Drivers of soil microbial and detritivore activity across global grasslands

Julia Siebert; Marie Sünnemann; Yann Hautier; Anita C Risch; Jonathan D Bakker; Lori Biederman; Dana M Blumenthal; Elizabeth T Borer; Miguel N Bugalho; Arthur A D Broadbent; Maria C Caldeira; Elsa Cleland; Kendi F Davies; Anu Eskelinen; Nicole Hagenah; Johannes M H Knops; Andrew S MacDougall; Rebecca L McCulley; Joslin L Moore; Sally A Power; Jodi N Price; Eric W Seabloom; Rachel Standish; Carly J Stevens; Stephan Zimmermann; Nico Eisenhauer

doi:10.1038/s42003-023-05607-2

Drivers of soil microbial and detritivore activity across global grasslands

Julia Siebert, Marie Sünnemann^*, Yann Hautier, Anita C Risch, Jonathan D Bakker, Lori Biederman, Dana M Blumenthal, Elizabeth T Borer, Miguel N Bugalho, Arthur A D Broadbent, Maria C Caldeira, Elsa Cleland, Kendi F Davies, Anu Eskelinen, Nicole Hagenah, Johannes M H Knops, Andrew S MacDougall, Rebecca L McCulley, Joslin L Moore, Sally A PowerJodi N Price, Eric W Seabloom, Rachel Standish, Carly J Stevens, Stephan Zimmermann, Nico Eisenhauer

^*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › Academic › peer-review

Abstract

Covering approximately 40% of land surfaces, grasslands provide critical ecosystem services that rely on soil organisms. However, the global determinants of soil biodiversity and functioning remain underexplored. In this study, we investigate the drivers of soil microbial and detritivore activity in grasslands across a wide range of climatic conditions on five continents. We apply standardized treatments of nutrient addition and herbivore reduction, allowing us to disentangle the regional and local drivers of soil organism activity. We use structural equation modeling to assess the direct and indirect effects of local and regional drivers on soil biological activities. Microbial and detritivore activities are positively correlated across global grasslands. These correlations are shaped more by global climatic factors than by local treatments, with annual precipitation and soil water content explaining the majority of the variation. Nutrient addition tends to reduce microbial activity by enhancing plant growth, while herbivore reduction typically increases microbial and detritivore activity through increased soil moisture. Our findings emphasize soil moisture as a key driver of soil biological activity, highlighting the potential impacts of climate change, altered grazing pressure, and eutrophication on nutrient cycling and decomposition within grassland ecosystems.

Original language	English
Article number	1220
Pages (from-to)	1-10
Number of pages	10
Journal	Communications Biology
Volume	6
Issue number	1
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1038/s42003-023-05607-2
Publication status	Published - 1 Dec 2023

Bibliographical note

Publisher Copyright:
© 2023, The Author(s).

Funding

This work was generated using data from the Nutrient Network (http://www.nutnet.org) experiment, funded at the site-scale by individual researchers. Coordination of soil sampling was funded by a competitive WSL internal grant to A.C. Risch and S. Zimmermann. Coordination and data management for NutNet have been supported by funding to E. Borer and E. Seabloom from the National Science Foundation Research Coordination Network (NSF-DEB-1042132) and Long-Term Ecological Research (NSF-DEB-1234162 to Cedar Creek LTER) programs, and the Institute on the Environment (DG-0001-13). We also thank the Minnesota Supercomputer Institute for hosting project data and the Institute on the Environment for hosting Network meetings. J. Siebert, M. Suennemann, and N. Eisenhauer acknowledge funding from the German Centre for Integrative Biodiversity Research (iDiv) Halle-Jena-Leipzig, funded by the DFG (FZT 118). M. N. Bugalho thanks the Portuguese Foundation for Science and Technology (FCT) for funding through contract DL 57/2016/CP1382/CT0030 and projects UID/BIA/50027/2013 and POCI-01-0145-FEDER-006821. M. N. Bugalho also thank Rui Alves for granting access to the study site (comp.pt) We acknowledge the Portuguese Science Foundation (FCT) for funding the research unit CEF (UIDB/00239/2020). We thank Felix Gottschall for support with Figs. 2 and 3 and especially the design of the icons.Open Access funding enabled and organized by Projekt DEAL.

Funders	Funder number
German Centre for Integrative Biodiversity Research
Institute on the Environment	DG-0001-13
Long-Term Ecological Research	NSF-DEB-1234162
National Science Foundation	NSF-DEB-1042132
Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft	FZT 118
Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia	DL 57/2016/CP1382/CT0030, POCI-01-0145-FEDER-006821, UID/BIA/50027/2013, UIDB/00239/2020
Deutsches Zentrum für integrative Biodiversitätsforschung Halle-Jena-Leipzig

Keywords

Biodiversity
Ecosystem
Grassland
Soil Microbiology
Soil/chemistry

UN SDGs

This output contributes to the following UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)

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Cite this

Siebert, J., Sünnemann, M., Hautier, Y., Risch, A. C., Bakker, J. D., Biederman, L., Blumenthal, D. M., Borer, E. T., Bugalho, M. N., Broadbent, A. A. D., Caldeira, M. C., Cleland, E., Davies, K. F., Eskelinen, A., Hagenah, N., Knops, J. M. H., MacDougall, A. S., McCulley, R. L., Moore, J. L., ... Eisenhauer, N. (2023). Drivers of soil microbial and detritivore activity across global grasslands. Communications Biology, 6(1), 1-10. Article 1220. https://doi.org/10.1038/s42003-023-05607-2

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Siebert, J, Sünnemann, M, Hautier, Y, Risch, AC, Bakker, JD, Biederman, L, Blumenthal, DM, Borer, ET, Bugalho, MN, Broadbent, AAD, Caldeira, MC, Cleland, E, Davies, KF, Eskelinen, A, Hagenah, N, Knops, JMH, MacDougall, AS, McCulley, RL, Moore, JL, Power, SA, Price, JN, Seabloom, EW, Standish, R, Stevens, CJ, Zimmermann, S & Eisenhauer, N 2023, 'Drivers of soil microbial and detritivore activity across global grasslands', Communications Biology, vol. 6, no. 1, 1220, pp. 1-10. https://doi.org/10.1038/s42003-023-05607-2

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AU - Biederman, Lori

AU - Blumenthal, Dana M

AU - Borer, Elizabeth T

AU - Bugalho, Miguel N

AU - Broadbent, Arthur A D

AU - Caldeira, Maria C

AU - Cleland, Elsa

AU - Davies, Kendi F

AU - Eskelinen, Anu

AU - Hagenah, Nicole

AU - Knops, Johannes M H

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AU - McCulley, Rebecca L

AU - Moore, Joslin L

AU - Power, Sally A

AU - Price, Jodi N

AU - Seabloom, Eric W

AU - Standish, Rachel

AU - Stevens, Carly J

AU - Zimmermann, Stephan

AU - Eisenhauer, Nico

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Drivers of soil microbial and detritivore activity across global grasslands

Abstract

Bibliographical note

Funding

Keywords

UN SDGs

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