Social dynamics within decomposer communities lead to nitrogen retention and organic matter build-up in soils
Kaiser, Christina (Universität Wien. Institut für Mikrobiologie und Ökosystemwissenschaften)
Franklin, Oskar (International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis (Àustria))
Richter, Andreas (Universität Wien. Institut für Mikrobiologie und Ecosystem Wissenschaft)
Dieckmann, Ulf (International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis (Àustria))

Date:	2015
Abstract:	The chemical structure of organic matter has been shown to be only marginally important for its decomposability by microorganisms. The question of why organic matter does accumulate in the face of powerful microbial degraders is thus key for understanding terrestrial carbon and nitrogen cycling. Here we demonstrate, based on an individual-based microbial community model, that social dynamics among microbes producing extracellular enzymes ('decomposers') and microbes exploiting the catalytic activities of others ('cheaters') regulate organic matter turnover. We show that the presence of cheaters increases nitrogen retention and organic matter build-up by downregulating the ratio of extracellular enzymes to total microbial biomass, allowing nitrogen-rich microbial necromass to accumulate. Moreover, increasing catalytic efficiencies of enzymes are outbalanced by a strong negative feedback on enzyme producers, leading to less enzymes being produced at the community level. Our results thus reveal a possible control mechanism that may buffer soil CO₂ emissions in a future climate.
Grants:	European Commission 610028
Rights:	Aquest document està subjecte a una llicència d'ús Creative Commons. Es permet la reproducció total o parcial, la distribució, la comunicació pública de l'obra i la creació d'obres derivades, fins i tot amb finalitats comercials, sempre i quan es reconegui l'autoria de l'obra original.
Language:	Anglès
Document:	Article ; recerca ; Versió publicada
Subject:	Earth sciences ; Biogeochemistry ; Ecology ; Microbiology
Published in:	Nature communications, Vol. 6, article 8960 (1st Dec. 2015) , ISSN 2041-1723

DOI: 10.1038/ncomms9960
PMID: 26621582

10 p, 1.4 MB

The record appears in these collections:
Research literature > UAB research groups literature > Research Centres and Groups (research output) > Experimental sciences > CREAF (Centre de Recerca Ecològica i d'Aplicacions Forestals) > Imbalance-P
Articles > Research articles
Articles > Published articles