Activating microbial traits: Vitamin C byproduct alleviates carbon limitation and enhances plant-soil-microbe coupling in mine dumps.

Residue after evaporation (RAE) plus Bacillus inoculation in sterilized low-organic-matter mine soil with perennial ryegrass Lolium perenne synergistically boosts rhizosphere carbon acquisition, with MBC up to 166.52%.

• Why it matters: Carbon limitation and microbial functional degradation in mine dumps hinder nutrient cycling and vegetation establishment, and it is unclear whether vitamin C byproducts can restore microbial function in nutrient-poor substrates.
• What they did: In a pot experiment, sterilized mine soil was treated with RAE, Bacillus subtilis, Bacillus megaterium, or both, then microbial biomass, nutrient availability, enzyme activity, extracellular polymeric substances, and plant biomass were measured.
• The result: RAE alone raised dissolved organic carbon by 78.02% but weakly affected activity and growth, whereas combined RAE and Bacillus markedly increased rhizosphere carbon-acquiring enzymes and extracellular polymeric substances, raising MBC and MBN up to 166.52% and 139.72% and plant biomass by 45.00–50.73%.

AI summary of the abstract · may contain errors · not medical advice · read the paper.