ArticleThe ISME journal2021
Life-history strategies of soil microbial communities in an arid ecosystem.
Article in The ISME journal, 2021. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 81 papers.
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Who cites it
81 citing papers in PubMed, 246 citations in OpenAlex.
- Harnessing synthetic microbial communities for desert vegetation restoration.Synthetic and systems biotechnology · 2027Review
- Soil microbial growth rate, trophic strategy, and the oligotroph-copiotroph continuum.Applied and environmental microbiology · 2026Article
- Microbial drought resistance is achieved at the expense of soil carbon loss.Nature communications · 2026Article
- Disturbance intensity shapes universal and context-dependent functional traits in anaerobic microbiomes.Environmental science and ecotechnology · 2026Article
- Five-year fertilization alters soil microbial composition and functionality in sandy grassland.Microbiology spectrum · 2026Article
- The Anna Karenina principle in the assembly of plant microbiome under pathogen stress.NPJ biofilms and microbiomes · 2026Article
- Seed-microbiome interactions: Mechanistic insights and utilization toward seed performance for sustainable agriculture.Plant communications · 2026Review
- Manipulating root-associated microbiomes to boost drought resistance in dryland winter wheat with Streptomyces pactum Act12.BMC microbiology · 2026Article
- Carbon regime structures functional trait trajectories during primary succession in microorganisms.The ISME journal · 2026Article
- Single-cell assembled genomes predict enhanced bacterial metabolic cross-feeding potential in carbon-enriched soils.The ISME journal · 2026Article
- Linking bacterial life-history strategies and diversity to litter decomposition dynamics in a dry-hot valley area.Frontiers in microbiology · 2026Article
- Article
- Alfalfa mulching improved soil health and ecosystem multifunctionality ofFrontiers in microbiology · 2026Article
- Cigarette Butts as an Emerging Urban Habitat Driving Microbial Niche Differentiation.Research (Washington, D.C.) · 2026Article
- Fungal Community Responses to Natural Humus Amendment Potentially Facilitate the Enhancement of Saline-Alkali Soil Multifunctionality.Microorganisms · 2025Article
- Pesticide Residues Reduce Bacterial Diversity but Enhance Stability via Network Motif Restructuring.Toxics · 2025Article
- Soil Nutrient Enrichment Induces Trade-Offs in Bacterial Life-History Strategies Promoting Plant Productivity.Advanced science (Weinheim, Baden-Wurttemberg, Germany) · 2025Article
- Eutrophication Reshapes Microbial Communities and Life-History Strategies in the Riverine Ecosystems.Environmental microbiology reports · 2025Article
- Coastal rest during the COVID-19 pandemic enhances microbial community stability and metabolic potential in a subterranean estuary.NPJ biofilms and microbiomes · 2025Article
- Comparative Analysis of Sponge-Associated, Seawater, and Sediment Microbial Communities from Site F Cold Seep in the South China Sea.Microorganisms · 2025Article
21 more citing papers are in PubMed but not listed here.
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Authors and funding
5 authors at 1 institution in 1 country.
Funding
Abstract
The overwhelming taxonomic diversity and metabolic complexity of microorganisms can be simplified by a life-history classification; copiotrophs grow faster and rely on resource availability, whereas oligotrophs efficiently exploit resource at the expense of growth rate. Here, we hypothesize that community-level traits inferred from metagenomic data can distinguish copiotrophic and oligotrophic microbial communities. Moreover, we hypothesize that oligotrophic microbial communities harbor more unannotated genes. To test these hypotheses, we conducted metagenomic analyses of soil samples collected from copiotrophic vegetated areas and from oligotrophic bare ground devoid of vegetation in an arid-hyperarid region of the Sonoran Desert, Arizona, USA. Results supported our hypotheses, as we found that multiple ecologically informed life-history traits including average 16S ribosomal RNA gene copy number, codon usage bias in ribosomal genes and predicted maximum growth rate were higher for microbial communities in vegetated than bare soils, and that oligotrophic microbial communities in bare soils harbored a higher proportion of genes that are unavailable in public reference databases. Collectively, our work demonstrates that life-history traits can distill complex microbial communities into ecologically coherent units and highlights that oligotrophic microbial communities serve as a rich source of novel functions.
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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.