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C:N:P stoichiometry in soil: is there a “Redfield ratio” for the microbial biomass?

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Abstract

Well-constrained carbon:nitrogen:phosphorus (C:N:P) ratios in planktonic biomass, and their importance in advancing our understanding of biological processes and nutrient cycling in marine ecosystems, has motivated ecologists to search for similar patterns in terrestrial ecosystems. Recent analyses indicate the existence of “Redfield-like” ratios in plants, and such data may provide insight into the nature of nutrient limitation in terrestrial ecosystems. We searched for analogous patterns in the soil and the soil microbial biomass by conducting a review of the literature. Although soil is characterized by high biological diversity, structural complexity and spatial heterogeneity, we found remarkably consistent C:N:P ratios in both total soil pools and the soil microbial biomass. Our analysis indicates that, similar to marine phytoplankton, element concentrations of individual phylogenetic groups within the soil microbial community may vary, but on average, atomic C:N:P ratios in both the soil (186:13:1) and the soil microbial biomass (60:7:1) are well-constrained at the global scale. We did see significant variation in soil and microbial element ratios between vegetation types (i.e., forest versus grassland), but in most cases, the similarities in soil and microbial element ratios among sites and across large scales were more apparent than the differences. Consistent microbial biomass element ratios, combined with data linking specific patterns of microbial element stoichiometry with direct evidence of microbial nutrient limitation, suggest that measuring the proportions of C, N and P in the microbial biomass may represent another useful tool for assessing nutrient limitation of ecosystem processes in terrestrial ecosystems.

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Acknowledgments

We thank Loren Sackett and Christine Fairbanks for assistance with the literature search, and Noah Fierer, Alan Townsend, Josh Schimel and two anonymous reviewers for valuable comments on the manuscript. C. C. was supported by a grant from the National Science Foundation (DEB-0515744). D.L. was supported by grants from the NSF Long-Term Ecological Research (LTER) program (DEB-9810128).

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  1. Department of Ecosystem and Conservation Sciences, University of Montana, Missoula, MT, USA

    Cory C. Cleveland

  2. INSTAAR: An Earth and Environmental Sciences Institute and Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, University of Colorado, 450 UCB/1560 30th Street, Boulder, CO, 80303, USA

    Cory C. Cleveland & Daniel Liptzin

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Correspondence to Cory C. Cleveland.

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Appendix A Studies used in analyses of soil and microbial biomass C, N and P
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Cleveland, C.C., Liptzin, D. C:N:P stoichiometry in soil: is there a “Redfield ratio” for the microbial biomass?. Biogeochemistry 85, 235–252 (2007). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10533-007-9132-0

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