title: Elevated CO2 shifts the functional structure and metabolic potentials of soil microbial communities in a C4 agroecosystem.
abstract: Atmospheric CO2 concentration is continuously increasing, and previous studies have shown that elevated CO2 (eCO2) significantly impacts C3 plants and their soil microbial communities. However, little is known about effects of eCO2 on the compositional and functional structure, and metabolic potential of soil microbial communities under C4 plants. Here we showed that a C4 maize agroecosystem exposed to eCO2 for eight years shifted the functional and phylogenetic structure of soil microbial communities at both soil depths (0-5 cm and 5-15 cm) using EcoPlate and functional gene array (GeoChip 3.0) analyses. The abundances of key genes involved in carbon (C), nitrogen (N) and phosphorus (P) cycling were significantly stimulated under eCO2 at both soil depths, although some differences in carbon utilization patterns were observed between the two soil depths. Consistently, CO2 was found to be the dominant factor explaining 11.9% of the structural variation of functional genes, while depth and the interaction of depth and CO2 explained 5.2% and 3.8%, respectively. This study implies that eCO2 has profound effects on the functional structure and metabolic potential/activity of soil microbial communities associated with C4 plants, possibly leading to changes in ecosystem functioning and feedbacks to global change in C4 agroecosystems.
authors: 1] Faculty of Marine Sciences, Ningbo University, Ningbo, 315211, China [2] Institute for Environmental Genomics and Department of Microbiology and Plant Biology, the University of Oklahoma, Norman, OK 73019.
authors: Jinbo
authors: J
authors: Xiong
authors: Institute for Environmental Genomics and Department of Microbiology and Plant Biology, the University of Oklahoma, Norman, OK 73019.
authors: Zhili
authors: Z
authors: He
authors: 1] Institute for Environmental Genomics and Department of Microbiology and Plant Biology, the University of Oklahoma, Norman, OK 73019 [2] Department of Environmental Science, Policy and Management, University of California, Berkeley, CA 94720.
authors: Shengjing
authors: S
authors: Shi
authors: Department of Natural Resources and Environmental Sciences, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Urbana, IL 61820.
authors: Angela
authors: A
authors: Kent
authors: 1] Institute for Environmental Genomics and Department of Microbiology and Plant Biology, the University of Oklahoma, Norman, OK 73019 [2] Key Laboratory of Environmental Biotechnology, Research Center for Eco-Environmental Sciences, CAS, 100085, China.
authors: Ye
authors: Y
authors: Deng
authors: Institute for Environmental Genomics and Department of Microbiology and Plant Biology, the University of Oklahoma, Norman, OK 73019.
authors: Liyou
authors: L
authors: Wu
authors: Institute for Environmental Genomics and Department of Microbiology and Plant Biology, the University of Oklahoma, Norman, OK 73019.
authors: Joy D
authors: JD
authors: Van Nostrand
authors: 1] Institute for Environmental Genomics and Department of Microbiology and Plant Biology, the University of Oklahoma, Norman, OK 73019 [2] State Key Joint Laboratory of Environment Simulation and Pollution Control, School of Environment, Tsinghua University, Beijing 100084, China [3] Earth Sciences Division, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, Berkeley, CA 94720.
authors: Jizhong
authors: J
authors: Zhou
mesh_terms: D002245:Carbon Dioxide / Q000378:metabolism*; D017753:Ecosystem; D009584:Nitrogen / Q000378:metabolism; D010758:Phosphorus / Q000378:metabolism; D010802:Phylogeny; D012988:Soil Microbiology
chemical_list: D002245:Carbon Dioxide; D010758:Phosphorus; D009584:Nitrogen