Cross-continental soil prokaryotic traits driven by precipitation regime and land cover

Abstract

Trade-offs among traits determine microbial community dynamics and affect soil carbon-cycling feedback to climate change. Here, we determined soil prokaryotic traits based on a novel marker gene-based workflow using cross-continental temperature and aridity gradients. Genome streamlining and high 16S rRNA gene copy numbers per genome (RRN) conferred high maximal growth rates, possibly by allowing for smaller cells with higher surface to volume ratio. Small genomes and high maximal growth rates were found under high precipitation seasonality and in barren soils. Large genomes and low maximal growth rates were found in forests, characterized by high water availability and by abundant and complex organic resources. Our findings suggest that large genomes confer versatility to cope with resource fluctuations and moderate climatic fluctuations while extreme climatic fluctuations and scarcity of resources promote genome streamlining. Seasonal fluctuations in water availability were associated with the ability to form spores and with rapid resuscitation, promoted by high RRN. Moreover, Prokaryotes were less dispersal limited compared to Fungi, presumably due to their smaller size, but within Prokaryotes, small taxa were not more ubiquitous. Our trait-based framework highlights that particularly changes in precipitation patterns and vegetation type will cause changes in microbial processes under future climate.