Plant diversity drives positive microbial associations in the rhizosphere enhancing carbon use efficiency in agricultural soils
Expanding and intensifying agriculture has led to a loss of soil carbon. As agroecosystems cover over 40% of Earth's land surface, they must be part of the solution put in action to mitigate climate change. Development of efficient management practices to maximize soil carbon retention is currently limited, in part, by a poor understanding of how plants, which input carbon to soil, and microbes, which determine its fate there, interact. Here we implement a diversity gradient by intercropping undersown species with barley in a large field trial, ranging from one to eight undersown species. We find that increasing plant diversity strengthens positive associations within the rhizosphere soil microbial community in relation to negative associations. These associations, in turn, enhance community carbon use efficiency. Jointly, our results highlight how increasing plant diversity in agriculture can be used as a management strategy to enhance carbon retention potential in agricultural soils.
Authors
- Ansgar Kahmen (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-7823-5163)
- Seraina L. Cappelli (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8141-404X)
- Daniel B. Nelson (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2716-7770)
- David Sebag (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-6446-6921)
- Annalea Lohila (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-3541-672X)
- Luiz A. Domeignoz‐Horta (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-4618-6253)
- Jussi Heinonsalo (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8516-1388)
- Eric Verrecchia (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-7105-256X)
- Stephanie Gerin
- Pengpeng Duan (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-7758-7573)
- Rashmi Shrestha
- Anna‐Liisa Laine (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0703-5850)
Institutions
- Finnish Meteorological Institute (FI)
- University of Helsinki (FI)
- University of Basel (CH)
- Chinese Academy of Sciences (CN)
- University of Zurich (CH)
- AgroParisTech (FR)
- IFP Énergies nouvelles (FR)
- Université Paris-Saclay (FR)
- Helsinki Institute of Physics (FI)
- Helsinki Institute for Information Technology (FI)
- Institut National de Recherche pour l'Agriculture, l'Alimentation et l'Environnement (FR)
- Institute of Subtropical Agriculture (CN)
- Institut de Biologia Evolutiva (ES)
- Zhanjiang Experimental Station (CN)
- University of Lausanne (CH)
Publication Details
- Journal
- Nature Communications
- Published
- 2024-09-14
- DOI
- https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-024-52449-5
- Citations
- 108
- Primary Topic
- Soil Carbon and Nitrogen Dynamics
- Type
- article
- Field-Weighted Citation Impact
- 36.04
Funders
- Academy of Finland