Researchers from the National Museum of Natural Sciences (MNCN-CSIC) have participated in a study where, for the first time, it has been verified how the structure of soil microbial communities affects the capacity of ecosystems to emit CO 2 and produce assimilable forms of nitrogen for plants. The results, published in the journal Frontiers in Microbiology , highlight the relevance of knowing the diversity of edaphic communities to increase the precision of the models that researchers use to study how future environmental changes can affect the functioning of ecosystems.
"Those on the ground are among the most diverse and unknown communities of living beings on the planet. Until now it was considered that they all functioned in the same way, that is, their enormous diversity implied a great functional redundancy and therefore, that changes in their diversity due to external factors such as drought would not affect the rates of carbon absorption and the availability of nitrogen, a vital element for plant growth, in terrestrial ecosystems ", contextualizes Jorge Curiel, researcher at the MNCN. "By including information on the composition of soil microbial communities - bacteria, fungi and other microorganisms - we have observed significant improvements in predictive models of carbon and nitrogen cycles,
Improve scientific models
With this work, the researchers have confirmed the importance of understanding the biodiversity of the soil and, more specifically, of the microbial communities that inhabit it, since it has been verified that, depending on their abundance, composition and diversity, the rates of CO2 emissions and absorption and nutrient recycling can be seriously affected. "The data alert us to the relevance of continuing to study edaphic ecosystems to refine the results of predictive models that reveal how climate change can affect, among other factors, the future of forests and their proper functioning," concludes Curiel
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