Social dynamics within decomposer communities lead to nitrogen retention and organic matter build-up in soils

11320 12 35380 2 78700 document 35380 ncomms9960.pdf application/pdf 625098a5754b78180705fda2f68626e2 MD5 1423412 2016-02-29 11:15:58 https://pure.iiasa.ac.at/id/eprint/11320/1/ncomms9960.pdf 11320 1 1 application/pdf text en public cc_by

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http://eprints.org/relation/isVersionOf https://pure.iiasa.ac.at/id/document/35380 http://eprints.org/relation/isVolatileVersionOf https://pure.iiasa.ac.at/id/document/35380 http://eprints.org/relation/isIndexCodesVersionOf https://pure.iiasa.ac.at/id/document/35380 archive 351 disk0/00/01/13/20 2016-01-15 08:52:43 2021-08-27 17:24:53 2016-01-15 08:52:43 article show Kaiser C. 1967 Franklin O. 1791 0000-0002-0376-4140 Richter A. Dieckmann U. 1668 0000-0001-7089-0393 Social dynamics within decomposer communities lead to nitrogen retention and organic matter build-up in soils pub iis_ecl prog_eep prog_esm Earth sciences; Biogeochemistry; Ecology; Microbiology The chemical structure of organic matter has been shown to be only marginally important for its decomposability by microorganisms. The question of why organic matter does accumulate in the face of powerful microbial degraders is thus key for understanding terrestrial carbon and nitrogen cycling. Here we demonstrate, based on an individual-based microbial community model, that social dynamics among microbes producing extracellular enzymes ('decomposers') and microbes exploiting the catalytic activities of others ('cheaters) regulate organic matter turnover. We show that the presence of cheaters increases nitrogen retention and organic matter build-up by downregulating the ratio of extracellular enzymes to total microbial biomass, allowing nitrogen-rich microbial necromass to accumulate. Moreover, increasing catalytic efficiencies of enzymes are outbalanced by a strong negative feedback on enzyme producers, leading to less enzymes being produced at the community level. Our results thus reveal a possible control mechanism that may buffer soil CO2 emissions in a future climate. 2015-12 published NPG 10.1038/ncomms9960 XJ-15-279 Nature Communications; 6:8960 [December 2015] [doi:10.1038/ncomms9960] 143 95 66 public Nature Communications 6 no.8960 8960 TRUE 2041-1723 Effects of phosphorus limitations on Life, Earth system and Society (IMBALANCE-P, FP7 610028) FALSE yes info:eu-repo/grantAgreement/EC/FP7/610028/EU/Effects of phosphorus limitations on Life, Earth system and Society/IMBALANCE-P info:eu-repo/semantics/article info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess