Reduction of forest soil biota impacts tree performance but not greenhouse gas fluxes

Konstantinos Georgopoulos; T. Martijn Bezemer; Jesper Riis Christiansen; Klaus Steenberg Larsen; Gina Moerman; Roos Vermeulen; Sten Anslan; Leho Tedersoo; Sofia IF Gomes

doi:10.1016/j.soilbio.2024.109643

Reduction of forest soil biota impacts tree performance but not greenhouse gas fluxes

Konstantinos Georgopoulos^*, T. Martijn Bezemer, Jesper Riis Christiansen, Klaus Steenberg Larsen, Gina Moerman, Roos Vermeulen, Sten Anslan, Leho Tedersoo, Sofia IF Gomes

^*Corresponding author af dette arbejde

Skov- og landskabsøkologi

Publikation: Bidrag til tidsskrift › Tidsskriftartikel › Forskning › peer review

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Abstract

Soil communities are essential to ecosystem functioning, yet the impact of reducing soil biota on root-associated communities, tree performance, and greenhouse gas (GHG) fluxes remains unclear. This study examines how different size fractions of soil biota from young and mature forests influence Alnus glutinosa performance, root-associated community composition, and GHG fluxes. We conducted a mesocosm experiment using soil community fractions (wet sieving through 250, 20, 11, and 3 μm) from young and mature forest developmental stages as inocula. The results indicate that the root-associated community composition was shaped by forest developmental stage but not by the size of the community fractions. Inoculation with the largest size fraction from mature forests negatively affected tree growth, likely due to increased competition between the plants and soil biota. In addition, GHG fluxes were not significantly impacted by either size fraction or forest developmental stage despite the different community composition supplied. Overall, our research indicates that A. glutinosa strongly selects the composition of the root-associated community, despite differences in the initial inoculum, and this composition varies depending on the stage of ecosystem development, impacting the performance of the trees but not GHG fluxes.

Originalsprog	Engelsk
Artikelnummer	109643
Tidsskrift	Soil Biology and Biochemistry
Vol/bind	200
Antal sider	13
ISSN	0038-0717
DOI	https://doi.org/10.1016/j.soilbio.2024.109643
Status	Udgivet - 2025

Bibliografisk note

Funding Information:
This work is part of the Silva Nova project funded by the Novo Nordisk Foundation, Hellerup, Denmark (NNF20OC59948). We would like to thank Mr Xiangyu Liu and Mr Thijs Bierman for their valuable assistance in the forest soil collection. We would also like to thank Ms Karin van der Veen for assisting with the experimental setup and to Mr Rasmus Puusepp for assisting and performing a large part of the PCR procedures, and to the editor and the two expert reviewers for providing constructive feedback to improve the manuscript. The authors declare no conflict of interest.

Publisher Copyright:
© 2024 The Authors

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10.1016/j.soilbio.2024.109643Licens: CC BY

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Citationsformater

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title = "Reduction of forest soil biota impacts tree performance but not greenhouse gas fluxes",

abstract = "Soil communities are essential to ecosystem functioning, yet the impact of reducing soil biota on root-associated communities, tree performance, and greenhouse gas (GHG) fluxes remains unclear. This study examines how different size fractions of soil biota from young and mature forests influence Alnus glutinosa performance, root-associated community composition, and GHG fluxes. We conducted a mesocosm experiment using soil community fractions (wet sieving through 250, 20, 11, and 3 μm) from young and mature forest developmental stages as inocula. The results indicate that the root-associated community composition was shaped by forest developmental stage but not by the size of the community fractions. Inoculation with the largest size fraction from mature forests negatively affected tree growth, likely due to increased competition between the plants and soil biota. In addition, GHG fluxes were not significantly impacted by either size fraction or forest developmental stage despite the different community composition supplied. Overall, our research indicates that A. glutinosa strongly selects the composition of the root-associated community, despite differences in the initial inoculum, and this composition varies depending on the stage of ecosystem development, impacting the performance of the trees but not GHG fluxes.",

keywords = "Alnus glutinosa, Fractionation, Greenhouse gas fluxes, Root associated community composition, Soil microbial community",

author = "Konstantinos Georgopoulos and Bezemer, {T. Martijn} and Christiansen, {Jesper Riis} and Larsen, {Klaus Steenberg} and Gina Moerman and Roos Vermeulen and Sten Anslan and Leho Tedersoo and Gomes, {Sofia IF}",

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year = "2025",

doi = "10.1016/j.soilbio.2024.109643",

language = "English",

volume = "200",

journal = "Soil Biology and Biochemistry",

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T1 - Reduction of forest soil biota impacts tree performance but not greenhouse gas fluxes

AU - Georgopoulos, Konstantinos

AU - Bezemer, T. Martijn

AU - Christiansen, Jesper Riis

AU - Larsen, Klaus Steenberg

AU - Moerman, Gina

AU - Vermeulen, Roos

AU - Anslan, Sten

AU - Tedersoo, Leho

AU - Gomes, Sofia IF

PY - 2025

Y1 - 2025

N2 - Soil communities are essential to ecosystem functioning, yet the impact of reducing soil biota on root-associated communities, tree performance, and greenhouse gas (GHG) fluxes remains unclear. This study examines how different size fractions of soil biota from young and mature forests influence Alnus glutinosa performance, root-associated community composition, and GHG fluxes. We conducted a mesocosm experiment using soil community fractions (wet sieving through 250, 20, 11, and 3 μm) from young and mature forest developmental stages as inocula. The results indicate that the root-associated community composition was shaped by forest developmental stage but not by the size of the community fractions. Inoculation with the largest size fraction from mature forests negatively affected tree growth, likely due to increased competition between the plants and soil biota. In addition, GHG fluxes were not significantly impacted by either size fraction or forest developmental stage despite the different community composition supplied. Overall, our research indicates that A. glutinosa strongly selects the composition of the root-associated community, despite differences in the initial inoculum, and this composition varies depending on the stage of ecosystem development, impacting the performance of the trees but not GHG fluxes.

AB - Soil communities are essential to ecosystem functioning, yet the impact of reducing soil biota on root-associated communities, tree performance, and greenhouse gas (GHG) fluxes remains unclear. This study examines how different size fractions of soil biota from young and mature forests influence Alnus glutinosa performance, root-associated community composition, and GHG fluxes. We conducted a mesocosm experiment using soil community fractions (wet sieving through 250, 20, 11, and 3 μm) from young and mature forest developmental stages as inocula. The results indicate that the root-associated community composition was shaped by forest developmental stage but not by the size of the community fractions. Inoculation with the largest size fraction from mature forests negatively affected tree growth, likely due to increased competition between the plants and soil biota. In addition, GHG fluxes were not significantly impacted by either size fraction or forest developmental stage despite the different community composition supplied. Overall, our research indicates that A. glutinosa strongly selects the composition of the root-associated community, despite differences in the initial inoculum, and this composition varies depending on the stage of ecosystem development, impacting the performance of the trees but not GHG fluxes.

KW - Alnus glutinosa

KW - Fractionation

KW - Greenhouse gas fluxes

KW - Root associated community composition

KW - Soil microbial community

U2 - 10.1016/j.soilbio.2024.109643

DO - 10.1016/j.soilbio.2024.109643

M3 - Journal article

AN - SCOPUS:85207787601

SN - 0038-0717

VL - 200

JO - Soil Biology and Biochemistry

JF - Soil Biology and Biochemistry

M1 - 109643

ER -