Traditionally produced tempeh harbors more diverse bacteria with more putative health-promoting properties than industrially produced tempeh.

In recent years, there has been a significant shift towards industrialization in food production, resulting in the implementation of higher hygiene standards globally. Our study focused on examining the impact of hygiene standards on tempeh, a popular Rhizopus-based fermented soybean product native to Indonesia, and now famous around the world. We observed that tempeh produced with standardized hygiene measures exhibited a microbiome with comparable bacterial abundances but a markedly different community structure and function than traditionally produced tempeh.

The terroir of Tempeh: Strong region-specific signatures in the bacterial community structures across Indonesia.

Tempeh, a soybean product from Indonesia, is created through fermentation by spp. and associated bacteria. Here, we aim to get an overview of the variability of the tempeh microbiota across Indonesia and disentangle influencing factors.

Rhizosphere assembly alters along a chronosequence in the Hallstätter glacier forefield (Dachstein, Austria).

Rhizosphere microbiome assembly is essential for plant health, but the temporal dimension of this process remains unexplored. We used a chronosequence of 150 years of the retreating Hallstätter glacier (Dachstein, Austria) to disentangle this exemplarily for the rhizosphere of three pioneer alpine plants. Time of deglaciation was an important factor shaping the rhizosphere microbiome.

Aqueous habitats and carbon inputs shape the microscale geography and interaction ranges of soil bacteria.

Earth's diverse soil microbiomes host bacteria within dynamic and fragmented aqueous habitats that occupy complex pore spaces and restrict the spatial range of ecological interactions. Yet, the spatial distributions of bacterial cells in soil communities remain underexplored. Here, we propose a modelling framework representing submillimeter-scale distributions of soil bacteria based on physical constraints supported by individual-based model results and direct observations.

Biogels in Soils: Plant Mucilage as a Biofilm Matrix That Shapes the Rhizosphere Microbial Habitat.

Mucilage is a gelatinous high-molecular-weight substance produced by almost all plants, serving numerous functions for plant and soil. To date, research has mainly focused on hydraulic and physical functions of mucilage in the rhizosphere. Studies on the relevance of mucilage as a microbial habitat are scarce.

The chosen few-variations in common and rare soil bacteria across biomes.

Soil bacterial communities are dominated by a few abundant species, while their richness is associated with rare species with largely unknown ecological roles and biogeography. Analyses of previously published soil bacterial community data using a novel classification of common and rare bacteria indicate that only 0.4% of bacterial species can be considered common and are prevalent across biomes.

Global earthworm distribution and activity windows based on soil hydromechanical constraints.

Earthworm activity modifies soil structure and promotes important hydrological ecosystem functions for agricultural systems. Earthworms use their flexible hydroskeleton to burrow and expand biopores. Hence, their activity is constrained by soil hydromechanical conditions that permit deformation at earthworm's maximal hydroskeletal pressure (≈200kPa).

Soil bacterial diversity mediated by microscale aqueous-phase processes across biomes.

Soil bacterial diversity varies across biomes with potential impacts on soil ecological functioning. Here, we incorporate key factors that affect soil bacterial abundance and diversity across spatial scales into a mechanistic modeling framework considering soil type, carbon inputs and climate towards predicting soil bacterial diversity. The soil aqueous-phase content and connectivity exert strong influence on bacterial diversity for each soil type and rainfall pattern.

A hierarchy of environmental covariates control the global biogeography of soil bacterial richness.

Soil bacterial communities are central to ecosystem functioning and services, yet spatial variations in their composition and diversity across biomes and climatic regions remain largely unknown. We employ multivariate general additive modeling of recent global soil bacterial datasets to elucidate dependencies of bacterial richness on key soil and climatic attributes. Although results support the well-known association between bacterial richness and soil pH, a hierarchy of novel covariates offers surprising new insights.