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Summary: Rising atmospheric carbon dioxide concentrations (CO2) and atmospheric nitrogen (N) deposition have contrasting effects on ectomycorrhizal (EM) and arbuscular mycorrhizal (AM) symbioses, potentially mediating forest responses to environmental change.In this study, we evaluated the cumulative effects of historical environmental change on N concentrations and δ15N values in AM plants, EM plants, EM fungi, and saprotrophic fungi using herbarium specimens collected in Minnesota, USA from 1871 to 2016. To better understand mycorrhizal mediation of foliar δ15N, we also analyzed a subset of previously published foliar δ15N values from across the United States to parse the effects of N deposition and CO2 rise.Over the last century in Minnesota, N concentrations declined among all groups except saprotrophic fungi. δ15N also declined among all groups of plants and fungi; however, foliar δ15N declined less in EM plants than in AM plants. In the analysis of previously published foliar δ15N values, this slope difference between EM and AM plants was better explained by nitrogen deposition than by CO2 rise.Mycorrhizal type did not explain trajectories of plant N concentrations. Instead, plants and EM fungi exhibited similar declines in N concentrations, consistent with declining forest N status despite moderate levels of N deposition. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Global climate models predict that the frequency and intensity of precipitation events will increase in many regions across the world. However, the biosphere‐climate feedback to elevated precipitation (eP) remains elusive. Here, we report a study on one of the longest field experiments assessing the effects of eP, alone or in combination with other climate change drivers such as elevated CO2 (eCO2), warming and nitrogen deposition. Soil total carbon (C) decreased after a decade of eP treatment, while plant root production decreased after 2 years. To explain this asynchrony, we found that the relative abundances of fungal genes associated with chitin and protein degradation increased and were positively correlated with bacteriophage genes, suggesting a potential viral shunt in C degradation. In addition, eP increased the relative abundances of microbial stress tolerance genes, which are essential for coping with environmental stressors. Microbial responses to eP were phylogenetically conserved. The effects of eP on soil total C, root production, and microbes were interactively affected by eCO2. Collectively, we demonstrate that long‐term eP induces soil C loss, owing to changes in microbial community composition, functional traits, root production, and soil moisture. Our study unveils an important, previously unknown biosphere‐climate feedback in Mediterranean‐type water‐limited ecosystems, namely how eP induces soil C loss via microbe‐plant–soil interplay. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Fire is a crucial event regulating the structure and functioning of many ecosystems. Yet few studies have focused on how fire affects taxonomic and functional diversities of soil microbial communities, along with changes in plant communities and soil carbon (C) and nitrogen (N) dynamics. Here, we analyze these effects in a grassland ecosystem 9 months after an experimental fire at the Jasper Ridge Global Change Experiment site in California, USA. Fire altered soil microbial communities considerably, with community assembly process analysis showing that environmental selection pressure was higher in burned sites. However, a small subset of highly connected taxa was able to withstand the disturbance. In addition, fire decreased the relative abundances of most functional genes associated with C degradation and N cycling, implicating a slowdown of microbial processes linked to soil C and N dynamics. In contrast, fire stimulated above‐ and belowground plant growth, likely enhancing plant–microbe competition for soil inorganic N, which was reduced by a factor of about 2. To synthesize those findings, we performed structural equation modeling, which showed that plants but not microbial communities were responsible for significantly higher soil respiration rates in burned sites. Together, our results demonstrate that fire ‘reboots’ the grassland ecosystem by differentially regulating plant and soil microbial communities, leading to significant changes in soil C and N dynamics.Fire significantly increased environmental selection pressure on soil microbial community, where a small subset of highly connected taxa was able to withstand the disturbance. Fire decreased the relative abundances of most functional genes associated with C degradation and N cycling, but stimulated above‐ and belowground plant growth, likely enhancing plant–microbe competition for soil inorganic N. Plants but not microbial communities were responsible for significantly higher soil respiration rates in burned sites. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Tractable practices for soil microbial restoration in tallgrass prairies reclaimed from agriculture are a critical gap in traditional ecological restoration. Long‐term fertilization and tilling permanently alter soil bacterial and fungal communities, requiring microbe‐targeted restoration methods to improve belowground ecosystem services and carbon storage in newly restored prairies. These techniques are particularly important when restoring for climate‐ready ecosystems, adapted to altered temperature regimes. To approach these issues, we conducted a multi‐factorial greenhouse experiment to test the effects of plant species richness, soil amendment and elevated temperature on soil microbial diversity, growth, and function. Treatments consisted of three seedlings of one plant species (Andropogon gerardii) or one seedling each of three plant species (A. gerardii, Echinacea pallida, Coreopsis lanceolata). Soil amendments included cellulose addition, inoculation with a microbial community collected from an undisturbed remnant prairie, and a control. We assessed microbial communities using extracellular enzyme assays, Illumina sequencing of the bacterial 16S rRNA gene, predicted bacterial metabolic pathways from sequence data and phospholipid fatty acid analysis (PLFA), which includes both bacterial and fungal lipid abundances. Our results indicate that addition of cellulose selects for slow‐growing bacterial taxa (Verrucomicrobia) and fungi at ambient temperature. However, at elevated temperature, selection for slow‐growing bacterial taxa is enhanced, while selection for fungi is lost, indicating temperature sensitivity among fungi. Cellulose addition was a more effective means of altering soil community composition than addition of microbial communities harvested from a remnant prairie. Soil water content was typically higher in the A. gerardii treatment alone, regardless of temperature, but at ambient temperature only, predicted metagenomics pathways for bacterial carbon metabolism were more abundant with A. gerardii. In summary, these results from a mesocosm test case indicate that adding cellulose to newly restored soil and increasing the abundance of C4 grasses, such as A. gerardii, can select for microbial communities adapted for slow growth and carbon storage. Further testing is required to determine if these approaches yield the same results in a field‐level experiment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]