Soil microbiomes show consistent and predictable responses to extreme events.

Increasing extreme climatic events threaten the functioning of terrestrial ecosystems. Because soil microbes govern key biogeochemical processes, understanding their response to climate extremes is crucial in predicting the consequences for ecosystem functioning. Here we subjected soils from 30 grasslands across Europe to four contrasting extreme climatic events under common controlled conditions (drought, flood, freezing and heat), and compared the response of soil microbial communities and their functioning with those of undisturbed soils.

Utilization of dissolved CO to control methane and acetate production in methanation reactor.

This study investigated the influence of dissolved CO on the selection of metabolic pathway using a methanation membrane bioreactor supplied with H/CO. Various ratios of H/CO were applied (3.3, 3.

Harnessing rhizosphere microbiomes for drought-resilient crop production.

Root-associated microbes can improve plant growth, and they offer the potential to increase crop resilience to future drought. Although our understanding of the complex feedbacks between plant and microbial responses to drought is advancing, most of our knowledge comes from non-crop plants in controlled experiments. We propose that future research efforts should attempt to quantify relationships between plant and microbial traits, explicitly focus on food crops, and include longer-term experiments under field conditions.

A microcosm approach highlights the response of soil mineral weathering bacterial communities to an increase of K and Mg availability.

The access and recycling of the base cations are essential processes for the long-lasting functioning of forest ecosystems. While the role of soil bacterial communities has been demonstrated in mineral weathering and tree nutrition, our understanding of the link between the availability of base cations and the functioning of these communities remains limited. To fill this gap, we developed a microcosm approach to investigate how an increase in key base cations (potassium or magnesium) impacted the taxonomic and functional structures of the bacterial communities.

Taxonomic and functional shifts in the beech rhizosphere microbiome across a natural soil toposequence.

It has been rarely questioned as to whether the enrichment of specific bacterial taxa found in the rhizosphere of a given plant species changes with different soil types under field conditions and under similar climatic conditions. Understanding tree microbiome interactions is essential because, in contrast to annual plants, tree species require decades to grow and strongly depend on the nutritive resources of the soil. In this context, we tested using a natural toposequence the hypothesis that beech trees select specific taxa and functions in their rhizosphere based on the soil conditions and their nutritive requirements.

Mineral Types and Tree Species Determine the Functional and Taxonomic Structures of Forest Soil Bacterial Communities.

Although minerals represent important soil constituents, their impact on the diversity and structure of soil microbial communities remains poorly documented. In this study, pure mineral particles with various chemistries (i.e.