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Spatial and temporal processes shaping microbial communities are inseparably linked but rarely studied together. By Illumina 16S rRNA sequencing, we monitored soil bacteria in 360 stations on a 100 square meter plot distributed across six intra-annual samplings in a rarely managed, temperate grassland. Using a multi-tiered approach, we tested the extent to which stochastic or deterministic processes influenced the composition of local communities. A combination of phylogenetic turnover analysis and null modeling demonstrated that either homogenization by unlimited stochastic dispersal or scenarios, in which neither stochastic processes nor deterministic forces dominated, explained local assembly processes. Thus, the majority of all sampled communities (82%) was rather homogeneous with no significant changes in abundance-weighted composition. However, we detected strong and uniform taxonomic shifts within just nine samples in early summer. Thus, community snapshots sampled from single points in time or space do not necessarily reflect a representative community state. The potential for change despite the overall homogeneity was further demonstrated when the focus shifted to the rare biosphere. Rare OTU turnover, rather than nestedness, characterized abundance-independent β-diversity. Accordingly, boosted generalized additive models encompassing spatial, temporal and environmental variables revealed strong and highly diverse effects of space on OTU abundance, even within the same genus. This pure spatial effect increased with decreasing OTU abundance and frequency, whereas soil moisture - the most important environmental variable - had an opposite effect by impacting abundant OTUs more than the rare ones. These results indicate that - despite considerable oscillation in space and time - the abundant and resident OTUs provide a community backbone that supports much higher β-diversity of a dynamic rare biosphere. Our findings reveal complex interactions among space, time, and environmental filters within bacterial communities in a long-established temperate grassland., (Copyright © 2020 Richter-Heitmann, Hofner, Krah, Sikorski, Wüst, Bunk, Huang, Regan, Berner, Boeddinghaus, Marhan, Prati, Kandeler, Overmann and Friedrich.)

Dark, that is, nonphototrophic, microbial CO 2 fixation occurs in a large range of soils. However, it is still not known whether dark microbial CO 2 fixation substantially contributes to the C balance of soils and what factors control this process. Therefore, the objective of this study was to quantitate dark microbial CO 2 fixation in temperate forest soils, to determine the relationship between the soil CO 2 concentration and dark microbial CO 2 fixation, and to estimate the relative contribution of different microbial groups to dark CO 2 fixation. For this purpose, we conducted a 13 C-CO 2 labeling experiment. We found that the rates of dark microbial CO 2 fixation were positively correlated with the CO 2 concentration in all soils. Dark microbial CO 2 fixation amounted to up to 320 µg C kg -1  soil day -1 in the Ah horizon. The fixation rates were 2.8-8.9 times higher in the Ah horizon than in the Bw1 horizon. Although the rates of dark microbial fixation were small compared to the respiration rate (1.2%-3.9% of the respiration rate), our findings suggest that organic matter formed by microorganisms from CO 2 contributes to the soil organic matter pool, especially given that microbial detritus is more stable in soil than plant detritus. Phospholipid fatty acid analyses indicated that CO 2 was mostly fixed by gram-positive bacteria, and not by fungi. In conclusion, our study shows that the dark microbial CO 2 fixation rate in temperate forest soils increases in periods of high CO 2 concentrations, that dark microbial CO 2 fixation is mostly accomplished by gram-positive bacteria, and that dark microbial CO 2 fixation contributes to the formation of soil organic matter., (© 2019 The Authors. Global Change Biology published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd.)

Rising atmospheric CO 2 concentrations are expected to increase nitrous oxide (N 2 O) emissions from soils via changes in microbial nitrogen (N) transformations. Several studies have shown that N 2 O emission increases under elevated atmospheric CO 2 (eCO 2 ), but the underlying processes are not yet fully understood. Here, we present results showing changes in soil N transformation dynamics from the Giessen Free Air CO 2 Enrichment (GiFACE): a permanent grassland that has been exposed to eCO 2 , +20% relative to ambient concentrations (aCO 2 ), for 15 years. We applied in the field an ammonium-nitrate fertilizer solution, in which either ammonium ( NH 4 + ) or nitrate ( NO 3 - ) was labelled with 15 N. The simultaneous gross N transformation rates were analysed with a 15 N tracing model and a solver method. The results confirmed that after 15 years of eCO 2 the N 2 O emissions under eCO 2 were still more than twofold higher than under aCO 2 . The tracing model results indicated that plant uptake of NH 4 + did not differ between treatments, but uptake of NO 3 - was significantly reduced under eCO 2 . However, the NH 4 + and NO 3 - availability increased slightly under eCO 2 . The N 2 O isotopic signature indicated that under eCO 2 the sources of the additional emissions, 8,407 μg N 2 O-N/m 2 during the first 58 days after labelling, were associated with NO 3 - reduction (+2.0%), NH 4 + oxidation (+11.1%) and organic N oxidation (+86.9%). We presume that increased plant growth and root exudation under eCO 2 provided an additional source of bioavailable supply of energy that triggered as a priming effect the stimulation of microbial soil organic matter (SOM) mineralization and fostered the activity of the bacterial nitrite reductase. The resulting increase in incomplete denitrification and therefore an increased N 2 O:N 2 emission ratio, explains the doubling of N 2 O emissions. If this occurs over a wide area of grasslands in the future, this positive feedback reaction may significantly accelerate climate change., (© 2018 John Wiley & Sons Ltd.)

The respiratory release of carbon dioxide (CO 2 ) from soil is a major yet poorly understood flux in the global carbon cycle. Climatic warming is hypothesized to increase rates of soil respiration, potentially fueling further increases in global temperatures. However, despite considerable scientific attention in recent decades, the overall response of soil respiration to anticipated climatic warming remains unclear. We synthesize the largest global dataset to date of soil respiration, moisture, and temperature measurements, totaling >3,800 observations representing 27 temperature manipulation studies, spanning nine biomes and over 2 decades of warming. Our analysis reveals no significant differences in the temperature sensitivity of soil respiration between control and warmed plots in all biomes, with the exception of deserts and boreal forests. Thus, our data provide limited evidence of acclimation of soil respiration to experimental warming in several major biome types, contrary to the results from multiple single-site studies. Moreover, across all nondesert biomes, respiration rates with and without experimental warming follow a Gaussian response, increasing with soil temperature up to a threshold of ∼25 °C, above which respiration rates decrease with further increases in temperature. This consistent decrease in temperature sensitivity at higher temperatures demonstrates that rising global temperatures may result in regionally variable responses in soil respiration, with colder climates being considerably more responsive to increased ambient temperatures compared with warmer regions. Our analysis adds a unique cross-biome perspective on the temperature response of soil respiration, information critical to improving our mechanistic understanding of how soil carbon dynamics change with climatic warming., Competing Interests: The authors declare no conflict of interest.

Changes in frequency and intensity of drought events are anticipated in many areas of the world. In pasture, drought effects on soil nitrogen (N) cycling are spatially and temporally heterogeneous due to N redistribution by grazers. We studied soil N cycling responses to simulated summer drought and N deposition by grazers in a 3-year field experiment replicated in two grasslands differing in climate and management. Cattle urine and NH4NO3 application increased soil NH4(+) and NO3(-) concentrations, and more so under drought due to reduced plant uptake and reduced nitrification and denitrification. Drought effects were, however, reflected to a minor extent only in potential nitrification, denitrifying enzyme activity (DEA), and the abundance of functional genes characteristic of nitrifying (bacterial and archaeal amoA) and denitrifying (narG, nirS, nirK, nosZ) micro-organisms. N2O emissions, however, were much reduced under drought, suggesting that this effect was driven by environmental limitations rather than by changes in the activity potential or the size of the respective microbial communities. Cattle urine stimulated nitrification and, to a lesser extent, also DEA, but more so in the absence of drought. In contrast, NH4NO3 reduced the activity of nitrifiers and denitrifiers due to top-soil acidification. In summary, our data demonstrate that complex interactions between drought, mineral N availability, soil acidification, and plant nutrient uptake control soil N cycling and associated N2O emissions. These interactive effects differed between processes of the soil N cycle, suggesting that the spatial heterogeneity in pastures needs to be taken into account when predicting changes in N cycling and associated N2O emissions in a changing climate.

Spring barley was grown in a field experiment under moderately elevated soil temperature and changed summer precipitation (amount and frequency). Elevated temperature affected the performance and grain quality characteristics more significant than changes in rainfall. Except for the decrease in thousand grain weight, warming had no impacts on aboveground biomass and grain yield traits. In grains, several proteinogenic amino acids concentrations were increased, whereas their composition was only slightly altered. Concentration and yield of total protein remained unaffected under warming. The concentrations of total non-structural carbohydrates, starch, fructose and raffinose were lower in plants grown at high temperatures, whereas maltose was higher. Crude fibre remained unaffected by warming, whereas concentrations of lipids and aluminium were reduced. Manipulation of precipitation only marginally affected barley grains: amount reduction increased the concentrations of several minerals (sodium, copper) and amino acids (leucine). The projected climate changes may most likely affect grain quality traits of interest for different markets and utilisation requirements., (Copyright © 2012 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.)

Earthworms are important members of the soil macrofauna. They modify soil physical properties, soil organic matter decomposition, and thus regulate carbon and nitrogen cycling in soil. However, their interactions with soil microorganisms are still poorly understood, in particular the effect of gut passage on the community structure of ingested microorganisms. Moreover, it is still unsolved, if earthworms, like many other soil-feeding invertebrates, possess an indigenous gut microbial community. Therefore, we investigated the bacterial and archaeal community structure in soil (with and without additional beech litter), gut, and fresh casts of Lumbricus terrestris, an anecic litter-feeding earthworm, by means of terminal-restriction fragment length polymorphism (T-RFLP) analysis of 16S rRNA gene fragments. Ecological indices of community diversity and similarity, calculated from the T-RFLP profiles, revealed only small differences between the bacterial and archaeal communities in soil, gut, and fresh casts under both feeding conditions, especially in comparison to other soil-feeding invertebrates. However, multivariate statistical analysis combining multidimensional scaling and discriminant function analysis proved that these differences were highly significant, in particular when the earthworms were fed beech litter in addition. Because there were no dominant gut-specific OTUs detectable, the existence of an abundant indigenous earthworm microbial community appears unlikely, at least in the midgut region of L. terrestris.