Short-term fertilizer application alters phenotypic traits of symbiotic nitrogen fixing bacteria.

Fertilizer application is a common anthropogenic alteration to terrestrial systems. Increased nutrient input can impact soil microbial diversity or function directly through altered soil environments, or indirectly through plant-microbe feedbacks, with potentially important effects on ecologically-important plant-associated mutualists. We investigated the impacts of plant fertilizer, containing all common macro and micronutrients on symbiotic nitrogen-fixing bacteria (rhizobia), a group of bacteria that are important for plant productivity and ecosystem function.