Habitat restoration
Cellulose plus C4 grass steers prairie soil microbes
Open access · cc by · source: Europe PMC
Adding cellulose and heat-tolerant Andropogon gerardii shifted restored prairie soils toward higher fungal biomass and slower-growing bacteria that may retain carbon.
How this study connects
Role on claims
Each row is a claim on a concept or method page where this paper supports, challenges, or qualifies the statement. Roles are hand-checked — not a model guess.
Not yet placed on a claim. This paper has study layers, but no concept page yet cites it as support, challenge, or qualifier.
Inspect source passages
Cellulose plus C4 grass steers prairie soil microbes
These passages occur verbatim in the stored paper text. They support the points listed below; they do not verify every statement in the explanation.
DNA was extracted from each of 72 treated pots.
we defrosted frozen soils collected from each of the 72 treated pots and extracted total genomic DNA using a PowerSoil DNA Isolation Kit
Warming room was +4°C above ambient.
One room was kept at ambient temperature while we elevated the temperature in the other room to + 4°C above ambient.
Key findings
Cellulose raised fungal:bacterial lipid ratios (18:2ω6,9c and 18:1ω9c up; Gram-positive lipids down) regardless of plant mix. Plant richness had few microbial effects. Coupling cellulose with heat/drought-tolerant grasses selected higher fungal biomass and oligotroph-leaning bacteria.
Methodology
Agricultural soil in 72 pots received remnant-prairie inoculum and/or cellulose, planted with one vs three prairie species, then grown 62 days at ambient or +4°C; lipids, enzymes, 16S, and soil C were measured.
Limitations
A 62-day pot study cannot prove long-term field carbon sequestration; watering prevented drought so warming×moisture interactions were muted.
Related papers in this topic
Same topic cluster — not a recommendation engine.