Microscale heterogeneity of the spatial distribution of organic matter can promote bacterial biodiversity in soils: Insights from computer simulations

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dc.contributor.authorPortell, Xavier
dc.contributor.authorPot, Valérie
dc.contributor.authorGarnier, Patricia
dc.contributor.authorOtten, Wilfred
dc.contributor.authorBaveye, Philippe C.
dc.date.accessioned2018-07-31T09:38:08Z
dc.date.available2018-07-31T09:38:08Z
dc.date.issued2018-07-27
dc.description.abstractThere is still no satisfactory understanding of the factors that enable soil microbial populations to be as highly biodiverse as they are. The present article explores in silico the hypothesis that the heterogeneous distribution of soil organic matter, in addition to the spatial connectivity of the soil moisture, might account for the observed microbial biodiversity in soils. A multi-species, individual-based, pore-scale model is developed and parameterized with data from 3 Arthrobacter sp. strains, known to be, respectively, competitive, versatile, and poorly competitive. In the simulations, bacteria of each strain are distributed in a 3D computed tomography (CT) image of a real soil and three water saturation levels (100, 50, and 25%) and spatial heterogeneity levels (high, intermediate, and low) in the distribution of the soil organic matter are considered. High and intermediate heterogeneity levels assume, respectively, an amount of particulate organic matter (POM) distributed in a single (high heterogeneity) or in four (intermediate heterogeneity) randomly placed fragments. POM is hydrolyzed at a constant rate following a first-order kinetic, and continuously delivers dissolved organic carbon (DOC) into the liquid phase, where it is then taken up by bacteria. The low heterogeneity level assumes that the food source is available from the start as DOC. Unlike the relative abundances of the 3 strains, the total bacterial biomass and respiration are similar under the high and intermediate resource heterogeneity schemes. The key result of the simulations is that spatial heterogeneity in the distribution of organic matter influences the maintenance of bacterial biodiversity. The least competing strain, which does not reach noticeable growth for the low and intermediate spatial heterogeneities of resource distribution, can grow appreciably and even become more abundant than the other strains in the absence of direct competition, if the placement of the resource is favorable. For geodesic distances exceeding 5 mm, microbial colonies cannot grow. These conclusions are conditioned by assumptions made in the model, yet they suggest that microscale factors need to be considered to better understand the root causes of the high biodiversity of soils.en_UK
dc.identifier.citationPortell X, Pot V, Garnier P, Otten W, Baveye P, Microscale heterogeneity of the spatial distribution of organic matter can promote bacterial biodiversity in soils: Insights from computer simulations, Frontiers in Microbiology, Vol. 9, July 2018, Article number 1583en_UK
dc.identifier.issn1664-302X
dc.identifier.urihttp://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fmicb.2018.01583
dc.identifier.urihttp://dspace.lib.cranfield.ac.uk/handle/1826/13369
dc.language.isoenen_UK
dc.publisherFrontiers Mediaen_UK
dc.rightsAttribution 4.0 International*
dc.rights.urihttp://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/*
dc.subjectSoilen_UK
dc.subjectPore scaleen_UK
dc.subjectOrganic matteren_UK
dc.subjectResource allocationen_UK
dc.subjectBacteriaen_UK
dc.subjectBiodiversityen_UK
dc.subjectAgent-based modelingen_UK
dc.titleMicroscale heterogeneity of the spatial distribution of organic matter can promote bacterial biodiversity in soils: Insights from computer simulationsen_UK
dc.typeArticleen_UK

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