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Toledo S, Bondaruk VF, Yahdjian L, Oñatibia GR, Loydi A, Alberti J, Bruschetti M, Pascual J, Peter G, Agüero WD, Namur PR, Blanco L, Peri PL. Environmental factors regulate soil microbial attributes and their response to drought in rangeland ecosystems. Sci Total Environ 2023:164406. [PMID: 37245802 DOI: 10.1016/j.scitotenv.2023.164406] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/03/2023] [Revised: 05/19/2023] [Accepted: 05/20/2023] [Indexed: 05/30/2023]
Abstract
In ecosystems, soil microbial variables characterization are used to determine soil biological health and the response of soils to environmental stress. Although there are strong associations between plants and soil microorganisms, they may respond asynchronously to environmental factors and severe droughts. We aimed to: I) evaluate the special variation of soil microbiome such as microbial biomass carbon (MBC) and nitrogen (MBN), soil basal respiration (SBR) and microbial indexes in eight rangeland sites located across an aridity gradient (distributed from arid to mesic climates); II) analyze the relative importance of main environmental factors (climate, soils, and plants) and their relationships with microbial variables in the rangelands; and III) assess the effect of drought on microbial and plant variables in field-based manipulative experiments. First, we found significant changes of microbial variables along a precipitation and temperature gradient. The responses of MBC and MBN were strongly dependent on soil pH, soil nitrogen (N), soil organic carbon (SOC), C:N ratio and vegetation cover. In contrast, SBR was influenced by the aridity index (AI), the mean annual precipitation (MAP), the soil pH and vegetation cover. MBC, MBN and SBR were negatively related with soil pH compared to the other factors (C, N, C:N, vegetation cover, MAP and AI) that had a positive relationship. Second, we found a stronger soil microbial variables response to drought in arid sites compared to humid rangelands. Third, the responses of MBC, MBN, and SBR to drought showed positive relationships with vegetation cover and aboveground biomass, but with different regression slopes, this suggest that plant and microbial communities responded differently to drought. The results from this study improve our understanding about the microbial response to drought in different rangelands, and may facilitate the development of predictive models on responses of soil microorganisms in carbon cycle under global change scenarios.
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Affiliation(s)
- Santiago Toledo
- CIT-CONICET/Universidad Nacional de la Patagonia Austral, Santa Cruz, Argentina.
| | - Viviana F Bondaruk
- Instituto de Investigaciones Fisiológicas y Ecológicas Vinculadas a la Agricultura (IFEVA), CONICET-Universidad de Buenos Aires, Buenos Aires, Argentina; Facultad de Agronomía, Departamento de Recursos Naturales y Ambiente, Cátedra de Ecología, Universidad de Buenos Aires, Buenos Aires, Argentina.
| | - Laura Yahdjian
- Instituto de Investigaciones Fisiológicas y Ecológicas Vinculadas a la Agricultura (IFEVA), CONICET-Universidad de Buenos Aires, Buenos Aires, Argentina; Facultad de Agronomía, Departamento de Recursos Naturales y Ambiente, Cátedra de Ecología, Universidad de Buenos Aires, Buenos Aires, Argentina.
| | - Gastón R Oñatibia
- Instituto de Investigaciones Fisiológicas y Ecológicas Vinculadas a la Agricultura (IFEVA), CONICET-Universidad de Buenos Aires, Buenos Aires, Argentina; Facultad de Agronomía, Departamento de Recursos Naturales y Ambiente, Cátedra de Ecología, Universidad de Buenos Aires, Buenos Aires, Argentina.
| | - Alejandro Loydi
- Centro de Recursos Naturales Renovables de la Zona Semiárida (CERZOS), CONICET, DBByF, Universidad Nacional del Sur, Bahía Blanca, Argentina
| | - Juan Alberti
- Instituto de Investigaciones Marinas y Costeras (IIMyC), CONICET - Universidad de Mar del Plata, Buenos Aires, Argentina
| | - Martín Bruschetti
- Instituto de Investigaciones Marinas y Costeras (IIMyC), CONICET - Universidad de Mar del Plata, Buenos Aires, Argentina.
| | - Jesús Pascual
- Instituto de Investigaciones Marinas y Costeras (IIMyC), CONICET - Universidad de Mar del Plata, Buenos Aires, Argentina
| | - Guadalupe Peter
- Universidad Nacional de Río Negro, Sede Atlántica, CEANPa, Viedma, Argentina; CONICET, Argentina.
| | - Walter D Agüero
- Instituto Nacional de Tecnología Agropecuaria (INTA) - EEA La Rioja, La Rioja, Argentina.
| | - Pedro R Namur
- Instituto Nacional de Tecnología Agropecuaria (INTA) - EEA La Rioja, La Rioja, Argentina.
| | - Lisandro Blanco
- Instituto Nacional de Tecnología Agropecuaria (INTA) - EEA La Rioja, La Rioja, Argentina.
| | - Pablo L Peri
- Instituto Nacional de Tecnología Agropecuaria (INTA), EEA Río Gallegos, Santa Cruz, Argentina.
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