Journal
NEW PHYTOLOGIST
Volume 201, Issue 1, Pages 31-44Publisher
WILEY
DOI: 10.1111/nph.12440
Keywords
decomposition; elevated CO2; PhotoCent model; plant-microbe interactions; roots; soil organic matter (SOM)
Categories
Funding
- US Department of Energy (DOE) Office of Science, Office of Biological and Environmental Research (BER)
- National Research Initiative of the USDA Cooperative State Research, Education and Extension Service [2006-35107-17225]
- DOE's Office of Science through the Midwestern Regional Center of the National Institute for Climatic Change Research at Michigan Technological University [DE-FC02-06ER64158]
- US Department of Energy
- DOE [ER65188, DE-SC0005325]
- US National Science Foundation [0919276]
- NSF [1153401]
- Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada
- DOE, BER, Climate and Environmental Sciences Division [DE-AC02-06CH11357]
- Division Of Environmental Biology
- Direct For Biological Sciences [1153401, 0919276] Funding Source: National Science Foundation
Ask authors/readers for more resources
The rhizosphere priming effect (RPE) is a mechanism by which plants interact with soil functions. The large impact of the RPE on soil organic matter decomposition rates (from 50% reduction to 380% increase) warrants similar attention to that being paid to climatic controls on ecosystem functions. Furthermore, global increases in atmospheric CO2 concentration and surface temperature can significantly alter the RPE. Our analysis using a game theoretic model suggests that the RPE may have resulted from an evolutionarily stable mutualistic association between plants and rhizosphere microbes. Through model simulations based on microbial physiology, we demonstrate that a shift in microbial metabolic response to different substrate inputs from plants is a plausible mechanism leading to positive or negative RPEs. In a case study of the Duke Free-Air CO2 Enrichment experiment, performance of the PhotoCent model was significantly improved by including an RPE-induced 40% increase in soil organic matter decomposition rate for the elevated CO2 treatment - demonstrating the value of incorporating the RPE into future ecosystem models. Overall, the RPE is emerging as a crucial mechanism in terrestrial ecosystems, which awaits substantial research and model development.
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