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Ecological importance of soil bacterivores for ecosystem functions

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TLDR
A new theoretical framework based on ecological stoichiometry stressing the role of C:N:P ratios in soil, microbial and plant biomass as important parameters driving bacterivore-effects on soil N and P availability for plants, immobilization of N andP in the bacterial biomass, and plant responses in nutrition and growth is proposed.
Abstract
Bacterivores, mostly represented by protists and nematodes, are a key component of soil biodiversity involved in soil fertility and plant productivity. In the current context of global change and soil biodiversity erosion, it becomes urgent to suitably recognize and quantify their ecological importance in ecosystem functioning. Using meta-analysis tools, we aimed at providing a quantitative synthesis of the ecological importance of soil bacterivores on ecosystem functions. We also intended to produce an overview of the ecological factors that are expected to drive the magnitude of bacterivore effects on ecosystem functions. Bacterivores in soil contributed significantly to numerous key ecosystem functions. We propose a new theoretical framework based on ecological stoichiometry stressing the role of C:N:P ratios in soil, microbial and plant biomass as important parameters driving bacterivore-effects on soil N and P availability for plants, immobilization of N and P in the bacterial biomass, and plant responses in nutrition and growth.

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An Underground Revolution: Biodiversity and Soil Ecological Engineering for Agricultural Sustainability

TL;DR: This work synthesizes the potential of soil organisms to enhance ecosystem service delivery and demonstrates that soil biodiversity promotes multiple ecosystem functions simultaneously (i.e., ecosystem multifunctionality) and applies the concept of ecological intensification to soils.
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High Microbial Diversity Promotes Soil Ecosystem Functioning.

TL;DR: Empirical evidence is provided that microbial diversity may be of high significance for organic matter decomposition, a major process on which rely many of the ecosystem services provided by the soil ecosystem.

Competition between roots and microorganisms for nitrogen: mechanisms and ecological relevance

TL;DR: A temporal niche differentiation reflecting their generation times leads to mutualistic relationships in the rhizosphere, which protects ecosystems from N losses by leaching during periods of slow or no root uptake; continuously provides roots with available N according to plant demand; and contributes to the evolutionary development of mutualistic interactions between roots and microorganisms.
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Trophic regulations of the soil microbiome

TL;DR: It is highlighted that the structure and function of the soil microbiome depend on the interactive effects among predation, plant inputs, and abiotic variables present in the soil.
References
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Journal ArticleDOI

Ammonia as a case study for the spontaneous ionization of a simple hydrogen-bonded compound

TL;DR: Experimental evidence is presented that the threshold pressure of ~120 GPa induces in molecular ammonia the process of autoionization to yet experimentally unknown ionic compound--ammonium amide, opening new possibilities for studying molecular interactions in hydrogen-bonded systems.
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The meta-analysis of response ratios in experimental ecology

TL;DR: The approximate sampling distribution of the log response ratio is given, why it is a particularly useful metric for many applications in ecology, and how to use it in meta-analysis are discussed.
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Bioavailability of soil inorganic P in the rhizosphere as affected by root-induced chemical changes: A review

TL;DR: In this paper, the authors give an overview of those chemical processes that are directly induced by plant roots and which can affect the concentration of P in the soil solution and, ultimately, the bioavailability of soil inorganic P to plants.
Journal ArticleDOI

N : P ratios in terrestrial plants: variation and functional significance

TL;DR: This review examines how variation in the relative availability of N and P, as reflected by N : P ratios of plant biomass, influences vegetation composition and functioning.
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