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Cellular and extracellular C contributions to respiration after wetting dry soil

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Abstract

Wetting of dry soil triggers a pulse of microbial respiration that has been attributed to two broad mechanisms: (1) recycling of microbial cellular carbon (C), and (2) consumption of extracellular organic C made available to microbes by wetting. We evaluated these two mechanisms by measuring cumulative CO2 release, changes in the size and chemical composition of microbial biomass, and water-extractable organic carbon (WEOC) concentrations following artificial wetting of soil sampled from two depths at each of seven sites across California spanning a range of geologic parent materials. In samples collected from surface soil (0–10 cm depth), we found that cumulative CO2 release after wetting in the laboratory was most strongly correlated with microbial biomass. In these samples, the relative abundance of trehalose—a putative microbial osmolyte—decreased from 25% (SD = 12) to 16% (SD = 7) of the chloroform-labile fraction of the microbial biomass after wetting. This suggested a role for osmolyte consumption in generating the respiration pulse. In subsoil (40–50 cm depth, or sampled at contact with rock), however, the cumulative CO2 release after wetting was unrelated to microbial biomass and more strongly related to WEOC. The concentrations of selected microbial biomass constituents (e.g. trehalose and amino acids) in WEOC were negligible (< 1%), suggesting that cell lysis was not important in generating WEOC in this study. The amount of WEOC relative to total organic C was greatest in subsoil, and negatively related to ammonium oxalate-extractable Fe (Pearson’s R = 0.42, p < 0.01), suggesting a role for soil mineralogical properties in controlling WEOC release. Together, these findings suggest that microbial cellular C and extracellular C jointly contribute to the respiration pulse, and that their relative contribution depends on depth.

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Acknowledgements

Field sampling was supported by a grant from the Oren Pollak Memorial Research Fund, administered by The Nature Conservancy. Site selection and sampling was made possible by managers and support staff at four sites administered by the University of California Natural Reserve System: the McLaughlin Reserve, Sedgwick Reserve, Blue Oak Ranch Reserve, and Hastings Natural History Reservation; and two sites managed by the University of California Division of Agriculture and Natural Resources: Hopland and Sierra Foothill Research and Extension Centers. Jennifer King, Keri Opalk, and Andrew Saunders assisted with TOC analysis, Aral Greene assisted with soil texture analysis, and David Lyons assisted with ICP analysis of soil extracts. EWS received support from the National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowship Program. We thank two anonymous reviewers for helpful comments on this manuscript.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Physical and Life Sciences Directorate, Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, Livermore, CA, 94551, USA

    Eric W. Slessarev

  2. Soil and Water Sciences Department, University of Florida, Gainesville, FL, 32611, USA

    Yang Lin

  3. Sempervirens Fund, Los Altos, CA, 94022, USA

    Beatrix Y. Jiménez

  4. Department of Environmental Sciences, University of California, Riverside, CA, 92521, USA

    Peter M. Homyak

  5. Department of Geography, University of California, Santa Barbara, CA, 93106, USA

    Oliver A. Chadwick

  6. Department of Ecology, Evolution, and Marine Biology, University of California, Santa Barbara, CA, 93106, USA

    Carla M. D’Antonio & Joshua P. Schimel

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  1. Eric W. Slessarev
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Contributions

EWS was responsible for study design, field sampling, sample analysis, and writing. YL and BYJ contributed to field sampling, laboratory incubations, and manuscript revision. PMH contributed to chemical analyses and manuscript revision. OAC, CMD, and JPS contributed to study design, data interpretation, and manuscript revision.

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Slessarev, E.W., Lin, Y., Jiménez, B.Y. et al. Cellular and extracellular C contributions to respiration after wetting dry soil. Biogeochemistry 147, 307–324 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10533-020-00645-y

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