作者
Noah W. Sokol,Eric Slessarev,Gianna L. Marschmann,Alexa M. Nicolas,Steven J. Blazewicz,Eoin Brodie,Mary K. Firestone,Megan M. Foley,Rachel Hestrin,Bruce A. Hungate,Benjamin J. Koch,Bram WG Stone,Matthew B. Sullivan,Olivier Zablocki,Gareth Trubl,Karis J. McFarlane,Rhona Stuart,Erin Nuccio,Peter K. Weber,Yongqin Jiao,Mavrik Zavarin,Jeffrey A. Kimbrel,Keith D. Morrison,Dinesh Adhikari,Amrita Bhattacharaya,Peter Nico,Jinyun Tang,Nicole DiDonato,Ljiljana Paša‐Tolić,Alex Greenlon,Ella T. Sieradzki,Paul Dijkstra,Egbert Schwartz,Rohan Sachdeva,Jillian F. Banfield,Jennifer Pett‐Ridge
摘要
Soil microorganisms shape global element cycles in life and death. Living soil microorganisms are a major engine of terrestrial biogeochemistry, driving the turnover of soil organic matter — Earth's largest terrestrial carbon pool and the primary source of plant nutrients. Their metabolic functions are influenced by ecological interactions with other soil microbial populations, soil fauna and plants, and the surrounding soil environment. Remnants of dead microbial cells serve as fuel for these biogeochemical engines because their chemical constituents persist as soil organic matter. This non-living microbial biomass accretes over time in soil, forming one of the largest pools of organic matter on the planet. In this Review, we discuss how the biogeochemical cycling of organic matter depends on both living and dead soil microorganisms, their functional traits, and their interactions with the soil matrix and other organisms. With recent omics advances, many of the traits that frame microbial population dynamics and their ecophysiological adaptations can be deciphered directly from assembled genomes or patterns of gene or protein expression. Thus, it is now possible to leverage a trait-based understanding of microbial life and death within improved biogeochemical models and to better predict ecosystem functioning under new climate regimes. Soil microorganisms shape global element cycles in life and death. In this Review, Sokol and colleagues explore how the biogeochemical cycling of organic matter depends on both living and dead soil microorganisms, their functional traits, and their interactions with the soil matrix and other organisms. They also discuss incorporating microbial life and death into trait-based models that predict soil biogeochemical dynamics.