Drought resistance and resilience of rhizosphere communities in forest soils from the cellular to ecosystem scale - insights from 13 C pulse labeling

The link between above- and belowground communities is a key uncertainty in drought and rewetting effects on forest carbon (C) cycle. In young beech model ecosystems and mature naturally dry pine forest exposed to 15-yr-long irrigation, we performed C pulse labeling experiments, one during drought and one 2 wk after rewetting, tracing tree assimilates into rhizosphere communities. The C pulses applied in tree crowns reached soil microbial communities of the young and mature forests one and 4 d later, respectively. Drought decreased the transfer of labeled assimilates relative to the irrigation treatment. The C label in phospholipid fatty acids (PLFAs) indicated greater drought reduction of assimilate incorporation by fungi (-85%) than by gram-positive (-43%) and gram-negative bacteria (-58%). C label incorporation was more strongly reduced for PLFAs (cell membrane) than for microbial cytoplasm extracted by chloroform. This suggests that fresh rhizodeposits are predominantly used for osmoregulation or storage under drought, at the expense of new cell formation. Two weeks after rewetting, C enrichment in PLFAs was greater in previously dry than in continuously moist soils. Drought and rewetting effects were greater in beech systems than in pine forest. Belowground C allocation and rhizosphere communities are highly resilient to drought.