Including information about soil microbial communities into global decomposition models is critical for predicting and understanding how ecosystem functions may shift in response to global change. Here we combined a standardised litter bag method for estimating decomposition rates, the Tea Bag Index (TBI), with high-throughput sequencing of the microbial communities colonising the plant litter in the bags. Together with students of the Federal College for Viticulture and Fruit Growing, Klosterneuburg, Austria, acting as citizen scientists, we used this approach to investigate the diversity of prokaryotes and fungi-colonising recalcitrant (rooibos) and labile (green tea) plant litter buried in three different soil types and during four seasons with the aim of (i) comparing litter decomposition (decomposition rates (k) and stabilisation factors (S)) between soil types and seasons, (ii) comparing the microbial communities colonising labile and recalcitrant plant litter between soil types and seasons, and (iii) correlating microbial diversity and taxa relative abundance patterns of colonisers with litter decomposition rates (k) and stabilisation factors (S). Stabilisation factor (S), but not decomposition rate (k), correlated with the season and was significantly lower in the summer, indicating a decomposition of a larger fraction of the organic material during the warm months. This finding highlights the necessity to include colder seasons in the efforts of determining decomposition dynamics in order to quantify nutrient cycling in soils accurately. With our approach, we further showed selective colonisation of plant litter by fungal and prokaryotic taxa sourced from the soil. The community structures of these microbial colonisers differed most profoundly between summer and winter, and selective enrichment of microbial orders on either rooibos or green tea hinted at indicator taxa specialised for the primary degradation of recalcitrant or labile organic matter, respectively. Our results collectively demonstrate the importance of analysing decomposition dynamics over multiple seasons and further testify to the potential of the microbiome-resolved TBI to identify the active component of the microbial community associated with litter decomposition.This work demonstrates the power of the microbiome-resolved TBI to give a holistic description of the litter decomposition process in soils.

中文翻译：

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使用茶包指数 (TBI) 将垃圾分解与微生物群落结构配对

将有关土壤微生物群落的信息纳入全球分解模型对于预测和理解生态系统功能如何响应全球变化而变化至关重要。在这里，我们将用于估计分解率的标准化垃圾袋方法，即茶袋指数 (TBI)，与在袋中植物垃圾定殖的微生物群落的高通量测序相结合。我们与作为公民科学家的奥地利克洛斯特新堡联邦葡萄栽培和水果种植学院的学生一起，使用这种方法来调查埋在三种不同的土壤类型和四个季节，目的是 (i) 比较凋落物分解（分解率 ( k) 和稳定因子 ( S )) 在土壤类型和季节之间，(ii) 比较在土壤类型和季节之间定殖不稳定和顽固植物凋落物的微生物群落，以及 (iii) 将定殖者的微生物多样性和分类群相对丰度模式与凋落物分解相关联率 ( k ) 和稳定因子 ( S )。稳定因子 ( S )，但不是分解率 ( k)，与季节相关并且在夏季显着降低，表明在温暖的月份中有较大部分的有机物质分解。这一发现强调了在确定分解动力学的努力中包括较冷季节的必要性，以便准确量化土壤中的养分循环。通过我们的方法，我们进一步展示了来自土壤的真菌和原核分类群对植物凋落物的选择性定殖。这些微生物定殖的群落结构在夏季和冬季之间差异最为显着，而在路易波士茶或绿茶上选择性富集的微生物目暗示了分别专门用于顽固或不稳定有机物初级降解的指示分类群。