Research output: Contribution to Journal/Magazine › Journal article › peer-review
Research output: Contribution to Journal/Magazine › Journal article › peer-review
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TY - JOUR
T1 - Abiotic drivers and plant traits explain landscape-scale patterns in soil microbial communities
AU - De Vries, Franciska
AU - Manning, Pete
AU - Tallowin, Jerry
AU - Mortimer, Simon
AU - Pilgrim, Emma
AU - Harrison, Kate
AU - Hobbs, Phil
AU - Quirk, Helen
AU - Shipley, Bill
AU - Cornelissen, Hans
AU - Kattge, Jens
AU - Bardgett, Richard
PY - 2012/11
Y1 - 2012/11
N2 - The controls on aboveground community composition and diversity have been extensively studied, but our understanding of the drivers of belowground microbial communities is relatively lacking, despite their importance for ecosystem functioning. In this study, we fitted statistical models to explain landscape-scale variation in soil microbial community composition using data from 180 sites covering a broad range of grassland types, soil and climatic conditions in England. We found that variation in soil microbial communities was explained by abiotic factors like climate, pH and soil properties. Biotic factors, namely community-weighted means (CWM) of plant functional traits, also explained variation in soil microbial communities. In particular, more bacterial-dominated microbial communities were associated with exploitative plant traits versus fungal-dominated communities with resource-conservative traits, showing that plant functional traits and soil microbial communities are closely related at the landscape scale.
AB - The controls on aboveground community composition and diversity have been extensively studied, but our understanding of the drivers of belowground microbial communities is relatively lacking, despite their importance for ecosystem functioning. In this study, we fitted statistical models to explain landscape-scale variation in soil microbial community composition using data from 180 sites covering a broad range of grassland types, soil and climatic conditions in England. We found that variation in soil microbial communities was explained by abiotic factors like climate, pH and soil properties. Biotic factors, namely community-weighted means (CWM) of plant functional traits, also explained variation in soil microbial communities. In particular, more bacterial-dominated microbial communities were associated with exploitative plant traits versus fungal-dominated communities with resource-conservative traits, showing that plant functional traits and soil microbial communities are closely related at the landscape scale.
KW - bacteria
KW - carbon
KW - climate
KW - distribution
KW - fungi
KW - microbial communities
KW - modelling
KW - nitrogen
KW - plant communities
KW - plant functional traits
KW - soil
U2 - 10.1111/j.1461-0248.2012.01844.x
DO - 10.1111/j.1461-0248.2012.01844.x
M3 - Journal article
VL - 15
SP - 1230
EP - 1239
JO - Ecology Letters
JF - Ecology Letters
SN - 1461-023X
IS - 11
ER -