ALBERT

Description: Atmospheric nitrogen (N) deposition has been shown to decrease plant species richness along regional deposition gradients in Europe and in experimental manipulations. However, the general response of species richness to N deposition across different vegetation types, soil conditions, and climates remains largely unknown even though responses may be contingent on...

Description: Molecular hydrogen (H2) plays an important role in atmospheric chemistry by competing for reactions with the hydroxyl radical (·OH) and contributing to the production of H2O in the stratosphere, indirectly influencing stratospheric ozone concentrations. The dominant pathway for loss of H2 from the atmosphere is via microbially-mediated soil uptake although the magnitude of this loss is still regarded as highly uncertain. Recent studies have shown that abiotic processes such as photochemically mediated degradation (photodegradation) of organic material result in direct emissions of carbon (C) and nitrogen (N)-based trace gases as well as H2. This H2 production has important implications on source-sink dynamics of H2 at the soil-atmosphere interface and thus it is important to quantify its variability over a range of plant types and materials. Here, we show quantitative observations of H2 production and its temperature dependence during abiotic degradation of four plant litter types as well as pure cellulose and high lignin content woody material. A greater amount of H2 was produced in the absence of solar radiation than from photodegradation alone, verifying that low temperature thermal degradation of plant litter is a source of H2. In addition, we measured a significant release of H2 in the absence of O2 in addition to H2 release in the presence of O2. Our results suggest that abiotic release of H2 during organic matter is ubiquitous in terrestrial ecosystems. We propose that because these processes occur at the soil-atmosphere interface, they provide a previously unaccounted for proximal source of H2 for microbial uptake and confound interpretation of direct measurements of atmospheric uptake that are important for constraining the global H2 budget.

Description: Loss of biodiversity can impact ecosystem functioning, such as altering carbon (C) cycling rates. Soils are the largest terrestrial C reservoir, containing more C globally than the biotic and atmospheric pools together. As such, soil C cycling, and the processes controlling it, have the potential to affect atmospheric CO2 concentrations and subsequent climate change. Despite the growing evidence of links between plant diversity and soil C cycling, there is a dearth of information on whether similar relationships exist between biodiversity of soil organisms (microbes and soil fauna) and C cycling. This is despite increasing recognition that soil communities display high levels of both taxonomic and functional diversity and are key drivers of fluxes of C between the atmosphere and terrestrial ecosystems. Here, we used meta-analysis and regression analysis to quantitatively assess how soil biodiversity affects soil C cycling pools and processes (i.e., soil C respiration, litter decomposition, and plant biomass). We compared the response of pool amd process variables to changes in biodiversity both within and across trophic groups of organisms. Overall, loss of soil diversity significantly reduced soil C respiration (−27.5%) and plant tissue decomposition (−18%), but did not affect above- and belowground plant biomass. Detailed analyses showed that loss of within-group biodiversity significantly reduced soil C respiration, while loss of across-group diversity did not. Decomposition was negatively affected by losses of both within-group and across-group diversity. Further, loss of microbial diversity strongly reduced soil C respiration (−41%). In contrast, plant tissue decomposition was negatively affected by loss of soil faunal diversity, but was unaffected by loss of microbial diversity. Taken together, our findings show that loss of soil biodiversity can strongly affect soil C cycling processes, and highlight the importance of diversity across organismal groups for maintaining full C cycling functionality. However, our understanding of the complex relationships between soil biodiversity and C cycling processes is currently limited by the sheer number of methodological concerns associated with these studies, which can greatly overestimate or underestimate the impact of soil biodiversity on soil C cycling. These limitations present challenges to extrapolation to natural field settings. Future studies should attempt to further elucidate the relative importance of taxonomic diversity vs. functional diversity.

Description: Loss of biodiversity impacts ecosystem functions, such as carbon (C) cycling. Soils are the largest terrestrial C reservoir, containing more C globally than the biotic and atmospheric pools together. As such, soil C cycling, and the processes controlling it, has the potential to affect atmospheric CO2 concentrations and subsequent climate change. Despite the growing evidence of links between plant diversity and soil C cycling, there is a dearth of information on whether similar relationships exist between soil biodiversity and C cycling. This knowledge gap occurs even though there has been increased recognition that soil communities display high levels of both taxonomic and functional diversity and are key drivers of fluxes of C between the atmosphere and terrestrial ecosystems. Here, we used meta-analysis and regression analysis to quantitatively assess how soil biodiversity affects soil C cycling pools and processes (i.e., soil C respiration, litter decomposition, and plant biomass). We compared the response of process variables to changes in diversity both within and across groups of soil organisms that differed in body size, a grouping that typically correlates with ecological function. When studies that manipulated both within- and across-body size group diversity were included in the meta-analysis, loss of diversity significantly reduced soil C respiration (−27.5%) and plant tissue decomposition (−18%) but did not affect above- or belowground plant biomass. The loss of within-group diversity significantly reduced soil C respiration, while loss of across-group diversity did not. Decomposition was negatively affected both by loss of within-group and across-group diversity. Furthermore, loss of microbial diversity strongly reduced soil C respiration (−41%). In contrast, plant tissue decomposition was negatively affected by loss of soil faunal diversity but was unaffected by loss of microbial diversity. Taken together, our findings show that loss of soil biodiversity strongly impacts on soil C cycling processes, and highlight the importance of diversity across groups of organisms (e.g., primary consumers and secondary decomposers) for maintaining full functionality of C cycle processes. However, our understanding of the complex relationships between soil biodiversity and C cycling processes is currently limited by the sheer number of methodological concerns associated with these studies, which can greatly overestimate or underestimate the impact of soil biodiversity on soil C cycling, challenging extrapolation to natural field settings. Future studies should attempt to further elucidate the relative importance of taxonomic diversity (species numbers) versus functional diversity.

Description: Molecular hydrogen (H2) plays an important role in atmospheric chemistry by competing for reactions with the hydroxyl radical (OH·) and contributing to the production of H2O in the stratosphere, indirectly influencing stratospheric ozone concentrations. The dominant pathway for loss of H2 from the atmosphere is via microbially-mediated soil uptake, although the magnitude of this loss is still regarded as highly uncertain. Recent studies have shown that abiotic processes such as photochemically mediated degradation (photodegradation) of organic material result in direct emissions of carbon (C) and nitrogen (N)-based trace gases as well as H2. This H2 production has important implications on source-sink dynamics of H2 at the soil-atmosphere interface and thus it is important to quantify its variability over a range of plant types and materials. Here, we show laboratory observations of H2 production and its temperature dependence during abiotic degradation of four plant litter types as well as pure cellulose and high lignin content woody material. A greater amount of H2 was produced in the absence of solar radiation than from photodegradation alone, verifying that low temperature thermal degradation of plant litter is a source of H2. In addition, we measured a significant release of H2 both in the presence and absence of O2. Our results suggest that abiotic release of H2 during organic matter degradation is ubiquitous in arid ecosystems and may also occur in other terrestrial ecosystems. We propose that because these processes occur at the soil-atmosphere interface, they provide a previously unrecognized proximal source of H2 for microbial uptake and confound interpretation of direct measurements of atmospheric uptake that are important for constraining the global H2 budget.