Figure 1: Social dynamics among microbial decomposers affect C and N turnover rates. | Nature Communications

Figure 1: Social dynamics among microbial decomposers affect C and N turnover rates.

From: Social dynamics within decomposer communities lead to nitrogen retention and organic matter build-up in soils

Figure 1

Effect of microbial cheaters on (a) decay rates, (b) community carbon use efficiency (both time-averaged over model runs until 60% C loss), (c) C in microbial products and (d) N in microbial products (both aggregated over the grid at the point of 60% total C loss). Open circles: no cheaters, that is, all microbes have equal extracellular enzyme production rates of 0.12 (given as fraction of C uptake after deduction of maintenance respiration invested into extracellular enzyme production). Light-red symbols: mixed communities of enzyme producers with production rates of 0.12 and cheaters with enzyme production rates of 0.04 (‘mild’, circles), 0.02 (‘strong’, squares) or 0 (‘full’, triangles), which otherwise have the same traits as enzyme producers. Dark-red triangles: mixed communities of enzyme producers and cheaters with enzyme production rates of 0 with a higher maximum growth rate compared with enzyme producers (Table 1). Error bars indicate model stochasticity by displaying s.d.’s among five independent model runs (error bars smaller than symbol size are not displayed).

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