Soil Biology & Biochemistry最新文献

{"title":"A soil-specific model to predict N2O emissions from laboratory and field experiments","authors":"Baoxuan Chang ,&nbsp;Zhaopei Chu ,&nbsp;Xia Zhu-Barker ,&nbsp;Xiaotang Ju ,&nbsp;Si-Liang Li ,&nbsp;Zhifeng Yan ,&nbsp;Timothy J. Clough","doi":"10.1016/j.soilbio.2026.110117","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.soilbio.2026.110117","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Numerous models have been developed to simulate nitrous oxide (N₂O) emissions from agricultural soils, yet accurately capturing the spatial and temporal variability of soil N₂O fluxes remains a challenge. To better estimate soil N₂O emissions, we developed a statistical model based on the Gaussian function, with parameters that vary according to edaphic properties. A global database of N₂O emissions from agricultural soils, derived from laboratory incubation experiments, was established to parameterize, calibrate and validate the developed model. Simulations demonstrated that incorporating multiple edaphic properties, including soil moisture, mineral nitrogen contents, carbon to nitrogen ratio, silt content, bulk density and soil depth, enabled reliable prediction of N₂O emissions from sieved soils. However, the initially parameterized model significantly overestimated emissions from intact soils. To address this, soil structure correction factors, quantified by bulk soil properties, were introduced into the model. Incorporating these structure corrections enabled the model to successfully predict N₂O emissions from intact soils, highlighting the importance of accounting for soil structure in models. The improved model was then employed to simulate N₂O emissions from different field sites with contrasting agricultural treatments, after further taking into account temperature effects. It effectively captured the temporal dynamics of N₂O fluxes, including the timing and magnitude of N₂O emission peaks, particularly under optimal N additions and long-term tillage. Overall, this soil-specific model provides a robust tool to predict the large spatiotemporal variations in N₂O fluxes across different soils under various environmental settings, which is critical for reducing uncertainty in large-scale estimates.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":21888,"journal":{"name":"Soil Biology & Biochemistry","volume":"216 ","pages":"Article 110117"},"PeriodicalIF":10.3,"publicationDate":"2026-05-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"146138615","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":"Meta-analysis reveals contrasting effects of biodegradable and conventional microplastics on earthworm fitness, physiology, and gut microbiota","authors":"Hesen Zhong ,&nbsp;Jerome Mathieu ,&nbsp;Chengshuai Liu ,&nbsp;Patrick Lavelle ,&nbsp;Jun Dai ,&nbsp;Ying Lu ,&nbsp;Chi Zhang","doi":"10.1016/j.soilbio.2026.110108","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.soilbio.2026.110108","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Microplastics (MPs) have become widespread contaminants in terrestrial ecosystems and may pose risks to soil fauna, particularly earthworms, a key group of soil ecosystem engineers. Because laboratory ecotoxicological studies have demonstrated that MPs disrupt earthworm physiological and cellular functions, then we must establish whether earthworms respond consistently to the conventional MPs and newer types of biodegradable MPs. Here, we conducted a quantitative meta-analysis of peer-reviewed studies published from database inception to 8 December 2025 to assess the effects of conventional and biodegradable MPs on earthworm fitness, physiology, and gut microbiota. A total of 2124 observations extracted from 102 articles were evaluated for the effect of MPs on 15 indicators of earthworm. Overall, MPs exposure reduced survival and growth rates, increased oxidative stress and oxidative DNA damage, and inhibited gut bacterial diversity and richness. Meta-regression analysis indicated that conventional MPs exhibited stronger dose-dependent toxicity patterns, characterized by increased catalase (CAT), and peroxidase (POD) activities, elevated malondialdehyde (MDA), and decreased survival and growth at higher doses. In contrast, biodegradable MPs primarily affected reproduction, CAT activity and glutathione (GSH) level in a size-dependent manner. Among the MPs and experiment features, the MP shape, dose, and exposure duration were most likely to cause earthworm responses, with MDA, 8-hydroxy-2′-deoxyguanosine (8-OHdG), and reactive oxygen species (ROS) consistently acting as sensitive physiological indicators of MPs exposure in earthworms. Overall, MP pollution poses substantial risks to earthworms and gut microbial communities, and biodegradable MPs do not eliminate the earthworm biological responses. This suggests that substituting biodegradable MPs for conventional MPs might not improve earthworm survival, growth and reproduction, which has implications for earthworm populations and community ecology.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":21888,"journal":{"name":"Soil Biology & Biochemistry","volume":"216 ","pages":"Article 110108"},"PeriodicalIF":10.3,"publicationDate":"2026-05-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"146095786","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":"Long-term soil warming decreases fungal biomass and alters fungal but not bacterial communities in a temperate forest","authors":"Mohammad Rahmat Ullah ,&nbsp;Steve Kwatcho Kengdo ,&nbsp;Derek Peršoh ,&nbsp;Ye Tian ,&nbsp;Jakob Heinzle ,&nbsp;Carolina Urbina Malo ,&nbsp;Chupei Shi ,&nbsp;Tillmann Lueders ,&nbsp;Christian Poll ,&nbsp;Wolfgang Wanek ,&nbsp;Andreas Schindlbacher ,&nbsp;Werner Borken","doi":"10.1016/j.soilbio.2026.110120","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.soilbio.2026.110120","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Long-term soil warming may alter microbial community structure and functioning in forest soils, thereby affecting carbon and nutrient cycling processes. We examined the effects of &gt;14 years of soil warming (+4 °C during snow-free seasons) on the fungal biomass marker ergosterol, and on fungal and bacterial communities in a spruce dominated mountain forest in the Austrian Alps. Soil warming decreased ergosterol, and the ergosterol-to-microbial biomass carbon (MBC) ratio at 0-10 and 10-20 cm soil depth, with a stronger decline in ergosterol, indicating a higher sensitivity of fungi than bacteria to long-term warming. Warming also shifted the fungal community at both soil depths, favoring <em>Boletus luridus</em>, an ectomycorrhizal (ECM) fungus, which emerged as the dominant OTU in warmed plots. The dominance of ECM over saprotrophic fungi (SAP) under warming at topsoil likely resulted from increased fine root production and enhanced competition for substrates and nutrients. Bacterial abundance and community composition remained mostly unaffected at both depths, likely due to their greater resilience to elevated temperatures and their high taxonomic diversity. Our findings therefore suggest that long-term warming primarily affects fungal community composition and functional traits, thereby enhancing the contribution of ECM with fine roots to the carbon cycle in the calcareous forest soil.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":21888,"journal":{"name":"Soil Biology & Biochemistry","volume":"216 ","pages":"Article 110120"},"PeriodicalIF":10.3,"publicationDate":"2026-05-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"146134150","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":"Bioenergetics of microbial maintenance metabolism in soil","authors":"Martin-Georg Endress ,&nbsp;Sergey Blagodatsky","doi":"10.1016/j.soilbio.2026.110124","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.soilbio.2026.110124","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Both active and dormant soil microorganisms spend a substantial fraction of their carbon and energy resources to maintain themselves, yet microbial maintenance metabolism remains inadequately represented in models of soil carbon cycling. The calorespirometric ratio (CR) of heat to CO₂ release has been established as a powerful tool to investigate the bioenergetics of microbial growth in soil, but its application to non-growth metabolism has not been systematically explored. Here, we use dynamic modeling to assess how maintenance processes influence the coupling between microbial carbon and energy use as reflected by the CR and how maintenance alters the relationship between the CR and microbial carbon use efficiency (CUE). We find that maintenance metabolism reduces apparent CUE, while its effects on the CR depend on the energy content of the soil organic matter (SOM) or biomass compounds consumed to fuel the maintenance reaction. A compilation of literature data on the CR in different soils reveals highly variable values, indicating that soil microbes utilize a wide range of substrates and metabolic pathways to meet their maintenance demands. In arable soils, we find a close linear relationship between maintenance CR and average SOM energy content, while there is no clear pattern in forest soils. Compiled CR observations after glucose addition display a pronounced drop in CR at the onset of the retardation phase, suggesting a shift towards the use of energy poor substrates. We present a bioenergetic framework to incorporate maintenance metabolism in process-based models of soil microbial carbon use, and our compiled data show how maintenance processes affect the coupling between carbon and energy cycling both in unamended soils as well as after the addition of labile substrates.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":21888,"journal":{"name":"Soil Biology & Biochemistry","volume":"216 ","pages":"Article 110124"},"PeriodicalIF":10.3,"publicationDate":"2026-05-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"146146669","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":"The depth-dependent microbial response to root litter input in an experimental whole-soil warming study","authors":"Elaine Pegoraro ,&nbsp;Cyrill U. Zosso ,&nbsp;Guido L.B. Wiesenberg ,&nbsp;Cristina Castanha ,&nbsp;Caitlin E. Hicks Pries ,&nbsp;Rachel C. Porras ,&nbsp;Jennifer L. Soong ,&nbsp;Michael W.I. Schmidt ,&nbsp;Margaret S. Torn","doi":"10.1016/j.soilbio.2026.110106","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.soilbio.2026.110106","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Warmer soil temperatures influence belowground plant allocation, root turnover, and soil organic carbon decomposition. However, the fate of root-derived carbon with depth and temperature remains uncertain. This study traced ¹³C-labeled <em>Avena fatua</em> root litter incubated at three depths (10–14 cm, 45–49 cm, 85–89 cm) in a temperate conifer forest, where plots have been warmed by 4 °C to 100 cm depth since 2014. We recovered the added root carbon in soil organic matter (SOM) density fractions and microbial phospholipid fatty acids (PLFAs) after 1 and 3 years of incubation <em>in situ</em>. Root carbon recovery was similar across all soil depths and warming treatment, and was increasingly recovered in the soil over time, driven by fivefold increase in the occluded SOM fraction. Root addition increased fungal abundance by 3.7 percentage points across all depths, with the highest increase in fungal and Gram-negative bacterial relative abundance at 85–89 cm. By alleviating subsoil substrate limitation, root litter inputs promoted microbial groups that are typically constrained at depth. Despite this, soil warming reduced total microbial PLFAs at 45–49 cm by 5.4 percentage points and fungal relative abundance by 0.7 percentage points across all depths, likely due to a 32–18% decrease in soil moisture with warming, which can limit microbial activity. These results indicate that added root carbon is highly decomposable in the subsoil when substrate and moisture availability are not limiting, and highlight the essential role that fungi play in root litter decomposition throughout the soil profile.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":21888,"journal":{"name":"Soil Biology & Biochemistry","volume":"216 ","pages":"Article 110106"},"PeriodicalIF":10.3,"publicationDate":"2026-05-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"146184366","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":"Rare and abundant soil microbes coordinate C, N, P, and quorum sensing pathways to destabilize SOC in shrub-encroached marshes","authors":"Ziliang Yin ,&nbsp;Xin Sun ,&nbsp;Tijiu Cai ,&nbsp;Xiaoxin Sun","doi":"10.1016/j.soilbio.2026.110086","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.soilbio.2026.110086","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Shrub encroachment disrupts the dynamic balance between soil organic carbon (SOC) input and output in marsh ecosystems, and directly influences SOC accumulation. Traditional paradigms primarily attribute SOC dynamics to plant traits and soil physicochemical properties, whereas emerging evidence indicates underestimated roles of microbial communities in this process. This study used laboratory incubation, ¹³C NMR spectroscopy, and metagenomic sequencing to explore the key factors regulating marsh SOC stock and stability across four shrub encroachment stages in the largest temperate marsh in Northeast China. The results demonstrate that, although shrub encroachment significantly increased potential sources (e.g., marsh plant biomass and carbon stock) of SOC, low carbon quality prevented a substantial increase in SOC stocks and stability. Notably, soil microbial communities were pivotal drivers in regulating SOC dynamics in plant-soil-microbe interactions. Six carbon fixation pathways dominated by abundant and transitional taxa explained only 0.07 % of SOC stock variation, whereas the synergistic interactions between microorganisms and plants or soil had the most significant effect on SOC stocks. In contrast, the variation in SOC stability was primarily attributed to changes in carbohydrate-active enzyme (CAZyme) gene profiles dominated by rare taxa (61.26 %), surpassing the explanatory power of plant traits and soil physicochemical properties. Additionally, rare taxa substantially influenced synergistic interactions among nitrogen cycling, phosphorus cycling, carbon fixation, and CAZyme genes via the quorum sensing (QS) pathway. This study provides novel insights into the effects of plant-soil-microbial interactions on marsh SOC transformation during shrub encroachment, highlighting the potential of rare taxa to release available nutrients and accelerating carbon, nitrogen, and phosphorus cycling.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":21888,"journal":{"name":"Soil Biology & Biochemistry","volume":"215 ","pages":"Article 110086"},"PeriodicalIF":10.3,"publicationDate":"2026-04-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145957375","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":"Additional carbon conversion driven by microbial metabolic limitations in long-term phosphorus-fertilized soil: The role of reactive oxygen species","authors":"Yuanyuan Ding ,&nbsp;Na Chen ,&nbsp;Bin Jia ,&nbsp;Huiqiang Yang ,&nbsp;Fuhao Liu ,&nbsp;Kangjie Yang ,&nbsp;Zhiqiang Wang ,&nbsp;Jianjun Qin ,&nbsp;Jia Xie ,&nbsp;Yingfei Cao ,&nbsp;Xueyun Yang ,&nbsp;Hanzhong Jia","doi":"10.1016/j.soilbio.2026.110095","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.soilbio.2026.110095","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Reactive oxygen species (ROS) are important drivers of soil carbon (C) turnover, but how ROS production responds to phosphorus (P) application and participates in C turnover remain unclear. Based on a six-year P fertilizer application experiments, we found that P application decreased superoxide (O₂^•−) content by 36 % and 69 % in high- and low-fertility soils, respectively, whereas it increased hydroxyl radical (^•OH) content by 90 % in high-fertility soils, but had minimal impact in low-fertility soils. After gamma sterilization, O₂^•− content and ^•OH content decreased by approximately 54 % and 51 % respectively, indicating the significant role of microorganisms in ROS production. Random forest analysis identified microbial C limitation and P limitation as drivers of O₂^•− and ^•OH production, respectively. Aggravated microbial C limitation with P fertilization may inhibit the biotic O₂^•− generation by reducing the relative abundance of copiotrophic bacteria <em>(primarily Alphaproteobacteria</em> and <em>Betaproteobacteri</em>a). Incubation experiments confirmed this inhibitory effect, and demonstrated that the mitigation of microbial P limitation with P fertilization promotes ^•OH production in Fenton-like reactions by increasing the content of surface-adsorbed Fe(II) and Fe(II) in low-crystallinity minerals. The increase in the Fe(II) contents were attributed to iron-reducing microorganism, as confirmed by sterilization experiments. Additionally, incubation experiments further revealed that microbial C–P co-limits has a stronger negative effect on ROS content than a single limitation, which likely explains the lower ROS levels in low-fertility soils with more pronounced C–P co-limitation. ROS quench and addition experiments confirmed that the generated ^•OH with P application in high-fertility soils contributes 11–20 % of CO₂ emissions; whereas P application in low-fertility soils favored soil organic C sequestration by decreasing O₂^•− content and maintaining low ^•OH levels. Overall, the obtained results broaden the understanding of ROS production in soils and provide new insights into carbon turnover in fertilized soil.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":21888,"journal":{"name":"Soil Biology & Biochemistry","volume":"215 ","pages":"Article 110095"},"PeriodicalIF":10.3,"publicationDate":"2026-04-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"146000546","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":"Rhizosphere carbon flux of eight temperate tree species growing on a common site","authors":"Timothy J. Fahey,&nbsp;Joseph B. Yavitt","doi":"10.1016/j.soilbio.2026.110083","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.soilbio.2026.110083","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Tree roots are the principal source of stabilized organic matter in forest soils, supplying carbon in the form of detritus (root turnover) and rhizodeposition from living roots (rhizosphere carbon flux; RCF). The magnitude of these processes is highly uncertain owing to the difficulty of measurement <em>in situ</em> in mature forests. We estimated RCF in twelve monospecific forest plantations growing on a common soil in central New York using a root ingrowth ¹³C dilution technique. The plantations included eight tree species, four each with ectomycorrhizal or arbuscular mycorrhizal associations. We hypothesized that RCF would be greater for arbuscular mycorrhizal than ectomycorrhizal tree species and that this contrast in mycorrhizal type would account for most species’ differences. Our estimates of RCF averaged 109 g C m⁻² y⁻¹ in the upper 0–20 cm soil interval, and the estimates differed significantly among tree species with mostly greater values for arbuscular mycorrhizal than ectomycorrhizal tree species. Although a large amount of new carbon was added by RCF, the carbon content of rhizosphere soil was unchanged, suggesting that RCF primed the mineralization of soil organic matter (SOM) in the ingrowth root cores. Our measurements indicate that RCF comprises an average of about 20 % of aboveground net primary production in these forest plantations and suggest that similar amounts of carbon are added to soil by root turnover and RCF.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":21888,"journal":{"name":"Soil Biology & Biochemistry","volume":"215 ","pages":"Article 110083"},"PeriodicalIF":10.3,"publicationDate":"2026-04-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145962528","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":"SOC stabilisation shifts from carbon accumulation in temperate soils to mineral association in subtropical soils","authors":"Yijia Tang,&nbsp;Thi Kim Anh Tran,&nbsp;Budiman Minasny,&nbsp;Shiva Bakhshandeh,&nbsp;Mingming Du,&nbsp;Nicolas Francos,&nbsp;Yin-Chung Huang,&nbsp;Ho Jun Jang,&nbsp;Wartini Ng,&nbsp;Peipei Xue,&nbsp;Alex McBratney","doi":"10.1016/j.soilbio.2026.110101","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.soilbio.2026.110101","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Soil organic carbon (SOC) is operationally partitioned into particulate organic carbon (POC) and mineral-associated organic carbon (MAOC) to infer soil carbon persistence and sensitivity to disturbance or management. Yet the combined roles of climate, mineralogy, and land use in shaping these fractions remain unresolved across continental gradients. Here, we analysed 249 Australian topsoils from 65 paired sites along a 550 mm rainfall isohyet. Samples were grouped into four climate–texture clusters (Subtropical Coarse, Subtropical Fine, Temperate Coarse, Temperate Fine) to disentangle the effects of thermal and hydrological regimes, soil properties, and land use on SOC partitioning and stabilisation. Subtropical soils consistently exhibited a high proportion of MAOC (fMAOC ≈ 0.8) despite low SOC stocks, reflecting preferential retention of mineral–organic interactions under carbon-limited and water-stressed conditions. In contrast, temperate soils stored greater SOC and POC, indicating higher carbon inputs and slower decomposition. In subtropical fine-textured soils, agriculture elevated fMAOC through microbial activity and nutrient inputs, yet this occurred alongside depleted SOC and POC, highlighting a trade-off between stabilisation efficiency and carbon stock depletion. Across all clusters, land use effects were detectable but secondary to climate and mineral properties. These findings show that temperate and subtropical soils follow contrasting carbon stabilisation pathways: temperate systems store more carbon overall, while subtropical systems allocate a larger share of their carbon to mineral-associated carbon. Our climate–texture framework highlights region-specific management priorities: enhancing mineral–organic interactions through increased root inputs and organic or mineral amendments in subtropical soils, and protecting vulnerable carbon stocks through reduced disturbance and residue retention in temperate systems.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":21888,"journal":{"name":"Soil Biology & Biochemistry","volume":"215 ","pages":"Article 110101"},"PeriodicalIF":10.3,"publicationDate":"2026-04-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"146024528","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":"The role of bacterial rrn copy number in shaping ecological strategies in soil: Is it time to re-evaluate this functional trait?","authors":"Jaron Adkins ,&nbsp;Karen M. Foley ,&nbsp;Karen H. Beard ,&nbsp;Trisha B. Atwood ,&nbsp;Bonnie G. Waring","doi":"10.1016/j.soilbio.2026.110099","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.soilbio.2026.110099","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Developing a mechanistic understanding of how soil microbial communities underlie ecosystem functions has become a pressing need in the face of rapid environmental change. In service of this goal, soil microbial ecologists have sought to develop general principles about the ecological strategies that soil microbes adopt and the functional traits that contribute to those strategies. Among bacteria, the trait most commonly invoked as an indicator for bacterial performance and ecological strategy in soils is bacterial <em>rrn</em> operon copy number (RCN), which is frequently applied as an indicator of a bacterial community's position on a continuum of copiotrophic vs oligotrophic ecological strategies. The use of RCN as a proxy for bacterial ecological strategy is based on the premise that RCN mediates a tradeoff between bacterial growth rate and growth yield efficiency. However, support for RCN in mediating a growth rate-yield tradeoff is limited to a small number of studies performed in culture environments, and there is no evidence for the involvement of RCN in such a tradeoff in real soils. In contrast, emerging evidence suggests that RCN has a positive influence on soil extracellular enzyme activity, indicating that RCN may be a functional trait related to decomposition activity in soils. Here, we draw on new and previously published empirical data as well as simulation modelling to reassess the contribution of RCN to bacterial ecological strategies in soils. We conclude that while RCN is positively associated with bacterial growth rate and soil exoenzyme activity under some resource conditions, its relationship to growth yield efficiency remains unclear. Considering this, we suggest that RCN holds promise for understanding the contribution of soil bacteria to ecosystem functions, but the common application of RCN as an indicator of overall bacterial ecological strategy is inappropriate in light of current evidence.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":21888,"journal":{"name":"Soil Biology & Biochemistry","volume":"215 ","pages":"Article 110099"},"PeriodicalIF":10.3,"publicationDate":"2026-04-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"146001492","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}