Microbial communities in hydrothermal systems exist in a range of macroscopic morphologies including stromatolites, mats, and filaments. The architects of these structures are typically autotrophic, serving as primary producers. Structures attributed to microbial life have been documented in the rock record dating back to the Archean including recent reports of microbially-related structures in...

Under the current paradigm, organic matter decomposition and nutrient cycling rates are a function of the imbalance between substrate and microbial biomass stoichiometry. Challenging this view, we demonstrate that in an individual-based model, microbial community dynamics alter relative C and N limitation during litter decomposition, leading to a system behaviour not predictable from stoichiome...

Understanding how carbon dioxide (CO2) flux from ecosystems feeds back to climate warming depends in part on our ability to quantify the efficiency with which microorganisms convert organic carbon (C) into either biomass or CO2. Quantifying ecosystem-level respiratory CO2 losses often also requires assumptions about stable C isotope fractionations associated with the microbial transformation of...

Temperature regulates the rate of biogeochemical cycles. One way it does so is through control of microbial metabolism. Warming effects on metabolism change with time as physiology adjusts to the new temperature. I here propose that such thermal adaptation is observed in soil microbial respiration and growth, as the result of universal evolutionary trade-offs between the structure and function ...

When glaciers retreat they expose barren substrates that become colonized by organisms, beginning the process of primary succession. Recent studies reveal that heterotrophic microbial communities occur in newly exposed glacial substrates before autotrophic succession begins. This raises questions about how heterotrophic microbial communities function in the absence of carbon inputs from autotro...

The effects of long term no-till and crop residue on soil microbial community catabolic function and relevant carbon cycle in the rhizosphere and bulk soils were assessed in the 10th year of a maize-winter wheat-soybean crop rotation. Conventional and zero tillage were coupled with residue removal and residue retention in a factorial design. Soil microbial community catabolic diversity was dete...

How soil microbes assimilate carbon-C, nitrogen-N, phosphorus-P, and sulfur-S is fundamental for understanding nutrient cycling in terrestrial ecosystems. We compiled a global database of C, N, P, and S concentrations in soils and microbes and developed relationships between them by using a power function model. The C:N:P:S was estimated to be 287:17:1:0.8 for soils, and 42:6:1:0.4 for microbes...

It is well known that soil microbial communities reestablish following disturbance, but limited research has been done on how long this takes in eastern reclaimed coal mine soils. The objective of this study was to track the development of total microbial biomass in reclaimed mine soils following coal mining in southwestern Virginia. A chronosequence of sites was established based on locally do...

Soil organic carbon fractions included microbial biomass carbon (MBC), dissolved organic carbon (DOC), and labile organic carbon (LOC), which was investigated over a 0-20 cm depth profile in three types of wetland in Hongze Lake of China. Their ecoenvironmental effect and the relationships with soil organic carbon (SOC) were analyzed in present experiment. The results showed that both active an...

Nitrogen (N) fertilization may profoundly affect soil microbial communities. In this study, a field fertilization experiment was conducted in temperate grassland in Inner Mongolia, China to examine the effect of N fertilization on soil microbial properties and the main factors related to the characteristics of soil microbial community. Soil microbial biomass carbon (MBC) and microbial functiona...