ArticleNature communications2015
Social dynamics within decomposer communities lead to nitrogen retention and organic matter build-up in soils.
Article in Nature communications, 2015. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 17 papers.
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Who cites it
17 citing papers in PubMed.
- Substrate complexity and species number jointly shift the balance between competition and facilitation in a chitin-degrading bacterial consortium.ISME communications · 2026Article
- Biochar suppresses conjugative transfer of antibiotic resistance genes in manure-amended soils.The ISME journal · 2025Article
- Assembly Characteristics and Influencing Factors of the Soil Microbial Community in the Typical Forest of Funiu Mountain.Microorganisms · 2024Article
- Bacteria face trade-offs in the decomposition of complex biopolymers.PLoS computational biology · 2024Article
- Biotic Interactions in Soil are Underestimated Drivers of Microbial Carbon Use Efficiency.Current microbiology · 2022Review
- Microspectroscopic visualization of how biochar lifts the soil organic carbon ceiling.Nature communications · 2022Article
- Life and death in the soil microbiome: how ecological processes influence biogeochemistry.Nature reviews. Microbiology · 2022Review
- C-STABILITY an innovative modeling framework to leverage the continuous representation of organic matter.Nature communications · 2021Article
- A multi-scale eco-evolutionary model of cooperation reveals how microbial adaptation influences soil decomposition.Communications biology · 2020Article
- A trait-based understanding of wood decomposition by fungi.Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America · 2020Article
- Soil organic carbon dynamics matching ecological equilibrium theory.Ecology and evolution · 2018Article
- Microbial temperature sensitivity and biomass change explain soil carbon loss with warming.Nature climate change · 2018Article
- Spatial organization of bacterial populations in response to oxygen and carbon counter-gradients in pore networks.Nature communications · 2018Article
- Microbial community-level regulation explains soil carbon responses to long-term litter manipulations.Nature communications · 2017Article
- Biophysical processes supporting the diversity of microbial life in soil.FEMS microbiology reviews · 2017Review
- An alternative polysaccharide uptake mechanism of marine bacteria.The ISME journal · 2017Article
- Temporal and Spatial Variation of Soil Bacteria Richness, Composition, and Function in a Neotropical Rainforest.PloS one · 2016Article
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
4 authors.
Funding
Abstract
The chemical structure of organic matter has been shown to be only marginally important for its decomposability by microorganisms. The question of why organic matter does accumulate in the face of powerful microbial degraders is thus key for understanding terrestrial carbon and nitrogen cycling. Here we demonstrate, based on an individual-based microbial community model, that social dynamics among microbes producing extracellular enzymes ('decomposers') and microbes exploiting the catalytic activities of others ('cheaters') regulate organic matter turnover. We show that the presence of cheaters increases nitrogen retention and organic matter build-up by downregulating the ratio of extracellular enzymes to total microbial biomass, allowing nitrogen-rich microbial necromass to accumulate. Moreover, increasing catalytic efficiencies of enzymes are outbalanced by a strong negative feedback on enzyme producers, leading to less enzymes being produced at the community level. Our results thus reveal a possible control mechanism that may buffer soil CO2 emissions in a future climate.
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Registered trials
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