Amino acid fingerprint of a grassland soil reflects changes in plant species richness

verfasst von: Leopold Sauheitl, Bruno Glaser, Michaela Dippold, Katharina Leiber, Alexandra Weigelt
Abstract: A positive plant diversity to plant aboveground productivity relation has been shown to alter carbon and nitrogen fluxes in soils. Thus, most investigations focussed on the C- and N-input via litter fall, widely neglecting the importance of root exudation. As microbes, which are known to be important drivers of matter fluxes in soil, feed on these root exudates, increased knowledge on the availability of these compounds in soil might help to understand biodiversity effects on soil. We therefore investigated the effect of plant diversity on size and composition of the free soil amino acid pool in a grassland experiment, as amino acids are an important C- as well as N-source for microbes. Despite a positive diversity effect on plant productivity, we only found an insignificant increase of the size of the free amino acid pool in soil. This was most likely caused by an increase of the microbial population and thus an increased amino acid mineralization. At the same time the composition of the amino acid pool changed significantly between plant diversity levels. This most likely reflects differences in plant input as well as differences in microbial mineralization and enabled us to separate diversity levels by means of discriminant analysis.
Organisationseinheit(en): AG Bodenchemie
Externe Organisation(en): Universität Bayreuth
Universität Leipzig
Typ: Artikel
Journal: Plant and soil
Band: 334
Seiten: 353-363
Anzahl der Seiten: 11
ISSN: 0032-079X
Publikationsdatum: 2010
Publikationsstatus: Veröffentlicht
Peer-reviewed: Ja
ASJC Scopus Sachgebiete: Bodenkunde, Pflanzenkunde
Elektronische Version(en): https://doi.org/10.1007/s11104-010-0387-1 (Zugang: Unbekannt)

BibTeX

@article{4c8a11cb97eb463e884f5de22b74b508,
title = "Amino acid fingerprint of a grassland soil reflects changes in plant species richness",
abstract = "A positive plant diversity to plant aboveground productivity relation has been shown to alter carbon and nitrogen fluxes in soils. Thus, most investigations focussed on the C- and N-input via litter fall, widely neglecting the importance of root exudation. As microbes, which are known to be important drivers of matter fluxes in soil, feed on these root exudates, increased knowledge on the availability of these compounds in soil might help to understand biodiversity effects on soil. We therefore investigated the effect of plant diversity on size and composition of the free soil amino acid pool in a grassland experiment, as amino acids are an important C- as well as N-source for microbes. Despite a positive diversity effect on plant productivity, we only found an insignificant increase of the size of the free amino acid pool in soil. This was most likely caused by an increase of the microbial population and thus an increased amino acid mineralization. At the same time the composition of the amino acid pool changed significantly between plant diversity levels. This most likely reflects differences in plant input as well as differences in microbial mineralization and enabled us to separate diversity levels by means of discriminant analysis.",
keywords = "Amino acids, Diversity, Fingerprint, Grassland, Plants",
author = "Leopold Sauheitl and Bruno Glaser and Michaela Dippold and Katharina Leiber and Alexandra Weigelt",
note = "Funding Information: Acknowledgement We thank the German Research Foundation (GL327/4,4) and the Hanns-Seidel-Stiftung for the financial support of this study. The Jena Experiment is funded by the German Research Foundation (DFG, FOR 456), with additional support from the Friedrich Schiller University of Jena and the Max Planck Society. We are grateful to the many people involved in the management of the experiment, especially the gardeners and technical staff. Copyright: Copyright 2010 Elsevier B.V., All rights reserved.",
year = "2010",
doi = "10.1007/s11104-010-0387-1",
language = "English",
volume = "334",
pages = "353--363",
journal = "Plant and soil",
issn = "0032-079X",
publisher = "Springer Netherlands",
number = "1",
}