Microbial interactions related to N2O emissions and temperature sensitivity from rice paddy fields

The soil microbiome is a driver of nitrous oxide (N2O) emissions in terrestrial ecosystems. Identifying the core microbiome of N2O emissions and its temperature sensitivity from trillions of soil microorganisms is a great challenge and is essential to improving the predictability of soil-climate feedback related to increasing temperature. Here, the integrated soil microbiome covering archaeal, bacterial, fungal, algal, and microfaunal communities was studied to disengage the potential linkage with its N2O emissions and its temperature sensitivity in paddy fields by hunting for core species pairs. The results showed that between-group interactions of core bacterial and archaeal members and the within-group interactions of core bacterial members jointly contributed to the N2O emissions and its temperature sensitivity. The contribution of between-group interactions (32 to 33%) was greater than that of within groups (10 to 18%). These results suggested that N2O emissions and their fluctuations related to climate warming are affected by the within- and between-group interactions of the soil microbiome. Our results help advance the knowledge on the importance of microbial keystone species and network associations in controlling N2O production and their responses to increasing temperature.