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Protist-Bacteria Trophic Interactions Contribute to Higher Community Stability in Subsoils Than Topsoils
Suo Liu1, Jingyi Ru2, Sihang Deng1
1State Key Joint Laboratory of Environment Simulation and Pollution Control, School of Environment, Tsinghua University, Beijing, China.
Global Change Biology
|April 6, 2026
Summary
Subsoil microbial communities show greater resistance to climate change than topsoils, buffering ecosystem functions. Traits and interactions, not just diversity, enhance stability in these crucial soil layers.
Area of Science:
- Soil Ecology
- Microbial Ecology
- Climate Change Impacts
Background:
- Climate change alters soil ecosystems globally.
- Topsoil and subsoil microbial communities respond differently to environmental shifts.
- Understanding subsoil microbial resistance is vital for predicting ecosystem functions.
Purpose of the Study:
- To investigate the impact of altered precipitation and nighttime warming on soil microbial communities in topsoil and subsoil.
- To compare the resistance of bacterial, protistan, and fungal communities in topsoils versus subsoils.
- To identify traits and interactions conferring resistance to climate change in subsoil microbiomes.
Main Methods:
- Long-term field experiment in Inner Mongolia, China.
- Analysis of soil microbial community resistance using diversity and network metrics.
- Assessment of microbial traits (e.g., 16S rRNA gene copy number, GC content, cell size) and trophic interactions.
- Partial least squares analysis to link microbial resistance to soil respiration.
Main Results:
- Subsoils showed greater moisture, belowground net primary production, and nitrate content changes than topsoils under climate change.
- Bacterial and protistan communities in subsoils exhibited higher resistance to climate change than in topsoils; fungal communities showed no consistent pattern.
- Subsoil bacterial resistance linked to oligotrophic traits; protistan resistance reinforced by trophic interactions and specific functional traits.
- Microbial community resistance modulated soil heterotrophic respiration, connecting microbial stability to carbon cycling.
Conclusions:
- Subsoil microbial communities possess significant resistance to climate change, potentially buffering ecosystem functions.
- Microbial traits and trophic interactions play a more critical role in community stability than diversity alone.
- The often-overlooked subsoil microbiome is crucial for ecosystem resilience under future climate scenarios.
Keywords:
climate changeecosystem stabilityfunctional traitsmicrobial diversityresistancesubsoiltrophic interactionsMore Related Videos
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