Soil Biology & Biochemistry最新文献

{"title":"Soil microbial metabolic strategies and the imbalance between available phosphorus and nitrogen controls the root exudate-induced priming effect by grassland tumbleweed (Cleistogenes squarrosa and Saposhnikovia divaricata) root exudates","authors":"Guisen Yang ,&nbsp;Jirui Gong ,&nbsp;Shangpeng Zhang ,&nbsp;Ruijing Wang ,&nbsp;Tong Wang ,&nbsp;Yaohong Yu ,&nbsp;Qin Xie ,&nbsp;Zihe Zhang","doi":"10.1016/j.soilbio.2026.110116","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.soilbio.2026.110116","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Root exudate-induced priming effect (<em>PE</em>) is a key process that regulates soil organic carbon (<em>SOC</em>) turnover. Our comprehensive study provides mechanistic insights into how soil microbial community structure and its metabolic characteristics for carbon and nutrients of carbon and nutrients regulate <em>PE</em> induced by root exudates from grassland tumbleweeds. We investigated these processes through controlled incubation experiments with soils from four grazing intensities (grazing exclusion vs. light, moderate, and heavy grazing) and exudates obtained from two tumbleweeds (<em>Cleistogenes squarrosa</em> and <em>Saposhnikovia divaricata</em>) and the dominant perennial <em>Leymus chinensis</em>. The tumbleweed exudates consistently produced <em>PE</em> that averaged 45.9% lower per unit exudate carbon than with <em>L. chinensis</em> across grazing intensities, primarily due to their substantially higher organic acid content (particularly fumaric and oxalic acids), which suppressed Gram-negative and Gram-positive bacteria biomass, thereby alleviating the soil available phosphorus (P) and nitrogen (N) radio imbalance. <em>PE</em> had pronounced temporal dynamics, transitioning from an initial phase (day 3) characterized by high microbial metabolism and minimal <em>PE</em>, through an intermediate stage (day 10) of positive <em>PE,</em> to a final phase (day 21) of strongly positive <em>PE</em> as labile carbon substrates were depleted and microbial communities progressively shifted from bacterial-dominated to fungal-dominated, thereby intensifying nutrient mining for nitrogen (N) and phosphorus (P). The available P: N imbalance consistently increased <em>PE</em> throughout the incubation period, with progressively strengthening effects over time, ultimately emerging as the primary regulator of <em>SOC</em> mineralization. These findings establish that tumbleweeds create distinctive “low-<em>PE</em> patches” through exudate-mediated microbial community restructuring and stoichiometric balance regulation, thereby offering a promising nature-based solution for increasing soil carbon sequestration and facilitating ecological restoration in degraded grassland ecosystems.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":21888,"journal":{"name":"Soil Biology & Biochemistry","volume":"216 ","pages":"Article 110116"},"PeriodicalIF":10.3,"publicationDate":"2026-05-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"146184364","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"农林科学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Warming increases viral diversity and the relative abundance of virulent viruses in deep soils","authors":"Yiqing Lv ,&nbsp;Xiaomin Fan ,&nbsp;Xiangyu Fan ,&nbsp;Wenkuan Qin ,&nbsp;Xudong Wang ,&nbsp;Xin Sun ,&nbsp;Biao Zhu ,&nbsp;Linwei Wu","doi":"10.1016/j.soilbio.2026.110128","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.soilbio.2026.110128","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Viruses are diverse and functionally significant members of the soil community, but how they respond to climate warming remains underexplored, especially in deeper soil layers. Here, we utilized a whole-soil-profile warming experiment (∼4 °C above ambient across the top 1 m of soil) in an alpine grassland to investigate how warming influences soil viral diversity and potential activity across different soil depths. Through the integration of short- and long-read metagenomics with viromics, we discovered numerous novel viruses. Additionally, our findings revealed that after 5 years of warming, viral diversity decreased in surface soils but increased in deeper soils, mirroring but accentuating changes in host diversity. Warming increased the relative abundance of virulent viruses, possibly due to the alleviation of nutrient limitations. This study revealed the depth-dependent responses of soil viruses to climate warming, suggesting that deeper soils may become hotspots for viral diversity and activity under warming scenarios.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":21888,"journal":{"name":"Soil Biology & Biochemistry","volume":"216 ","pages":"Article 110128"},"PeriodicalIF":10.3,"publicationDate":"2026-05-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"147279063","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"农林科学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Diversity and activity of group 5/1h high-affinity H2 oxidizing bacteria is non-responsive to pH","authors":"Lijun Hou ,&nbsp;Philippe Constant ,&nbsp;Joann K. Whalen","doi":"10.1016/j.soilbio.2026.110111","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.soilbio.2026.110111","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Biological high-affinity H₂ uptake in soil is the largest global sink for atmospheric H₂. Soil pH often influences soil biological activity but the impact of pH on high-affinity H₂ oxidizing bacteria (HOB) was not confirmed. We compared the activity and diversity of group 5/1h HOB in agricultural and forest soils across a gradient from pH 4 to pH 8. The potential H₂ uptake activity was approximately 2 times higher in agricultural soil than in forest soil across the pH gradient. Both H₂ oxidizing activity and HOB community structure were non-responsive to pH adjustment in these soils, and no pH optima was observed. Greater H₂ oxidizing activity was associated with higher iron content and lower carbon and nitrogen concentrations in soil. Catabolic repression of HOB was likely triggered when more organic carbon was present, due to the mixotrophic metabolism in the HOB community. A few <em>hhyL</em> genotypes (5%) responded to pH manipulation, but preference for acidic or alkaline pH was not consistent at the HOB taxonomic level. We conclude that pH preference is not an ecological trait that predicts group 5/1h HOB distribution in soil.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":21888,"journal":{"name":"Soil Biology & Biochemistry","volume":"216 ","pages":"Article 110111"},"PeriodicalIF":10.3,"publicationDate":"2026-05-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"146134151","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"农林科学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Plant species specific effects of root exudates on the formation and destabilization of soil organic matter","authors":"Fangbin Hou,&nbsp;Leonardo Hinojosa,&nbsp;Boris Jansen,&nbsp;Elly Morriën,&nbsp;Franciska T. de Vries","doi":"10.1016/j.soilbio.2026.110125","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.soilbio.2026.110125","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Root exudates are labile organic carbon (C) compounds released by plants into soil that can stimulate both the decomposition and formation of soil organic matter (SOM) through enhancing microbial activity. Drought alters root exudation, potentially shifting the balance between the loss and formation of SOM fractions of particulate organic matter (POM), which often turns over faster in soil, and mineral-associated organic matter (MAOM), with a comparatively slower turnover. Here, we tested how root exudates from three grassland species, <em>Lolium perenne</em>, <em>Ranunculus acris</em>, and <em>Trifolium pratense</em>, grown under drought and well-watered conditions, affect soil microbial activity, community composition, and SOM distribution over POM and MAOM. We collected and repeatedly applied exudates to unconditioned soils over five months. We found that root exudates from <em>R. acris</em> and <em>T. pratense</em> promoted the decomposition of POM and concomitantly increased MAOM formation. Root exudates from drought-stressed <em>R. acris</em> and <em>T. pratense</em> did not affect POM and MAOM pools but enhanced microbial respiration, potentially through increased microbial nitrogen (N) limitation, as evidenced by an increased C/N ratio in POM, or through reduced microbial C use efficiency. These findings advance our understanding of the dual role of root exudates in the loss and formation of SOM pools and the potential effect of drought on these processes.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":21888,"journal":{"name":"Soil Biology & Biochemistry","volume":"216 ","pages":"Article 110125"},"PeriodicalIF":10.3,"publicationDate":"2026-05-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"146160812","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"农林科学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Distinct successional strategies and assembly dynamics of soil microbial community utilizing carbon derived from plant shoot versus root residues","authors":"Peng He ,&nbsp;Jianing Wang ,&nbsp;Xuewei Wang ,&nbsp;Tengfei Ma ,&nbsp;Ning Ling","doi":"10.1016/j.soilbio.2026.110122","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.soilbio.2026.110122","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Soil organic carbon (SOC) dynamics is strongly influenced by plant residue inputs, yet the microbial mechanisms—particularly the identity, activity, and temporal dynamics of microbial communities assimilating shoot-versus root-derived carbon (C)—remain poorly understood. This study employed DNA-based stable isotope probing (DNA-SIP) combined with amplicon sequencing to trace the incorporation of ¹³C-labeled shoot and root residues from alfalfa into soil microbial communities across a time series of 1, 7, 14, 30, and 48 days. We identified distinct bacterial and fungal taxa actively involved in residue decomposition and classified their temporal response strategies as rapid, intermediate, or delayed based on peak activity. Shoot and root residues differed in elemental stoichiometry, which contributed to divergent bacterial and fungal responses during residue-derived C assimilation. Fungal community composition was more strongly influenced by residue type than bacterial communities. Bacterial assembly was predominantly stochastic, with rapid responders (e.g., <em>Lysobacter</em> and <em>Streptomyces</em>), exhibiting conserved functional potentials in nitrogen (N) assimilation and phosphorus (P) cycling, dominating both residue types. In contrast, fungal communities were governed primarily by deterministic processes and exhibited distinct residue-specific metabolic strategies: shoot C assimilation was driven by rapid, often pathogenic taxa (e.g., <em>Fusarium</em>), whereas root C assimilation favored intermediate and delayed saprotrophic and symbiotic fungi (e.g., <em>Orbilia</em> and <em>Cochlonema</em>). These findings suggest that shoot and root residue quality (e.g., elemental stoichiometry) selects for distinct successional strategies and functional traits in microbial decomposers, offering a mechanistic basis for predicting residue-specific contributions to soil C and nutrient cycling.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":21888,"journal":{"name":"Soil Biology & Biochemistry","volume":"216 ","pages":"Article 110122"},"PeriodicalIF":10.3,"publicationDate":"2026-05-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"146146670","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"农林科学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Integrating ecomorphological groups into compound-specific isotope analysis of amino acids refines trophic niches of forest soil macrofauna","authors":"André Junggebauer ,&nbsp;Ronja Wenglein ,&nbsp;Stefan Scheu ,&nbsp;Melanie M. Pollierer","doi":"10.1016/j.soilbio.2026.110126","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.soilbio.2026.110126","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Soil macrofauna detritivores and predators play central roles in decomposition, nutrient cycling and predator – prey interactions, but resolving their trophic positions (TPs) and basal resource use in different forest types has long been challenging due to methodological constraints. Compound-specific isotope analysis of amino acids (CSIA-AA) overcomes these challenges by quantifying the contributions of bacteria, fungi and plants to consumer diets, and by providing baseline-independent trophic position estimates. However, most recent CSIA-AA studies of soil animals analyzed trophic niches only at high-rank taxonomic levels, which may obscure trophic variations among species that differ in morphology and microhabitat use. Here, we collected 19 species from near-natural beech forests and spruce monocultures in Germany, representing major high-rank taxonomic groups of detritivores (Lumbricidae, Diplopoda, Isopoda) and predators (Chilopoda). Using CSIA-AA we quantified TPs and basal resource contributions from bacteria, fungi and plants, and compared patterns across high-rank taxonomic groups, ecomorphological groups (high-rank taxonomic groups subdivided by body size, body shape and vertical distribution in soil) and species. Ecomorphological groups included Epigeic, Endogeic and Anecic Lumbricidae, Slender and Globular Diplopoda, Small and Large Isopoda, and Litter and Soil Predators in Chilopoda. TPs and basal resource use varied little between forests but differed strongly among ecomorphological groups. In Lumbricidae, TPs increased from Anecic (1.7) to Epigeic (2.1) to Endogeic (2.5), accompanied by shifts in bacterial and plant contributions. Slender Diplopods occupied higher TPs than Globular Diplopods (2.8 vs. 2.5), while Small Isopods reached TPs similar to predators (3.5). Among Chilopoda, Litter Predators had higher TPs and incorporated more bacterial resources (41%) than Soil Predators (17%), suggesting differences in prey use between litter and soil. Hierarchical models confirmed that ecomorphological groups explained substantially more variation in trophic positions and resource use than high-rank taxonomic groups, while species identity added little explanatory power, except for Lumbricidae and Chilopoda. Our findings indicate that trophic niches of soil macrofauna are more linked to morphology and microhabitat preferences than to forest type. Therefore, assigning soil macrofauna taxa to ecomorphological groups represents a powerful approach for future CSIA-AA studies that compensates for information loss when analyzing high-rank taxonomic groups rather than species due to biomass restrictions.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":21888,"journal":{"name":"Soil Biology & Biochemistry","volume":"216 ","pages":"Article 110126"},"PeriodicalIF":10.3,"publicationDate":"2026-05-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"146184363","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"农林科学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Glucose input limits microbial-mediated sulfur release from soil minerals","authors":"Min Zhang ,&nbsp;Zhuzhong Yin ,&nbsp;Yu Liu ,&nbsp;Yanyu Liu ,&nbsp;Zhenghua Liu ,&nbsp;Zhaoyue Yang ,&nbsp;Zhengqi Xu ,&nbsp;Ibrahim Ahmed Ibrahim ,&nbsp;Fenliang Fan ,&nbsp;Ye Deng ,&nbsp;Xueduan Liu ,&nbsp;Chengying Jiang ,&nbsp;Huaqun Yin ,&nbsp;Delong Meng","doi":"10.1016/j.soilbio.2026.110109","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.soilbio.2026.110109","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Sulfur-bearing minerals are key reservoirs in the global sulfur cycle, and microorganisms mediate sulfur release from these minerals. Labile carbon inputs may modify microbial sulfur metabolism, but their net effects on sulfide mineral oxidation remain unclear. Here, we conducted a 56-day soil incubation with glucose input and combined geochemical measurements, mineralogical characterization, qPCR, metagenomics, 16S rRNA amplicon sequencing, and DNA-stable isotope probing (DNA-SIP) to identify glucose-assimilating microorganisms and their roles in regulating sulfide mineral oxidation. Glucose significantly suppressed sulfide mineral oxidation, resulting in 60.00% lower sulfate (SO₄²⁻) and a 33.23% higher pH than the control by day 56. Glucose also reshaped microbial community and functions potentials. Sulfur-oxidizing bacteria (SOB) decreased, sulfate-reducing bacteria (SRB) increased, and genes annotated in sulfur oxidation (<em>soxB</em>, <em>soxX</em>, <em>soxY</em>, <em>soxZ</em>) were depleted before day 42. This inhibition was reversed after glucose depletion, with sulfur oxidation genes becoming enriched. DNA-SIP using ¹³C-glucose linked <em>Frateuria</em> and <em>Dyella</em> to glucose assimilation and to the inhibitory phase of sulfur release. Glucose-amended microcosms maintained a lower redox potential and showed a delayed rise relative to the control, consistent with oxygen competition that may constrain sulfur oxidizers such as <em>Bradyrhizobium</em>. Notably, <em>Dyella</em> harbored a complete assimilatory sulfate reduction pathway, driven by ATP and NADPH produced through the central carbon metabolism (CCM). This metabolic coupling reduced oxygen availability for terminal sulfur oxidation, suggesting a dual mechanism of sulfur release suppression via both assimilatory reduction and respiratory competition. Our findings highlight a previously underappreciated link between labile carbon metabolism and sulfur cycling in soil. This mechanism offers insights into microbial controls over sulfur fluxes and presents implications for managing soil acidification and sulfur-driven water pollution in mineral-rich environments.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":21888,"journal":{"name":"Soil Biology & Biochemistry","volume":"216 ","pages":"Article 110109"},"PeriodicalIF":10.3,"publicationDate":"2026-05-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"146116259","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"农林科学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Subsoil rhizosphere carbon enrichment and depletion: processes and scaling in tree-based systems","authors":"Gabin Piton ,&nbsp;Elisa Taschen ,&nbsp;Clara Ducrocq ,&nbsp;Soline Martin-Blangy ,&nbsp;Laurie Amenc ,&nbsp;Pauline Castel ,&nbsp;Damien Dezette ,&nbsp;Rémi Dugué ,&nbsp;Marion Forest ,&nbsp;Philippe Hinsinger ,&nbsp;Benoit Marie ,&nbsp;Aline Personne ,&nbsp;Manoël Seignon ,&nbsp;Jerôme Ngao ,&nbsp;Christophe Jourdan ,&nbsp;Isabelle Bertrand","doi":"10.1016/j.soilbio.2026.110103","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.soilbio.2026.110103","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Tree roots have the potential to release carbon into deep soil layers, where this carbon is generally considered to exhibit greater stability. However, field studies that investigate the drivers of the soil organic carbon (SOC) balance in the rhizosphere of trees across soil depths and that upscale this balance to the whole soil profile are lacking. This study presents an innovative approach integrating normalized rhizosphere sampling and root density mapping to a depth of 1.5 m under trees from Mediterranean agroforestry and a tree plantation. The estimated SOC balance in the rhizosphere of the <em>Robinia pseudoacacia</em> trees varied from −38 kg C ha⁻¹ to +53 kg C ha⁻¹ at the different soil horizons, with a neutral balance at 0–0.3 m, a negative balance at 0.3–0.5 m and a positive balance at 0.5–1.0 m and 1.0–1.5 m of soil depth. When scaled up to the whole profile, the value was +50.6 kg C ha⁻¹ for the tree plantation and +72.4 kg C ha⁻¹ for the tree row for the agroforestry system, with no significant difference between these two estimates. The balance between hydrolytic and oxidative enzyme activities and between fungal guilds indicated increasing nutritional constraints for microbial saprotrophs at depth. In the subsoil, these nutritional constraints were locally attenuated in the rhizosphere, inducing a substantial increase in microbial abundance and triggering a pronounced shift from oligotrophic to copiotrophic communities, which in turn supported SOC enrichment. In the topsoil, the lower chemical complexity of substrates available to microorganisms increases susceptibility to saprotrophic activity, which likely underlies the observed neutral or negative SOC balances in the rhizosphere. This field study presents a scalable approach for quantifying the rhizosphere SOC balance in deep soil horizons and disentangling its biogeochemical drivers.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":21888,"journal":{"name":"Soil Biology & Biochemistry","volume":"216 ","pages":"Article 110103"},"PeriodicalIF":10.3,"publicationDate":"2026-05-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"146057101","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"农林科学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Stand age and fire return interval shape soil microbial communities in young, postfire lodgepole pine stands","authors":"Arielle C. Link ,&nbsp;Thea Whitman ,&nbsp;Monica G. Turner","doi":"10.1016/j.soilbio.2026.110102","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.soilbio.2026.110102","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>As wildfire activity increases globally, understanding how soil microbial communities vary in young postfire forests and the effect of short fire-return intervals on these communities becomes increasingly important for anticipating postfire ecosystem function. We asked how soil bacterial and fungal communities varied during early postfire stand development in lodgepole pine (<em>Pinus contorta</em> var. <em>latifolia</em>) forests, and whether a short-interval (16 yr) reburn altered those trajectories. We sampled soils in 6-, 22-, and 34-year-old stands in Grand Teton National Park (Wyoming, USA) and used high-throughput sequencing to assess community composition, environmental drivers, and fire responsive taxa. Bacterial and fungal community composition shifted with stand age under typical fire return intervals. For fungi, Ascomycetes declined in relative abundance with stand age whereas Basidiomycetes increased, consistent with the expected increase in ectomycorrhizal fungi associated with lodgepole pine. Litter mass and soil nutrient properties explained 28.6 % and 23.9 % of variance in bacterial and fungal community composition, respectively. Following the short-interval stand-replacing fire, bacterial communities in 6-year-old stands closely resembled nearby stands (22-year-old) that did not reburn, whereas fungal communities more closely resembled nearby 6-year-old stands that burned in the historical long (&gt;100 yr) fire-return interval. These results suggest that microbial recovery during early stand development in postfire forests is shaped by changes in resource availability, and that short fire-return intervals may have greater effects on fungi than on bacteria.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":21888,"journal":{"name":"Soil Biology & Biochemistry","volume":"216 ","pages":"Article 110102"},"PeriodicalIF":10.3,"publicationDate":"2026-05-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"146072096","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"农林科学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Virus-inclusive microbial network relationships align with the stress gradient hypothesis in saline-alkali agroecosystems","authors":"Fang Li ,&nbsp;Linwei Wu ,&nbsp;Changlin Xu ,&nbsp;Shuwen Guo ,&nbsp;Jinhua Zhao ,&nbsp;Yi Wang ,&nbsp;Peipei Li ,&nbsp;Biao Zhu","doi":"10.1016/j.soilbio.2026.110123","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.soilbio.2026.110123","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Salinization-alkalization is increasing globally, yet its impact on cross-kingdom microbial correlations remains poorly understood. Herein, cross-kingdom correlations among rhizosphere archaea, bacteria, fungi, and viruses in farmland subjected to gradient saline-alkali stress were investigated. By analyzing changes in the structure and network of rhizosphere soil microbiomes in the typical saline-alkali region of Northeast China, we demonstrated that: (1) Rhizospheric archaeal and viral α-diversity increased significantly with saline-alkali stress intensity. Beta-diversity of all four kingdoms (archaea, bacteria, fungi, and viruses) was strongly influenced by both stress intensity and crop genotype, with community divergence primarily shaped by plant sodium concentration. (2) The composition of rhizosphere viral communities varied across crop types and stress levels, with dominant viruses belonging to Cressdnaviricota (infecting eukaryotes), Phixviricota and Uroviricota (both infecting prokaryotes). (3) Under increasing saline-alkali stress, co-occurrence networks exhibited a rise in both overall and cross-kingdom positive correlations, supporting the Stress Gradient Hypothesis (SGH). Notably, significant increases in positive correlations were observed between viruses and fungi, viruses and bacteria. In addition, the proportion of within-kingdom positive correlations declined, suggesting intensified intra-kingdom competition. These findings refine the traditional SGH at the microbial scale by incorporating viral communities, providing critical theoretical guidance for identifying key microbial species in ecological networks. This advances the design of targeted microbial inoculants to enhance saline-alkali soil remediation and broader ecosystem restoration.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":21888,"journal":{"name":"Soil Biology & Biochemistry","volume":"216 ","pages":"Article 110123"},"PeriodicalIF":10.3,"publicationDate":"2026-05-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"146152894","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"农林科学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}