Rhizosphere effects on soil organic matter decomposition and microbial activity in a tropical rainforest under drought: unearthing aggregate- to ecosystem-scale contributions to carbon cycling through whole-ecosystem stable isotope labeling
EMSL Project ID
50971
Abstract
Interactions at the plant-soil-microbe nexus are difficult to track given the complex networks of species and metabolites involved, in addition to the general challenges to studying heterogeneous and uncontrolled ecosystems. Here, we propose to leverage a large-scale controlled research infrastructure--the Biosphere 2 Tropical Rainforest--to perform a controlled drought and multi-isotope labeling experiment with the potential to resolve critical biogeochemical and inter-organism interactions in an established ecosystem. The multi-omic and imaging resources requested here will provide deep insights into the soil microbiome and metabolome that, paired with the ability to simultaneously highlight key interactions using ecosystem 13C labeling, will resolve key processes driving aggregate- to ecosystem-carbon cycling. In this experiment, we aim to trace key plant-soil-microbe interactions, identify shifts in rhizosphere microbial communities with changing rhizodeposits, and quantify root exudate-induced changes in microbe-organo-mineral interactions, their effect on cumulative ecosystem GHG emissions, and lifetime in the soil C pool. This effort is aligned with the DOE mission and FICUS focus areas to resolve key unknowns in biogeochemical cycles and complex interactions in subsurface systems. The capabilities requested here will act as an integral part of understanding the fate of organic matter within a whole rainforest ecosystem impacted by climate perturbations and underlying inter-organismal interactions that will advance our ability to predict belowground mechanisms from aboveground plant characteristics to unlock the potential to monitor biogeochemical processes from larger scales.
Project Details
Project type
FICUS Research
Start Date
2019-10-01
End Date
2022-04-21
Status
Closed
Released Data Link
Team
Principal Investigator
Co-Investigator(s)
Team Members
Related Publications
1. Honeker, L. K.; Hildebrand, G. A.; Fudyma, J. D.; Daber, L. E.; Hoyt, D.; Flowers, S. E.; Gil-Loaiza, J.; Kübert, A.; Bamberger, I.; Anderton, C. R.; Cliff, J.; Leichty, S.; AminiTabrizi, R.; Kreuzwieser, J.; Shi, L.; Bai, X.; Velickovic, D.; Dippold, M. A.; Ladd, S. N.; Werner, C.; Meredith, L. K.; Tfaily, M. M. Elucidating Drought-Tolerance Mechanisms in Plant Roots through (1) H NMR Metabolomics in Parallel with MALDI-MS, and NanoSIMS Imaging Techniques. Environ Sci Technol 2022