Nitrogen-shaped microbiotas with nutrient competition accelerate early-stage residue decomposition in agricultural soils

Meiling Zhang, Liyu Zhang, Jing Li, Shuyu Huang, Shiyu Wang, Yuanzheng Zhao, Wei Zhou and Chao Ai ()
Additional contact information
Meiling Zhang: Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences
Liyu Zhang: Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences
Jing Li: Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences
Shuyu Huang: Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences
Shiyu Wang: Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences
Yuanzheng Zhao: Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences
Wei Zhou: Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences
Chao Ai: Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences

Nature Communications, 2025, vol. 16, issue 1, 1-16

Abstract: Abstract Plant residue decomposition is critical for carbon cycling in terrestrial ecosystems. Nitrogen (N) availability alters this process through orchestrating the microbial community, yet the mechanisms remain elusive. By investigating the wheat residue decomposition process and the microbial succession under different N input levels in agricultural fields, we find that higher N availability accelerates residue breakdown mainly at the early stage by promoting the rapid colonization of a soil-derived microbial consortium with key interactions. Metabolic potential evaluations show that the Bacillus decomposers harbor diverse carbohydrate-active enzymes that degrade cellulose and hemicellulose, whereas the non-decomposer Staphylococcus sciuri efficiently transports and consumes downstream sugar products. Synthetic communities combined with omics techniques confirm that the N-enriched non-decomposer S. sciuri restricts the growth of weak decomposers through sugar depletion, thereby restructuring the community dominated by strong decomposers. This shift increases the residue decomposition rate by 16.77% under N fertilization. Our results highlight the important role of usually overlooked fast-growing non-decomposers in agricultural soil carbon cycling.

Date: 2025
References: View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-025-60948-2 Abstract (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:nat:natcom:v:16:y:2025:i:1:d:10.1038_s41467-025-60948-2

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
https://www.nature.com/ncomms/

DOI: 10.1038/s41467-025-60948-2

Access Statistics for this article

Nature Communications is currently edited by Nathalie Le Bot, Enda Bergin and Fiona Gillespie

More articles in Nature Communications from Nature
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Sonal Shukla () and Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing ().