The Functional Diversity of Soil Microbial Communities Vary with Plant Cultivar
Additional Funding Sources
The project described was supported by the Boise Cascade Environmental Research Fellowship through the Boise Cascade Corporation.
Abstract
With the threat of climate change there is a growing incentive to reduce atmospheric carbon dioxide (CO2) levels. Soil is the largest sink of terrestrial carbon (C), and the natural processes of soil C sequestration could be harnessed to reduce atmospheric CO2. Grasses like switchgrass (Panicum virgatum) and big bluestem (Andropogon gerardi) have the potential to sequester C since they have extensive root systems, and their cultivation involves little disturbance to the soil. Research in our lab has shown that soil C accumulation differs among cultivars of switchgrass and big bluestem. Additionally, studies have indicated that the microbial community functioning can affect soil C accumulation. However, whether variation among the microbial communities of big bluestem and switchgrass cultivars could be responsible for the observed differences in soil C accumulation is still unknown. This study seeks to understand how cultivars of switchgrass and big bluestem affect microbial functional diversity across a soil depth profile. We collected 30 cm soil cores split into 3 increments from a long-term field experiment in the Fermilab National Environmental Research Park, IL. Microbial functional diversity was analyzed for samples from cultivar monocultures by exposing them to different C substrates, incubating, and determining respired CO2.
The Functional Diversity of Soil Microbial Communities Vary with Plant Cultivar
With the threat of climate change there is a growing incentive to reduce atmospheric carbon dioxide (CO2) levels. Soil is the largest sink of terrestrial carbon (C), and the natural processes of soil C sequestration could be harnessed to reduce atmospheric CO2. Grasses like switchgrass (Panicum virgatum) and big bluestem (Andropogon gerardi) have the potential to sequester C since they have extensive root systems, and their cultivation involves little disturbance to the soil. Research in our lab has shown that soil C accumulation differs among cultivars of switchgrass and big bluestem. Additionally, studies have indicated that the microbial community functioning can affect soil C accumulation. However, whether variation among the microbial communities of big bluestem and switchgrass cultivars could be responsible for the observed differences in soil C accumulation is still unknown. This study seeks to understand how cultivars of switchgrass and big bluestem affect microbial functional diversity across a soil depth profile. We collected 30 cm soil cores split into 3 increments from a long-term field experiment in the Fermilab National Environmental Research Park, IL. Microbial functional diversity was analyzed for samples from cultivar monocultures by exposing them to different C substrates, incubating, and determining respired CO2.
Comments
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