Microbial biomass – not diversity – drives soil carbon and nitrogen mineralization in Spanish holm oak ecosystems

Soil microbial communities drive essential ecosystem functions, catalyzing biogeochemical cycles and contributing to climate regulation. However, due to the complexity of microbial communities, the magnitude and direction of microbial biomass and diversity contributions to carbon (C) and nutrient cy...

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Autores: Bruni, E., Yuste, J.C., Menichetti, L., Flores, O., Guasconi, D., Guenet, B., Hereș, A.M., Lehtonen, A., Mäkipää, R., Pallandt, M., Pérez-Izquierdo, L., Richy, E., Santonja, M., Tupek, B., Manzoni, S.
Tipo de documento: artigo
Data de publicação:2025
País:España
Recursos:Universidad del País Vasco
Repositório:Addi. Archivo Digital para la Docencia y la Investigación
OAI Identifier:oai:addi.ehu.eus:10810/75628
Acesso em linha:http://hdl.handle.net/10810/75628
Access Level:Acceso aberto
Palavra-chave:Biodiversity
Biogeochemistry
Climate change
Forest soil
Microorganisms
Modeling
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spelling Microbial biomass – not diversity – drives soil carbon and nitrogen mineralization in Spanish holm oak ecosystemsBruni, E.Yuste, J.C.Menichetti, L.Flores, O.Guasconi, D.Guenet, B.Hereș, A.M.Lehtonen, A.Mäkipää, R.Pallandt, M.Pérez-Izquierdo, L.Richy, E.Santonja, M.Tupek, B.Manzoni, S.BiodiversityBiogeochemistryClimate changeForest soilMicroorganismsModelingSoil microbial communities drive essential ecosystem functions, catalyzing biogeochemical cycles and contributing to climate regulation. However, due to the complexity of microbial communities, the magnitude and direction of microbial biomass and diversity contributions to carbon (C) and nutrient cycling remain unclear. For this reason, most models predicting soil organic matter (SOM) dynamics at the ecosystem level do not explicitly describe the role of microorganisms as mediators of SOM decomposition. Incorporating microbial properties, and especially diversity, into ecosystem models remains an open question, requiring careful consideration of the tradeoff between model complexity and performance. This work addresses this knowledge gap by implementing a simple C and nitrogen (N) cycling model to predict heterotrophic respiration and net N mineralization rates in soils sampled under different land-uses and tree health conditions across Spain. To understand the role of microorganisms on ecosystem functioning, we progressively incorporated microbial biomass and diversity (i.e., alpha diversity of taxa and of fungal functional groups), and selected the model that optimized prediction accuracy, while minimizing complexity. We found that microbial biomass had a strong and positive effect on both C and N mineralization rates, with heterotrophic respiration being nearly linearly controlled by biomass. In contrast, microbial diversity had minimal but negative effects on mineralization processes, with land-use differences explaining part of the variability in these effects. Our study confirms microbial biomass as a key driver of C and N mineralization rates, while highlights that microbial diversity based on taxonomic identification inadequately explains microbial effects on these ecosystem functions.This work was funded by the grant \"Holistic management practices, modelling and monitoring for European forest soils\"\u2014HoliSoils (H2020 grant agreement 101000289).GeodermaH2020202520252025info:eu-repo/semantics/articleapplication/pdfhttp://hdl.handle.net/10810/75628reponame:Addi. Archivo Digital para la Docencia y la Investigacióninstname:Universidad del País VascoInglésinfo:eu-repo/grantAgreement/EC/H2020/101000289https://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.geoderma.2025.117408info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccesshttp://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/3.0/es/© 2025 The Authors.Atribución-NoComercial-CompartirIgual 3.0 Españaoai:addi.ehu.eus:10810/756282026-06-18T09:23:17Z
dc.title.none.fl_str_mv Microbial biomass – not diversity – drives soil carbon and nitrogen mineralization in Spanish holm oak ecosystems
title Microbial biomass – not diversity – drives soil carbon and nitrogen mineralization in Spanish holm oak ecosystems
spellingShingle Microbial biomass – not diversity – drives soil carbon and nitrogen mineralization in Spanish holm oak ecosystems
Bruni, E.
Biodiversity
Biogeochemistry
Climate change
Forest soil
Microorganisms
Modeling
title_short Microbial biomass – not diversity – drives soil carbon and nitrogen mineralization in Spanish holm oak ecosystems
title_full Microbial biomass – not diversity – drives soil carbon and nitrogen mineralization in Spanish holm oak ecosystems
title_fullStr Microbial biomass – not diversity – drives soil carbon and nitrogen mineralization in Spanish holm oak ecosystems
title_full_unstemmed Microbial biomass – not diversity – drives soil carbon and nitrogen mineralization in Spanish holm oak ecosystems
title_sort Microbial biomass – not diversity – drives soil carbon and nitrogen mineralization in Spanish holm oak ecosystems
dc.creator.none.fl_str_mv Bruni, E.
Yuste, J.C.
Menichetti, L.
Flores, O.
Guasconi, D.
Guenet, B.
Hereș, A.M.
Lehtonen, A.
Mäkipää, R.
Pallandt, M.
Pérez-Izquierdo, L.
Richy, E.
Santonja, M.
Tupek, B.
Manzoni, S.
author Bruni, E.
author_facet Bruni, E.
Yuste, J.C.
Menichetti, L.
Flores, O.
Guasconi, D.
Guenet, B.
Hereș, A.M.
Lehtonen, A.
Mäkipää, R.
Pallandt, M.
Pérez-Izquierdo, L.
Richy, E.
Santonja, M.
Tupek, B.
Manzoni, S.
author_role author
author2 Yuste, J.C.
Menichetti, L.
Flores, O.
Guasconi, D.
Guenet, B.
Hereș, A.M.
Lehtonen, A.
Mäkipää, R.
Pallandt, M.
Pérez-Izquierdo, L.
Richy, E.
Santonja, M.
Tupek, B.
Manzoni, S.
author2_role author
author
author
author
author
author
author
author
author
author
author
author
author
author
dc.contributor.none.fl_str_mv H2020
dc.subject.none.fl_str_mv Biodiversity
Biogeochemistry
Climate change
Forest soil
Microorganisms
Modeling
topic Biodiversity
Biogeochemistry
Climate change
Forest soil
Microorganisms
Modeling
description Soil microbial communities drive essential ecosystem functions, catalyzing biogeochemical cycles and contributing to climate regulation. However, due to the complexity of microbial communities, the magnitude and direction of microbial biomass and diversity contributions to carbon (C) and nutrient cycling remain unclear. For this reason, most models predicting soil organic matter (SOM) dynamics at the ecosystem level do not explicitly describe the role of microorganisms as mediators of SOM decomposition. Incorporating microbial properties, and especially diversity, into ecosystem models remains an open question, requiring careful consideration of the tradeoff between model complexity and performance. This work addresses this knowledge gap by implementing a simple C and nitrogen (N) cycling model to predict heterotrophic respiration and net N mineralization rates in soils sampled under different land-uses and tree health conditions across Spain. To understand the role of microorganisms on ecosystem functioning, we progressively incorporated microbial biomass and diversity (i.e., alpha diversity of taxa and of fungal functional groups), and selected the model that optimized prediction accuracy, while minimizing complexity. We found that microbial biomass had a strong and positive effect on both C and N mineralization rates, with heterotrophic respiration being nearly linearly controlled by biomass. In contrast, microbial diversity had minimal but negative effects on mineralization processes, with land-use differences explaining part of the variability in these effects. Our study confirms microbial biomass as a key driver of C and N mineralization rates, while highlights that microbial diversity based on taxonomic identification inadequately explains microbial effects on these ecosystem functions.
publishDate 2025
dc.date.none.fl_str_mv 2025
2025
2025
dc.type.none.fl_str_mv info:eu-repo/semantics/article
format article
dc.identifier.none.fl_str_mv http://hdl.handle.net/10810/75628
url http://hdl.handle.net/10810/75628
dc.language.none.fl_str_mv Inglés
language_invalid_str_mv Inglés
dc.relation.none.fl_str_mv info:eu-repo/grantAgreement/EC/H2020/101000289
https://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.geoderma.2025.117408
dc.rights.none.fl_str_mv info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/3.0/es/
© 2025 The Authors.
Atribución-NoComercial-CompartirIgual 3.0 España
eu_rights_str_mv openAccess
rights_invalid_str_mv http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/3.0/es/
© 2025 The Authors.
Atribución-NoComercial-CompartirIgual 3.0 España
dc.format.none.fl_str_mv application/pdf
dc.publisher.none.fl_str_mv Geoderma
publisher.none.fl_str_mv Geoderma
dc.source.none.fl_str_mv reponame:Addi. Archivo Digital para la Docencia y la Investigación
instname:Universidad del País Vasco
instname_str Universidad del País Vasco
reponame_str Addi. Archivo Digital para la Docencia y la Investigación
collection Addi. Archivo Digital para la Docencia y la Investigación
repository.name.fl_str_mv
repository.mail.fl_str_mv
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score 15,812429

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