Science of the Total Environment 634 (2018) 497–500

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Science of the Total Environment

journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/scitotenv

Short Communication

Soil microbial biomass: A key soil driver in management of

ecosystem functioning
Jay Shankar Singh a,⁎, Vijai Kumar Gupta b
a
Department of Environmental Microbiology, Babasaheb Bhimrao Ambedkar (Central) University, Raebarelly Road, Lucknow 226025, Uttar Pradesh, India
b
Department of Chemistry and Biotechnology, ERA Chair of Green Chemistry, School of Science, Tallinn University of Technology, Akadeemia tee 15, 12618 Tallinn, Estonia

H I G H L I G H T S G R A P H I C A L A B S T R A C T

• Soil microbial biomass as a key ecologi-

cal driver has been described.
• Soil microbial diversity and biomass
play key roles in the ecosystem services.
• Soil micro-flora N uptake is an adapta-
tion for short-term storage of N in ter-
restrial ecosystems.
• Soil microbial biomass is key ecological
driver in rehabilitation of degraded
lands.

a r t i c l e i n f o a b s t r a c t

Article history: Although patterns of microbial diversity and biomass have been described and reviewed at local and regional
Received 28 February 2018 scales, a unifying driver, or set of environmental drivers affecting soil microbial biomass (SMB) pattern at global
Received in revised form 30 March 2018 level is still missing. Biomass of soil microbial community, known as SMB is considered widely as the index of soil
Accepted 30 March 2018
fertility and ecosystem productivity. The escalating soil stresses due to land degradation and climatic variability
Available online 7 April 2018
are directly correlated with loss of microbial diversity and abundance or biomass dynamics. Therefore, alleviating
Editor: Frederic Coulon soil stresses on microbial communities with ecological restoration could reduce the unpredictability and turn-
over rates of SMB. Thus, the key ecological factors which stabilize the SMB and minimize its turnover, are sup-
Keywords: posed to play an important role in the soil nutrient dynamics and productivity of the ecosystems. Because of
Land degradation the existing public concern about the deleterious impacts of ecosystem degradation, there is an increasing inter-
Environmental drivers est in improving the understanding of SMB, and the way, it contributes to restoration and functioning of
Microbial community ecosystems.
Soil microbial biomass © 2018 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

1. Microbial biomass under different ecological regimes and ecosys-
tem types
Functioning of ecosystems rely on the flux of chemical signals, car-
bon, and nutrients across the trophic levels, mainly mediated by
⁎ Corresponding author.
E-mail address: jayshankar_1@yahoo.co.in (J.S. Singh).
microbial interactions in the soil-plant-animal food web (Seneviratne,
2015). Soil microbial diversity and abundance/biomass play key roles
in the ecosystem sustainability by maintaining essential functions of
soil health, through carbon and nutrient turnover. Even after distur-
bances, an ecosystem with a higher microbial diversity and biomass
may have a higher capacity to sustain the ecological processes through
microbiological buffering. There is now increasing evidence that above-
ground (plant litter quantity and quality) and belowground (soil

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.scitotenv.2018.03.373
0048-9697/© 2018 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.
498 J.S. Singh, V.K. Gupta / Science of the Total Environment 634 (2018) 497–500

microbial flora and fauna diversity) are key drivers that play fundamen- forests and mycorrhizae in boreal temperate forests) it is suggested
tal roles in controlling ecosystem processes and stability (Wardle et al., that variations in the size of SMB can impact to variability of the func-
2004). However, understanding ecological linkages between above- tioning of various ecosystem types.
and belowground abiotic and biotic (including SMB) attributes is still The rise in unpredictable climate shift and anthropogenic perturba-
a key challenge for our knowledge on the stability and functioning of tions are the critical drivers to regulate the existence and survival of in-
ecosystem processes. Therefore, given the importance of SMB dynamics digenous microbial diversity, and consequently, the essential soil
in defining ecosystem properties, the understanding as to how SMB re- functioning of the ecosystem. The macroclimate, topography and soil
spond to unexpected rise in biotic and abiotic drivers and loss of plant quality (pH, organic C and N, moisture, etc.) are the key drivers in con-
species diversity seems a research priority that would shed light on trolling SMB dynamics across different ecosystems and locations
the performance of diverse ecosystems. (Wardle, 1992). The temporal dynamics of SMB is likely to be the key
Among the various ecological drivers, microbes (N2-fixers, P- factor in determining the extent of release of immobilized labile nutri-
solubilizers, growth hormone producers, etc.) and their SMB pools ents due to microbial cell deaths, and the availability of nutrients re-
may be considered as major ecological impetus in controlling the di- leased crucial to plant growth and ecosystem functioning (Wardle,
verse ecosystem functions globally (Table 1). Soil carbon (C) and nitro- 1998). The factors that provide viability to the soil microbial community
gen (N) together with phosphorus (P) and soil pH are the key drivers therefore, are assumed to enhance soil nutrient conservation in the
that may limit the functioning of various nutrient deprived ecosystems form of higher SMB size owing to the reduced release of immobilized
(Bru et al., 2011; Carnicer et al., 2015). In strongly soil N deprived eco- nutrients. While studying the effect of climatic disturbances on ecosys-
systems such as Arctic and Alpine Tundra and Temperate forests, nutri- tem types, we may expect SMB to have lesser temporal variability
ents release after soil micro-flora (SMB) death has been pointed out as owing to lesser disturbances.
an important source of plant nutrient N (van der Heijden et al., 2008). Along a large geographical area, climate variability, land use types
So, it is suggested that uptake of N by soil micro-flora might be an adap- and the dominant vegetation composition might be the key factors for
tation that may have developed for short-term storage of N in several SMB variability across different ecosystem types. Differences in the
terrestrial ecosystems, thus reducing the loss of N from the soil of nutri- quantity and quality of substrate (organic C and N) inputs caused by
ent poor ecosystems. It is also important to mention here that the chem- varying plant residue types (litter and fine roots) and the associated nu-
ical composition of plant residues (litter and fine roots) from diverse trient specificity can be crucial drivers to influence the SMB across the
plant species in an ecosystem could be unpredictable and therefore, dif- ecosystem types. Thus, the higher SMB in soil of scrub stand than
ferent microbial communities might be evolved to decay and decom- other ecosystems might be attributed mainly to the greater availability
pose the variety of litter types. As many microbial communities have of organic matter via vegetation cover with giant plant species. How-
restricted bio-geographic distributions (N2-fixing rhizobia in tropical ever, in case the temporal data on SMB from different ecosystems across
the globe were quantitatively analyzed, more persistent and less dis-
turbed ecosystems had higher SMB values than the most disturbed
Table 1 one (Wardle, 1998), though the temporal variability of different ecosys-
Microbes as key ecological drivers regulating functioning of diverse ecosystems.
tem types was substantially comparable. This indicates that temporal
Source: van der Heijden et al. (2008) Ecol. Lett. 11: 296–310.
SMB variability is solely governed by the dominant vegetation and
Ecosystem type Microbes Microbial functions land use type, but the nutrient turnover along with other edaphic fac-
Tropical savannah, Symbiotic, free living and Support plant productivity tors can be more effective than those in regulating the temporal SMB
some grasslands and endophytic N-fixing by supplying different variability. However, it is suggested that shifts in plant species composi-
tropical forests bacteria limiting nutrients (N) to tion during land use change, can influence the microbial community
the plants.
Endophytes enhance
composition dynamics and SMB basically by changing soil organic nutri-
growth and competitive ent status (Zhang et al., 2016). But it is still unclear as to why SMB is not
ability of their host plants. so responsive to large-scale disturbance regimes, such as invasions of
Deserts and boreal N-fixing cyanobacteria Contribute to the N alien species into new territories, climate change due to atmospheric
forests economy of ecosystems via
CO2 elevation, greater soil nitrogen deposition and land use changes
N cycling and accumulation
under extremely limited (Wardle et al., 2004), and therefore, further studies in this regard, will
N2-fixation situations. enhance our understanding about temporal microbial community com-
Helps in degraded land positions and biomass variability.
restoration. Although nutrient status, seasonality, soil factors, temperature, and
Tropical, temperate and Arbuscular mycorrhizal Enhanced P uptake of host
boreal forests, (AM), Ectomycorrhizal plant species when plant
other factors, are important drivers to control functioning of dry tropical
grassland and (EM) and Ericoid productivity is strongly forest ecosystem, SMB could be one of the vital factors affecting produc-
savannah ecosystems mycorrhizal (ERM) fungi limited by P availability. tivity in the tropical dry deciduous forests, as observed in the Vindhyan
Provide resistance to plants plateau (Singh et al., 2010). In India, the previous investigations regard-
against diseases, drought
ing SMB across the tropical dry deciduous forest ecosystems have been
and other environmental
stresses in nutrient poor conducted by selecting only one or the other sites on a temporal scale,
and degraded ecosystems. and without deciphering differences in SMB status and its role in distri-
Natural ecosystems P-solubilizing bacteria May constitute up to 40% of bution and variations of the dominant vegetation composition. It may
the cultivable population of be hypothesized that alterations in soil properties due to land uses
soil bacteria.
However, significance of
and anthropogenic activities would correspond to differences in the
bacteria in natural SMB size and turnover rates and consequently, to loss of vegetation
ecosystems is still in cover and ecosystem productivity. However, the experimental evidence
enigma and further studied for such arguments is still warranted.
are still warranted.
In nutrient poor ecosystems, SMB acts as the major reservoir of avail-
Tropical forests Nitrifying and denitrifying Indirectly reduce plant
bacteria productivity because about able nutrients, and plays very crucial roles in the survival of plants
50% of available soil N is (Singh et al., 2016a, 2016b; Vimal et al., 2017). In the dry tropical decid-
lost from the ecosystem by uous forest ecosystem, nutrient withdrawal from the senescing leaves
nitrification and and its immobilization in the SMB has been considered as the nutrient
denitrification processes
conserving adaptations in response to nutrient paucity, and thus SMB
 J.S. Singh, V.K. Gupta / Science of the Total Environment 634 (2018) 497–500
constitutes the key available nutrient source for the survival of plant
communities (Singh et al., 2010; Singh, 2015a, 2015b). The conversion
of forest into cropland and savanna due to plant harvesting may result
a significant alterations in the size of SMB. Since, plant diversity is a
key driver in controlling SMB (Thakur et al., 2015); any alterations in
the soil properties due to deforestation may have significant impact
on SMB stability and its turnover rates. As plant biodiversity is projected
to decline in response to global environmental change factors, we can
also expect indirect effects of key environmental drivers on SMB status
via alterations in plant community compositions. The increasing de-
mand of agricultural land accelerates deforestation and consequently
disturbances in SMB trends had been noted. Although deforestation is
a common practice for the generation of agricultural managed land-
use systems, afforestation has become a much discussed topic in recent
years (Singh et al., 2010). Therefore, we suggest that long-term investi-
gations should be conducted on the SMB patterns, a sensitive nutrient
pool that may respond to plant diversity loss compared to other envi-
ronmental drivers.
2. Microbial biomass in restoration of degraded land soil
productivity
Restoration ecology, a somewhat new thrust research area, still
needs rigorous explorations to achieve satisfactory results (Calmon
et al., 2011). As the changing global climate is one of the major environ-
mental challenges today, there is an urgent need to restore the huge de-
graded land area to make it cultivable for the overall sustainable agro-
environmental development. Size of SMB can provide one of the most
satisfactory estimates of the productivity of any restored degraded
land (do Couto et al., 2016). A lower ratio of SMB to the total soil organic
nutrients seems to indicate good strength of degraded land rehabilita-
tion. Consequently, the ratio of SMB to the total organic nutrients may
be considered as a reliable parameter for the success of degraded land
rehabilitation. The re-established SMB status and its dynamics under
prevailing environmental drivers may provide valuable information
about the restoration progress and productivity potential of derived
lands for agriculture purposes.
Re-vegetation of degraded land
Degraded land
 Microbial flora
and fauna
 Plant litters
 Root exudates
Soil microbial biomass
Solubilization
Dissolved organic matter
Decomposition
Nutrient immobilization
Fig. 1. Schematic representation showing contribution of soil microbial biomass as source of plant available nutrients to agro- and forest ecosystems.
499
SMB, an important driver of ecosystem functioning, may be consid-
ered as the sensitive key biological indicator of perturbations owing to
soil disturbances (Zornoza et al., 2009). Research practices on degraded
land restoration, have mainly focused on the aboveground features with
lesser emphasis on the belowground soil microbial processes and the
patterns of SMB, which could play a vital role in productivity of the de-
rived ecosystems. The soil microbial properties between degraded and
restored lands have been compared (Bini et al., 2013; Singh, 2016),
but the knowledge about key environmental drivers influencing the
patterns of SMB and microbial community structure during restoration,
is still limited. Therefore, the study of SMB patterns and its relationship
to climate and soil drivers can enhance our understanding in rehabilita-
tion of land uses like vast waste lands (e.g. spoiled coal mine areas). It is
suggested that during restoration programs, the belowground microbial
activities and their biomass development and responses must be con-
sidered in implementation. It is proposed that restoration practices
with mixed plant species having high biomass producing potential,
can contribute to speedy recovery of lost microbial diversity and SMB
turnovers (Singh, 2013; Araujo et al., 2013; Singh, 2014). The fast recov-
ery of microbial communities and SMB size due to mixed plantations
cover (Lange et al., 2015) compared to the monoculture plantations
can help in the returning of the huge bulk of diverse types of plant-
derived resources (leaf litter, fine root biomass, root exudates or
rhizodeposits) and favorable soil conditions. In view of these, it is rec-
ommended that plant species having high biomass production effi-
ciency, and favoring the establishment of beneficial microbial
(mycorrhizae and nitrogen-fixers) associations, should preferably be
selected during restoration programs.
Speedy recovery of soil productivity on the deforested area can be
achieved by afforestation of mixed plantations in association with suit-
able bio-inoculants, which can be a good microbial “booster” to enhance
the SMB and ecosystem productivity (Fig. 1). The inoculation of suitable
bio-fertilizers along with mixed plantations, not only increases the pop-
ulation of the microbial strains inoculated, but also enhances diversity
and abundance of microbes native to the soil, through dormancy break-
ing of their quiescent viable spores developed in response to environ-
mental stresses (Seneviratne and Kulasooriya, 2013; Singh and Strong,
2016). Thus, a combination of mixed plantation, stress-tolerant bio-
Crop land Forest ecosystem
Nutrient
uptake by
plants and
& soil
micro-flora
Available nutrients
Mineralization
500 J.S. Singh, V.K. Gupta / Science of the Total Environment 634 (2018) 497–500
inoculants, and organic amendments in restoration of the degraded
lands may offer a tripartite association to augment soil nutrient turn-
overs and consequently to reinstate productivity of stressed ecosys-
tems. However, it should be kept in mind that addition of microbial
inoculants into new territories may greatly affect soil plant-microbe in-
teractions, especially when the new microbial species has vastly differ-
ent physiological behaviours from the indigenous micro- flora. No
information is available on how addition of exotic soil microbial inocu-
lants in association with re-vegetation of degraded lands can influences
the exiting native soil micro-biota, although these effects should be
strongest when the alien microbial inoculants has functional attributes
that are not compatibles to the indigenous microbial species. In our
opinion, the future research on SMB turnovers as affected by the key
ecological drivers and its correlation with the ecosystem functioning
holds potential as the complementary criteria for evaluating the rehabil-
itation progress in restoration ecology.
3. Conclusions
Besides the importance of physico-chemical and biological processes
to maintain soil health, SMB may be the ‘keystone’ biological driver of
ecosystem functioning. Loss of beneficial microbial diversity and SMB
associated to land use changes and erratic climate shifts, are the major
reasons for deterioration of soil fertility and ecosystem productivity.
Therefore, researches related to plant-microbe-soil associations to com-
bat problems of soil degradation need to be performed in greater depth.
Today, it is the utmost need to maintain soil health and productivity
with emphasis on restoration of vast area of the degraded lands using
efficient biomass producing novel plant species and microbial inocu-
lants. Finally, SMB is concluded to be an important index for the soil
health and environmental sustainability.
Acknowledgement
JSS is thankful to Head, Department of Environmental Microbiology,
BBA University, Lucknow, India for providing all kind of supports and
the infrastructure facilities.
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