Microbial "phosphorus gatekeeping" found in a study exploring 700,000 years of iconic coastline
A new study has dug deep into the past of the coastal dunes of an iconic Queensland, Australia location in a bid to better understand how microscopic processes in the soil support some of the most biodiverse landscapes on Earth.
Published in Nature Geoscience, the team of researchers from Griffith University, University of Sydney and Stockholm University investigated a sequence of coastal dunes of different ages (from 0-700,000 years old) in Cooloola National Park to understand how soil microorganisms coped with severely declining levels of nutrients such as phosphorus in soil as the dunes got older.
Phosphorus is an element that is essential for all living things. It plays a crucial role in various physiological processes, including energy metabolism, cell membrane formation, and photosynthesis.
– We know a lot about the traits plants use to cope with phosphorus deficiency but have little knowledge about how soil microbes cope with it, said Professor Charles Warren, senior author from the University of Sydney.
This knowledge gap has constrained our ability to understand how phosphorus-limited ecosystems work, says Professor Warren.
Lead author Dr Orpheus Butler from Griffith’s Australian Rivers Institute said the team found that microbes, such as fungi and bacteria, had really strong physiological strategies to deal with low phosphorus levels.
These strategies include the swapping out of membrane phospholipids with non-phosphorous lipids, and accumulation of various types of microbial fats.
– Our study highlights that soil microbes use sophisticated strategies to deal with phosphorus scarcity, and that these strategies significantly shape how ecosystems function and evolve over long timescales, he said. Microbes almost act as "phosphorus gatekeepers" in the soil.
Professor Warren said the results of this study were important because it revealed the general strategies enabling microbes to survive and thrive in extremely phosphorus-poor soils.
– We used a naturally phosphorus-poor native ecosystem to uncover the traits that allow microbes to thrive on P poor soils, but the findings are equally relevant to managed agricultural systems that often P limited, he said.
The important next steps are to apply our knowledge of microbes to improving productivity of phosphorus-limited ecosystems.
Dr Butler said low-fertility soils supported some of the most biodiverse landscapes on Earth, such as tropical rainforests and Mediterranean-climate shrublands and woodlands, so these results offered some important conservation and biodiversity insights into this microscopic process.
– A lot of ecosystems worldwide are what we call phosphorus limited, which means that phosphorus is the nutrient that's constraining the growth of the system more than any other nutrient, he said. By finding ways to use their phosphorus more efficiently, the microbes free up phosphorus for the plants to take up.
Professor Stefano Manzoni, a co-author at Stockholm University, added that the capacity of soil microbes to retain limiting nutrients is generally overlooked, which limits our capacity to predict vegetation growth.
It is fascinating how microbes can adjust their cellular composition in a way that helps them grow under nutrient limitation. And if they don’t need much phosphorus, some can be released to support plants. It’s a win-win strategy, says Professor Manzoni.
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The study "Microbial physiology conserves phosphorus across long-term ecosystem development" has been published in Nature Geoscience.
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Professor Stefano Manzoni
E-mail: stefano.manzoni@natgeo.su.se
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Last updated: May 12, 2025
Source: Department of Physical Geography