Bacterial population-level trade-offs between drought tolerance and resource acquisition traits impact decomposition.

ABSTRACT: Microbes drive fundamental ecosystem processes, such as decomposition. Environmental stressors are known to affect microbes, their fitness, and the ecosystem functions that they perform; yet, understanding the causal mechanisms behind this influence has been difficult. We used leaf litter on soil surface as a model in situ system to assess changes in bacterial genomic traits and decomposition rates for 18 months with drought as a stressor. We hypothesized that genome-scale trade-offs due to investment in stress tolerance traits under drought reduce the capacity for bacterial populations to carry out decomposition, and that these population-level trade-offs scale up to impact emergent community traits, thereby reducing decomposition rates. We observed drought tolerance mechanisms that were

SUBMITTER: Malik AA 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC11569415 | biostudies-literature | 2024 Jan

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature