Microbial spatial footprint as a driver of soil carbon stabilization

作者：Alexandra Kravchenko, Andrey Guber, Bahar S. Razavi, John Koestel, Michelle Quigley, G. Philip Robertson, Yakov Kuzyakov · 发表于：Nature Communications · 年份：2019 · DOI：10.1038/s41467-019-11057-4 · 被引用次数：331 · 研究领域：Soil Carbon and Nitrogen Dynamics、Peatlands and Wetlands Ecology、Atmospheric and Environmental Gas Dynamics

. Well-recognized approaches for soil C accretion include reducing soil disturbance, increasing plant biomass inputs, and enhancing plant diversity. Yet experimental evidence often fails to support anticipated C gains, suggesting that our integrated understanding of soil C accretion remains insufficient. Here we use a unique combination of X-ray micro-tomography and micro-scale enzyme mapping to demonstrate for the first time that plant-stimulated soil pore formation appears to be a major, hitherto unrecognized, determinant of whether new C inputs are stored or lost to the atmosphere. Unlike monocultures, diverse plant communities favor the development of 30-150 µm pores. Such pores are the micro-environments associated with higher enzyme activities, and greater abundance of such pores translates into a greater spatial footprint that microorganisms make on the soil and consequently soil C storage capacity.