Investigating the soil microbiome to understand mechanisms driving soil ecosystem services

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Understanding soil biogeochemistry is essential to the stewardship of ecosystem services provided by soils, such as soil fertility (for food, fibre and fuel production), water quality, resistance to erosion and climate mitigation through reduced feedbacks to climate change. Microbial communities play a central role in virtually every biogeochemical cycle on earth. While soil microbial diversity and activity can be characterized using molecular tools, quantitative linkages to ecosystem function are often difficult. We need a better understanding of how extrinsic state factors or edaphic soil conditions (physical and chemical factors intrinsic to the soil) drive microbial activity and ultimately, biogeochemical cycling, in order to predict soil ecosystem responses to changes in climate, vegetation or land management. ******An array of scientific approaches, including short- term field studies, long-term field experiments and space-for-time substitutions (i.e., chronosequences) will be used to investigate microbial drivers of biogeochemical cycling at the plant-soil-microbiome interface. Over the next five years, metagenomics and metatranscriptomics (i.e., high throughput sequencing approaches applied to environmental samples) will be used to provide comprehensive and quantitative descriptions of the taxonomic and functional diversity using the total pool of nucleic acids and identify couplings between environmental conditions and the microbial community composition and function. With particular focus on microbial mediated nitrogen and phosphorus cycling. ******In the next five years, the research will: ***(1) Evaluate the effects of changes in nutrient availability during long-term ecosystem development on key soil microbial communities; ***(2) Assess the impact of sustainable and resilient agricultural practices on the functional diversity of microbes in the plant-soil interface; ***(3) Compare in situ measurements of microbial activity to nutrient fluxes under environmental change. ******This research will contribute to our understanding of the ecosystem trade-offs required to maximize productivity in agroecosystems in order to meet the demands of a global population while minimizing impacts on soil, air, and water quality, recognizing that we are also experiencing unseen climate variability and environmental change. **