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Divergent mineralization of hydrophilic and hydrophobic organic substrates and their priming effect in soils depending on their preferential utilization by bacteria and fungi

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Abstract

Hydrophilic and hydrophobic organic compounds extracted from 13C-labelled maize residues were incubated with soils to evaluate their mineralization and priming effect (PE) caused by their utilization by microbial groups. Two soils with contrasting soil properties were collected from well-drained upland and water-logged paddy. Mineralization of the 13C-labelled fractions and their PE were quantified by monitoring the CO2 efflux and 13C enrichment during a 40-day incubation. The composition of main microbial groups (bacteria and fungi) involved in the utilization of 13C-labelled fractions was determined based on phospholipid fatty acids (PLFAs) analysis. At the initial stage (6–24 h), hydrophilic fraction had faster mineralization rate (3.6–70 times) and induced 1.5–10 times stronger PE (positive in upland soil and negative in paddy soil) than those of hydrophobic fraction. The 13C-PLFAs data showed that the incorporation of hydrophilic fraction into bacteria was 11.4–16.4 times greater than that into fungi, whereas the hydrophobic fraction incorporated into fungi was 1.0–1.5 times larger than that into bacteria at day 2. This indicated greater contributions of r-strategists (fast-growing bacteria) for the uptake of hydrophilic fraction versus K-strategists (slow-growing fungi) for hydrophobic fraction. Compared with K-strategists, the r-strategists possessed a much faster metabolism and thus triggered stronger apparent PE by accelerating microbial biomass turnover, resulting in higher mineralization and stronger PE for the hydrophilic than hydrophobic fraction. The slower and less mineralization of both fractions in paddy than in upland soils is due to the suppression of microbial activity and substrate utilization under flooding. At the end of 40-day incubation, the cumulative mineralization of hydrophilic and hydrophobic fractions was similar. Consequnently, microbial mechanisms underlying the utilization of organic compounds with contrasting solubility (hydrophilic or hydrophobic) are crucial for evaluating the stabilization and destabilization (e.g., priming) processes of soil organic matter.

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Funding

This research was financially supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (41877035; 41671298, 41977100) and the Natural Science Foundation of Guangxi (2018GXNSFAA138020). The publication was supported by the Government Program of Competitive Growth of Kazan Federal University and with the support of the “RUDN University program 5-100”.

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  1. Shaohong Deng and Xiaodong Zheng contributed equally to this work.

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Key Laboratory of Agro-ecological Processes in Subtropical Region, Institute of Subtropical Agriculture, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Mapoling, Changsha City, 410125, Hunan province, People’s Republic of China

    Shaohong Deng, Xiaodong Zheng, Xiangbi Chen, Shengmeng Zheng, Xunyang He, Tida Ge, Jinshui Wu, Yirong Su & Yajun Hu

  2. University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, 100039, People’s Republic of China

    Shaohong Deng, Shengmeng Zheng & Jinshui Wu

  3. Institute of Agricultural Resource and Environment, Guangdong Academy of Agricultural Science, Guangzhou, 510640, Guangdong, People’s Republic of China

    Xiaodong Zheng

  4. Changsha Research Station for Agricultural and Environmental Monitoring, Institute of Subtropical Agriculture, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Mapoling, Changsha City, 410125, Hunan province, People’s Republic of China

    Xiangbi Chen, Jinshui Wu & Yajun Hu

  5. Department of Agricultural Soil Science, Department of Soil Science of Temperate Ecosystems, University of Göttingen, 37077, Göttingen, Germany

    Yakov Kuzyakov

  6. Agro-Technological Institute, RUDN University, 117198, Moscow, Russia

    Yakov Kuzyakov

  7. Institute of Environmental Sciences, Kazan Federal University, 420049, Kazan, Russia

    Yakov Kuzyakov

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  1. Shaohong Deng
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Deng, S., Zheng, X., Chen, X. et al. Divergent mineralization of hydrophilic and hydrophobic organic substrates and their priming effect in soils depending on their preferential utilization by bacteria and fungi. Biol Fertil Soils 57, 65–76 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00374-020-01503-7

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