Decomposer ≈ DecomposerDecomposer
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Annual Review of Ecology, Evolution, and Systematics Open
Fungi play key roles in ecosystems and human societies as decomposers, nutrient cyclers, mutualists, and pathogens. Estimates suggest that roughly 3–13 million fungal species exist worldwide, yet considerable knowledge gaps exist regarding…
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The application of ecological stoichiometry to plant–microbial–soil organic matter transformations Open
Elemental stoichiometry constitutes an inherent link between biogeochemistry and the structure and processes within food webs, and thus is at the core of ecosystem functioning. Stoichiometry allows for spanning different levels of biologic…
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Fungal Traits That Drive Ecosystem Dynamics on Land Open
SUMMARY Fungi contribute extensively to a wide range of ecosystem processes, including decomposition of organic carbon, deposition of recalcitrant carbon, and transformations of nitrogen and phosphorus. In this review, we discuss the curre…
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Stoichiometry of microbial carbon use efficiency in soils Open
The carbon use efficiency ( CUE ) of microbial communities partitions the flow of C from primary producers to the atmosphere, decomposer food webs, and soil C stores. CUE , usually defined as the ratio of growth to assimilation, is a criti…
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Bacterial contributions to delignification and lignocellulose degradation in forest soils with metagenomic and quantitative stable isotope probing Open
Delignification, or lignin-modification, facilitates the decomposition of lignocellulose in woody plant biomass. The extant diversity of lignin-degrading bacteria and fungi is underestimated by culture-dependent methods, limiting our under…
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Mortierella Species as the Plant Growth-Promoting Fungi Present in the Agricultural Soils Open
In the most recent scientific reports based on the DNA or RNA-analyses a widespread presence of the filamentous fungi, Mortierella in various environments has been shown. Some strains of this genus belong to the plant growth-promoting fung…
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The importance of litter traits and decomposers for litter decomposition: a comparison of aquatic and terrestrial ecosystems within and across biomes Open
Summary Plant leaf litter comprises the major common source of energy and nutrients in forested soil and freshwater ecosystems world‐wide. However, despite the similarity of physical and biochemical processes, generalizations across aquati…
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Mycorrhizal and saprotrophic fungal guilds compete for the same organic substrates but affect decomposition differently Open
Summary Communities of litter saprotrophic and root‐associated fungi are vertically separated within boreal forest soil profiles. It is unclear whether this depth partitioning is maintained exclusively by substrate‐mediated niche partition…
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Dead fungal mycelium in forest soil represents a decomposition hotspot and a habitat for a specific microbial community Open
Summary Turnover of fungal biomass in forest litter and soil represents an important process in the environment. To date, knowledge of mycelial decomposition has been derived primarily from short‐term studies, and the guild of mycelium dec…
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Soil microbial communities are shaped by plant‐driven changes in resource availability during secondary succession Open
Although we understand the ecological processes eliciting changes in plant community composition during secondary succession, we do not understand whether co‐occurring changes in plant detritus shape saprotrophic microbial communities in s…
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The decomposition of ectomycorrhizal fungal necromass Open
The turnover of ectomycorrhizal (EM) fungal biomass represents a significant input into forest carbon (C) and nutrient cycles. Given the size of these fluxes, understanding the factors that control the decomposition of this necromass will …
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A conceptual model of litter breakdown in low order streams Open
The detrital‐based food web of many streams and rivers plays a fundamental role in the cycling and retention of carbon and nutrients. However, we still need to understand which global mechanisms underlie the biogeochemical pathways that co…
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Massive lateral transfer of genes encoding plant cell wall-degrading enzymes to the mycoparasitic fungus Trichoderma from its plant-associated hosts Open
Unlike most other fungi, molds of the genus Trichoderma (Hypocreales, Ascomycota) are aggressive parasites of other fungi and efficient decomposers of plant biomass. Although nutritional shifts are common among hypocrealean fungi, there ar…
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Decomposer food web in a deciduous forest shows high share of generalist microorganisms and importance of microbial biomass recycling Open
Forest soils represent important terrestrial carbon (C) pools where C is primarily fixed in the plant-derived biomass but it flows further through the biomass of fungi and bacteria before it is lost from the ecosystem as CO2 or immobilized…
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Tillage Changes Vertical Distribution of Soil Bacterial and Fungal Communities Open
Tillage can strongly affect the long-term productivity of an agricultural system by altering the composition and spatial distribution of nutrients and microbial communities. The impact of tillage methods on the vertical distribution of soi…
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Necrobiome framework for bridging decomposition ecology of autotrophically and heterotrophically derived organic matter Open
Decomposition contributes to global ecosystem function by contributing to nutrient recycling, energy flow, and limiting biomass accumulation. The decomposer organisms influencing this process form diverse, complex, and highly dynamic commu…
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Linking molecular deadwood-inhabiting fungal diversity and community dynamics to ecosystem functions and processes in Central European forests Open
Fungi play vital roles in the decomposition of deadwood due to their secretion of various enzymes that break down plant cell-wall complexes. The compositions of wood-inhabiting fungal (WIF) communities change over the course of the decompo…
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Fungal community structure and function shifts with atmospheric nitrogen deposition Open
Fungal decomposition of soil organic matter depends on soil nitrogen (N) availability. This ecosystem process is being jeopardized by changes in N inputs that have resulted from a tripling of atmospheric N deposition in the last century. S…
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Deciphering the role of specialist and generalist plant–microbial interactions as drivers of plant–soil feedback Open
Summary Feedback between plants and soil microbial communities can be a powerful driver of vegetation dynamics. Plants elicit changes in the soil microbiome that either promote or suppress conspecifics at the same location, thereby regulat…
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Fungal–bacterial dynamics and their contribution to terrigenous carbon turnover in relation to organic matter quality Open
Ecological functions of fungal and bacterial decomposers vary with environmental conditions. However, the response of these decomposers to particulate organic matter (POM) quality, which varies widely in aquatic ecosystems, remains poorly …
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Bacterial succession on decomposing leaf litter exhibits a specific occurrence pattern of cellulolytic taxa and potential decomposers of fungal mycelia Open
The decomposition of dead plant biomass contributes to the carbon cycle and is one of the key processes in temperate forests. While fungi in litter decomposition drive the chemical changes occurring in litter, the bacterial community appea…
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Ants are the major agents of resource removal from tropical rainforests Open
Ants are diverse and abundant, especially in tropical ecosystems. They are often cited as the agents of key ecological processes, but their precise contributions compared with other organisms have rarely been quantified. Through the remova…
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A group of ectomycorrhizal fungi restricts organic matter accumulation in boreal forest Open
Boreal forest soils are important global carbon sinks, with significant storage in the organic topsoil. Decomposition of these stocks requires oxidative enzymes, uniquely produced by fungi. Across Swedish boreal forests, we found that loca…
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Fungal Community Shifts in Structure and Function across a Boreal Forest Fire Chronosequence Open
Forest fires are a common natural disturbance in forested ecosystems and have a large impact on the microbial communities in forest soils. The response of soil fungal communities to forest fire is poorly documented. Here, we investigated f…
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Properties of Soil Pore Space Regulate Pathways of Plant Residue Decomposition and Community Structure of Associated Bacteria Open
Physical protection of soil carbon (C) is one of the important components of C storage. However, its exact mechanisms are still not sufficiently lucid. The goal of this study was to explore the influence of soil structure, that is, soil po…
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An unexpected role for mixotrophs in the response of peatland carbon cycling to climate warming Open
Mixotrophic protists are increasingly recognized for their significant contribution to carbon (C) cycling. As phototrophs they contribute to photosynthetic C fixation, whilst as predators of decomposers, they indirectly influence organic m…
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Drought and plant litter chemistry alter microbial gene expression and metabolite production Open
Drought represents a significant stress to microorganisms and is known to reduce microbial activity and organic matter decomposition in Mediterranean ecosystems. However, we lack a detailed understanding of the drought stress response of m…
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Litter chemistry influences decomposition through activity of specific microbial functional guilds Open
Niche differentiation among species is a key mechanism by which biodiversity may be linked to ecosystem function. We tested a set of widely invoked hypotheses about the extent of niche differentiation in one of the most diverse communities…
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The transcriptional response of microbial communities in thawing Alaskan permafrost soils Open
Thawing of permafrost soils is expected to stimulate microbial decomposition and respiration of sequestered carbon. This could, in turn, increase atmospheric concentrations of greenhouse gasses, such as carbon dioxide and methane, and crea…
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Chitinolytic functions in actinobacteria: ecology, enzymes, and evolution Open
Actinobacteria, a large group of Gram-positive bacteria, secrete a wide range of extracellular enzymes involved in the degradation of organic compounds and biopolymers including the ubiquitous aminopolysaccharides chitin and chitosan. Whil…