Mosses are among the first colonizing organisms after glacier retreat and can develop into thick moss mats during later successional stages. They key players in N2 fixation through their microbiome, which is an important process for nutrient buildup primary succession. How these moss–microbe interactions succession not well studied relevant light of climate change increased retreat. We examined...

Hypolithic microbial communities (i.e. cryptic microbial assemblages found on the undersides of translucent rocks) are major contributors of carbon input into the oligotrophic hyper-arid desert mineral soils of the Eastern Antarctic Dry Valleys. Here we demonstrate, for the first time, that hypolithic microbial communities possess both the genetic capacity for nitrogen fixation (i.e. the presen...

The Antarctica Dry Valleys are regarded as the coldest hyperarid desert system on Earth. While a wide variety of environmental stressors including very low minimum temperatures, frequent freeze-thaw cycles and low water availability impose severe limitations to life, suitable niches for abundant microbial colonization exist. Antarctic desert soils contain much higher levels of microbial diversi...

Methylocapsa palsarum NE2T is an aerobic, mildly acidophilic, obligate methanotroph. Similar to other Methylocapsa species, it possesses only a particulate methane monooxygenase and is capable of atmospheric nitrogen fixation. The genome sequence of this typical inhabitant of subarctic wetlands and soils also contains genes indicative of aerobic anoxygenic photosynthesis.

Rhizosphere associative dinitrogen fixation could be a valuable source of nitrogen in many nitrogen limited natural ecosystems, such as the rhizosphere of Molinia coerulea, a hemicryptophytic perennial grass naturally occurring in contrasted oligonitrophilic soils. The diversity of the dinitrogen-fixing bacteria associated with this environment was assessed by a cloning-sequencing approach on t...

Returning the carbonated biomass ash into soil can enhance carbon fixation capacity of crop–soil ecosystem, contributing to achievement ‘4 per mille Soils for Food Security and Climate’ goal launched at COP21. The CO2 sequestration ecosystem induced by ash, however, highly depended on pH crops growth, which have not​ been elucidated. Here, we explored effects different management strategies (wa...

Legume cover crops have various important effects on nutrient cycling in tropical fruit tree production: they (i) fix atmospheric N2 and may amend the soil and trees with N, (ii) recycle nutrients, and (iii) affect soil nutrient availability. Aboveground N accumulation usually is very large in legume cover crops as seen from Pueraria phaseoloides being 8 to 14 times higher than in intercropped ...

Nitrogen (N) transfer among plants has been found where at least one plant can fix N2 . In nutrient-poor soils, where plants with contrasting nutrient-acquisition strategies (without N2 fixation) co-occur, it is unclear if N transfer exists and what promotes it. A novel multi-species microcosm pot experiment was conducted to quantify N transfer between arbuscular mycorrhizal (AM), ectomycorrhiz...

UNLABELLED Rhizobia of the genus Burkholderia have large-scale distribution ranges and are usually associated with South African papilionoid and South American mimosoid legumes, yet little is known about their genetic structuring at either local or global geographic scales. To understand variation at different spatial scales, from individual legumes in the fynbos (South Africa) to a global cont...

Paradoxically, symbiotic dinitrogen (N2 ) fixers are abundant in nitrogen (N)-rich, phosphorus (P)-poor lowland tropical rain forests. One hypothesis to explain this pattern states that N2 fixers have an advantage in acquiring soil P by producing more N-rich enzymes (phosphatases) that mineralise organic P than non-N2 fixers. We assessed soil and root phosphatase activity between fixers and non...