title: It is elemental: soil nutrient stoichiometry drives bacterial diversity.
abstract: It is well established that resource quantity and elemental stoichiometry play major roles in shaping below and aboveground plant biodiversity, but their importance for shaping microbial diversity in soil remains unclear. Here, we used statistical modeling on a regional database covering 179 locations and six ecosystem types across Scotland to evaluate the roles of total carbon (C), nitrogen (N) and phosphorus (P) availabilities and ratios, together with land use, climate and biotic and abiotic factors, in determining regional scale patterns of soil bacterial diversity. We found that bacterial diversity and composition were primarily driven by variation in soil resource stoichiometry (total C:N:P ratios), itself linked to different land uses, and secondarily driven by other important biodiversity drivers such as climate, soil spatial heterogeneity, soil pH, root influence (plant-soil microbe interactions) and microbial biomass (soil microbe-microbe interactions). In aggregate, these findings provide evidence that nutrient stoichiometry is a strong predictor of bacterial diversity and composition at a regional scale.
authors.affiliation: Hawkesbury Institute for the Environment, Western Sydney University, Penrith, NSW, 2751, Australia.|Cooperative Institute for Research in Environmental Sciences, University of Colorado, Boulder, CO, 80309, USA.
authors.forename: Manuel
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Delgado-Baquerizo
authors.affiliation: Hawkesbury Institute for the Environment, Western Sydney University, Penrith, NSW, 2751, Australia.|Department of Forest Resources, University of Minnesota, St. Paul, MN, 55108, USA.
authors.forename: Peter B
authors.initials: PB
authors.lastname: Reich
authors.affiliation: Hawkesbury Institute for the Environment, Western Sydney University, Penrith, NSW, 2751, Australia.
authors.forename: Amit N
authors.initials: AN
authors.lastname: Khachane
authors.affiliation: The James Hutton Institute, Craigiebuckler, Aberdeen, AB, 15 8QH, UK.
authors.forename: Colin D
authors.initials: CD
authors.lastname: Campbell
authors.affiliation: The James Hutton Institute, Craigiebuckler, Aberdeen, AB, 15 8QH, UK.
authors.forename: Nadine
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Thomas
authors.affiliation: The James Hutton Institute, Craigiebuckler, Aberdeen, AB, 15 8QH, UK.
authors.forename: Thomas E
authors.initials: TE
authors.lastname: Freitag
authors.affiliation: Department of Food Science, University of Copenhagen, Frederiksberg, Denmark.
authors.forename: Waleed
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Abu Al-Soud
authors.affiliation: Department of Food Science, University of Copenhagen, Frederiksberg, Denmark.
authors.forename: Søren
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Sørensen
authors.affiliation: School of Earth and Environmental Sciences, Michael Smith Building, The University of Manchester, Oxford Road, Manchester, M13 9PT, UK.
authors.forename: Richard D
authors.initials: RD
authors.lastname: Bardgett
authors.affiliation: Hawkesbury Institute for the Environment, Western Sydney University, Penrith, NSW, 2751, Australia.|Global Centre for Land-Based Innovation, Western Sydney University, Penrith South DC, NSW, 2751, Australia.
authors.forename: Brajesh K
authors.initials: BK
authors.lastname: Singh
mesh_terms: D001419:Bacteria / Q000145:classification / Q000235:genetics / Q000302:isolation & purification* / Q000378:metabolism; D044822:Biodiversity; D018533:Biomass; D002244:Carbon / Q000032:analysis / Q000378:metabolism; D002980:Climate; D017753:Ecosystem; D009584:Nitrogen / Q000032:analysis / Q000378:metabolism; D010758:Phosphorus / Q000032:analysis / Q000378:metabolism; D018517:Plant Roots / Q000382:microbiology; D010944:Plants / Q000382:microbiology; D012606:Scotland; D012987:Soil / Q000737:chemistry*; D012988:Soil Microbiology
chemical_list: D012987:Soil; D010758:Phosphorus; D002244:Carbon; D009584:Nitrogen