Biology subjects

Rillig, M.

Publications and source records attributed to Rillig, M..

3 recordsLinked to original sources

bioRxiv2025

Spatiotemporal changes in soil properties predict plant health at continental scale

Abiotic and biotic soil properties are strong predictors of plant yield globally1-5, but they become unreliable over large areas when plant health is threatened by pathogen6-8. Here we present a novel approach to predict plant health based on spatiotemporal changes in soil chemical and biological properties. We first demonstrate that plant health and soil properties consistently respond to environmental change (organic fertilization) regardless of the soil type or geographical origin. Second, we experimentally show that trackable shifts in soil properties reliably explain soil suppressiveness to the Ralstonia solanacearum bacterial pathogen and that a scalable spatiotemporal model predicts plant health with 84% accuracy across multiple climatic zones and cropping systems. Our results suggest that this tight coupling between soil properties and plant health could facilitate the development of agricultural practices aimed at sustainably improving crop yields while safeguarding crop health.

ecology↗

bioRxiv2023

A fast-slow trait continuum at the level of entire communities

Across the tree of life, organismal functional strategies form a continuum from slow-to fast-growing organisms, in response to common drivers such as resource availability and disturbance. However, the synchronization of these strategies at the entire community level is untested. We combine trait data for >2800 above-and belowground taxa from 14 trophic guilds spanning a disturbance and resource availability gradient in German grasslands. Most guilds consistently respond to these drivers through both direct and trophically-mediated effects, resulting in a slow-fast axis at the level of the entire community. Fast trait communities were also associated with faster rates of whole ecosystem functioning. These findings demonstrate that slow and fast strategies can be manifested at the level of whole ecosystems, opening new avenues of ecosystem-level functional classification.

ecology↗

bioRxiv2019

Environmental selection and spatiotemporal structure of a major group of soil protists (Rhizaria: Cercozoa) in a temperate grassland

Soil protists are increasingly appreciated as essential components of soil foodwebs; however, there is a dearth of information on the factors structuring their communities. Here we investigate the importance of different biotic and abiotic factors as key drivers of spatial and seasonal distribution of protistan communities. We conducted an intensive survey of a 10m2 grassland plot in Germany, focusing on a major group of protists, the Cercozoa. From 177 soil samples, collected from April to November, we obtained 694 Operational Taxonomy Units representing >6 million Illumina reads. All major cercozoan groups were present, dominated by the small flagellates of the Glissomonadida. We found evidence of environmental filtering structuring the cercozoan communities both spatially and seasonally. Spatial analyses indicated that communities were correlated within a range of four meters. Seasonal variations of bactevirores and bacteria, and that of omnivores after a time-lapse, suggested a dynamic prey-predator succession. The most influential edaphic properties were moisture and clay content, which differentially affected each functional group. Our study is based on an intense sampling of protists at a small scale, thus providing a detailed description of the niches occupied by different taxa/functional groups and the ecological processes involved.

ecology↗