Regulation of Soil Microbial Carbon-use Efficiency by Soil Moisture, Substrate Addition, and Incubation Time

Abstract:

Microbial carbon-use efficiency (CUE) is a key variable in biogeochemical cycling that regulates soil C sequestration, greenhouse gas emissions, and retention of inorganic nutrients. Microbial CUE is the fraction of C converted to biomass rather than respired as CO₂. Biogeochemical models have been shown to be highly sensitive to variation in CUE; however, we currently have a poor understanding of how CUE responds to environmental variables such as soil moisture and nutrient limitations. We examined the effect of soil moisture and C supply on CUE in soil from a western hemlock / sitka spruce forest in Oregon, USA, using a novel technique which supplies ¹³C and ¹⁵N substrates through the gas phase so that water addition is not necessary. Soil samples (28 g oven-dry equiv. wt) at two water potentials (-0.03 and -3.55 MPa) were exposed to ¹³C-acetic acid vapor for either 6 or 30 sec to provide two different concentrations of acetate to soil microbial communities. The soils were also injected with small amounts of ¹⁵NH₃ gas to allow quantification of microbial N assimilation rates and to provide an alternate method of calculating CUE. Rates of ¹³CO₂ respiration were measured continuously during a 48-h incubation using cavity ring-down spectroscopy. Soil samples were extracted at seven time intervals (0, 0.5, 1.5, 4.5, 12, 24, and 48 h) in 0.5 M K₂SO₄ and analyzed for DO¹³C, microbial ¹³C, DO¹⁵N, inorganic ¹⁵N, and microbial ¹⁵N to calculate how gross rates of C and N assimilation and microbial CUE change with incubation time. As expected, microbial C and N assimilation rates and CUE increased with soil moisture and the quantity of acetate added; however, C:N assimilated was higher at lower soil moisture, suggesting that either C-storage compounds were being created, or that fungal communities were responsible for a greater proportion of the assimilation in drier soils. Assimilation rates and CUE also changed with incubation time, demonstrating that estimates of CUE from studies that use different incubation durations may not be comparable. Additional studies are essential to fully characterize the effects of soil moisture and substrate supply on CUE so that biogeochemical models can accurately predict the effects of climate change on soil processes.