ArticleThe ISME journal2013
Loss in microbial diversity affects nitrogen cycling in soil.
Article in The ISME journal, 2013. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 194 papers, 3 of them syntheses that pooled it.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
194 citing papers in PubMed, 3 syntheses or guidelines pooled it.
- Nutrients Changed the Assembly Processes of Profuse and Rare Microbial Communities in Coals.Polish journal of microbiology · 2022Pooled it
- Meta-analysis of the impacts of global change factors on soil microbial diversity and functionality.Nature communications · 2020Pooled it
- Pooled it
- Diversity and functional traits of indigenous microbiome in Hilla agricultural soils: implications for biocontrol and bioremediation.World journal of microbiology & biotechnology · 2026Article
- Fusarium wilt disease induced changes in the composition and function of the rhizosphere metabolome and microbiome in tobacco plants.Scientific reports · 2026Article
- Biofertilizer induces soil disease suppression by activating pathogen suppressive protist taxa.NPJ biofilms and microbiomes · 2026Article
- Perennial grassland led to more complex bacterial communities as well as inter-domain networks across three continuous monoculture systems.Frontiers in microbiology · 2026Article
- High maternal body condition score in beef cattle: gut microbiota dysbiosis, immune dysregulation and offspring health implications.Journal of veterinary research · 2025Article
- Soil pH modulates microbial nitrogen allocation in soil via compositional and metabolic shifts across forests in Japan.iMetaOmics · 2025Article
- Irradiated carbon-rich organic resources promotes the rhizosphere microbe diversity and alleviate disease in corn seed production.Scientific reports · 2025Article
- Article
- Bacterial richness enhances the thermostability of soil organic matter via a long-term trade-off between molecular diversity and thermodynamic stability.Nature food · 2025Article
- Differential Effects of Biogas Slurry Topdressing on Winter Wheat (Microorganisms · 2025Article
- Soil microbial diversity: A key factor in pathogen suppression and inoculant performance.Geoderma · 2025Article
- Critical roles of rare species in the anaerobic ammonium oxidizing bacterial community in coastal sediments.Marine life science & technology · 2025Article
- Influence of highway construction of alpine grassland area in Gannan on soil properties and microbiota.Scientific reports · 2025Article
- Article
- Revealing microbial consortia that interfere with grapevine downy mildew through microbiome epidemiology.Environmental microbiome · 2025Article
- The Impact of Soybean Genotypes on Rhizosphere Microbial Dynamics and Nodulation Efficiency.International journal of molecular sciences · 2025Article
- Long-term impact of tillage on microbial communities of an Eastern European Chernozem.Scientific reports · 2025Article
134 more citing papers are in PubMed but not listed here.
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
8 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
Microbial communities have a central role in ecosystem processes by driving the Earth's biogeochemical cycles. However, the importance of microbial diversity for ecosystem functioning is still debated. Here, we experimentally manipulated the soil microbial community using a dilution approach to analyze the functional consequences of diversity loss. A trait-centered approach was embraced using the denitrifiers as model guild due to their role in nitrogen cycling, a major ecosystem service. How various diversity metrics related to richness, eveness and phylogenetic diversity of the soil denitrifier community were affected by the removal experiment was assessed by 454 sequencing. As expected, the diversity metrics indicated a decrease in diversity in the 1/10(3) and 1/10(5) dilution treatments compared with the undiluted one. However, the extent of dilution and the corresponding reduction in diversity were not commensurate, as a dilution of five orders of magnitude resulted in a 75% decrease in estimated richness. This reduction in denitrifier diversity resulted in a significantly lower potential denitrification activity in soil of up to 4-5 folds. Addition of wheat residues significantly increased differences in potential denitrification between diversity levels, indicating that the resource level can influence the shape of the microbial diversity-functioning relationship. This study shows that microbial diversity loss can alter terrestrial ecosystem processes, which suggests that the importance of functional redundancy in soil microbial communities has been overstated.
Indexed as
Identifiers
What OpenQuestion holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.