

M3 - Article

C2 - 38167688

SN - 2041-1723

VL - 15

SP - 1

EP - 11

JO - Nature Communications

JF - Nature Communications

IS - 1

M1 - 29

ER -

Land management shapes drought responses of dominant soil microbial taxa across grasslands

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Keywords / Materials (for Non-textual outputs)

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