Soil microbial carbon use efficiency differs between mycorrhizal trees: insights from substrate stoichiometry and microbial networks.

ABSTRACT: The role of mycorrhizal associations in controlling forest soil carbon storage remains under debate. This uncertainty is potentially due to an incomplete understanding of their influence on the free-living soil microbiome and its functions. In this study, rhizosphere and non-rhizosphere soils were collected from eight arbuscular mycorrhizal (AM) and seven ectomycorrhizal (ECM) tree species in a temperate forest. We employed high-throughput sequencing and ¹⁸O-H₂O labeling to analyze the soil microbial community and carbon use efficiency (CUE), respectively. We find microbial respiration rates are higher in rhizosphere than that in non-rhizosphere soils for ECM trees, whereas microbial growth rates show no significant differences. Consequently, microbial CUE is lower in

SUBMITTER: Yu J 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC11742255 | biostudies-literature | 2025 Jan

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature