Ecological memory of recurrent drought modifies soil processes via changes in soil microbial community

AbstractClimate change is altering the frequency and severity of drought events. Recent evidence indicates that drought may produce legacy effects on soil microbial communities. However, it is unclear whether precedent drought events lead to ecological memory formation, i.e., the capacity of past events to influence current ecosystem response trajectories. Here, we utilize a long-term field experiment in a mountain grassland in central Austria with an experimental layout comparing 10 years of recurrent drought events to a single drought event and ambient conditions. We show that recurrent droughts increase the dissimilarity of microbial communities compared to control and single drought events, and enhance soil multifunctionality during drought (calculated via measurements of potential enzymatic activities, soil nutrients, microbial biomass stoichiometry and belowground net primary productivity). Our results indicate that soil microbial community composition changes in concert with its functioning, with consequences for soil processes. The formation of ecological memory in soil under recurrent drought may enhance the resilience of ecosystem functioning against future drought events.

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Apple Root stocks and Pre-plant Soil Treatments Alter Soil Microbial Community Composition in a New York Orchard

HortScience ◽

10.21273/hortsci.40.4.1128c ◽

2005 ◽

Vol 40 (4) ◽

pp. 1128C-1128

Author(s):

Shengrui Yao ◽

Ian A. Merwin ◽

Janice E. Thies

Keyword(s):

Microbial Community ◽

Microbial Communities ◽

Community Composition ◽

Soil Microbial Community ◽

Microbial Community Composition ◽

Soil Microbial Communities ◽

Growth And Yield ◽

Soil Microbial ◽

Plant Soil ◽

Soil Microbial Community Composition

Apple (Malu ×domestica) replant disease (ARD) is a soil-borne disease syndrome of complex etiology that occurs worldwide when establishing new orchards in old fruit-growing sites. Methyl bromide (MB) has been an effective soil fumigant to control ARD, but safer alternatives to MB are needed. We evaluated soil microbial communities, tree growth, and fruit yield for three pre-plant soil treatments (compost amendment, soil treatment with a broad-spectrum fumigant, and untreated controls), and five clonal rootstocks (M7, M26, CG6210, CG30, and G16), in an apple replant site at Ithaca, N.Y. Molecular fingerprinting (PCR-DGGE) techniques were used to study soil microbial community composition of root-zone soil of the different soil treatments and rootstocks. Tree caliper, shoot growth, and yield were measured annually from 2002–04. Among the five rootstocks we compared, trees on CG6210 had the most growth and yield, while trees on M26 had the least growth and yield. Soil treatments altered soil microbial communities during the year after pre-plant treatments, and each treatment was associated with distinct microbial groups in hierarchical cluster analyses. However, those differences among fungal and bacterial communities diminished during the second year after planting, and soil fungal communities equilibrated faster than bacterial communities. Pre-plant soil treatments altered bulk-soil microbial community composition, but those shifts in soil microbial communities had no obvious correlation with tree performance. Rootstock genotypes were the dominant factor in tree performance after 3 years of observations, and different rootstocks were associated with characteristic bacterial, pseudomonad, fungal, and oomycetes communities in root-zone soil.

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Deintensification of land use leads to recovery of soil microbial community composition and function after land use change in Ethiopia

10.22541/au.161770662.29935833/v1 ◽

2021 ◽

Author(s):

Yoseph Delelegn ◽

Witoon Purahong ◽

Ali Nawaz ◽

Hans Sandén ◽

Douglas Godbold ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Land Use ◽

Microbial Community ◽

Land Use Change ◽

Microbial Communities ◽

Soil Microbial Community ◽

Microbial Community Composition ◽

Soil Microbial Communities ◽

Natural Forest ◽

Ecosystem Functions ◽

Soil Microbial

Ethiopia has undergone significant land use change during the past centuries, particularly deforestation. These changes have resulted in the loss of topsoil as well as the associated soil ecosystem functions. Grazing exclusion and planting of eucalyptus are measures used to recover degraded lands and reduce deforestation, respectively. Using a gradient of the intensity of land use from natural forest to croplands, we investigated whether these measures also result in restoration of the soil microbial community. We identified the soil bacterial and fungal communities using paired-end amplicon sequencing. A total of 12,765 fungal and 12,325 bacterial OTUs were detected in the five land use types, and only ca. 2% and 17% were shared among the land uses, respectively. Total fungal and bacterial OTU richness was not significantly affected by land use change, but the conversion of forest to cropland resulted in the loss of approximately 40% and 11% of the total native fungal and bacterial OTUs, respectively. Soil pH, C, N, and aggregate stability were key factors corresponding to the overall bacterial and fungal community compositions. We also showed relationships between the microbial functional group and enzyme activities. The exclusion of grazing led to an enrichment of soil microbial communities that overlapped with the communities of the natural forest. Our results suggest that remnant native forests act as refugia for microbial communities and that restoration of microbial communities and concomitant recovery of ecosystem function via deintensification of land use is possible. Keywords: ectomycorrhiza, ericoid mycorrhiza, exclosure, microbial diversity, soil enzymes

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Responses of soil microbial communities and enzyme activities to nitrogen and phosphorus additions in Chinese fir plantations of subtropical China

Biogeosciences Discussions ◽

10.5194/bgd-12-10359-2015 ◽

2015 ◽

Vol 12 (13) ◽

pp. 10359-10387 ◽

Cited By ~ 4

Author(s):

W. Y. Dong ◽

X. Y. Zhang ◽

X. Y. Liu ◽

X. L. Fu ◽

F. S. Chen ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Microbial Community ◽

Microbial Communities ◽

Enzyme Activities ◽

Microbial Community Composition ◽

Soil Microbial Communities ◽

Chinese Fir ◽

Subtropical China ◽

Nitrogen And Phosphorus ◽

Soil Microbial ◽

Nutrient Additions

Abstract. Nitrogen (N) and phosphorus (P) additions to forest ecosystems are known to influence various above-ground properties, such as plant productivity and composition, and below-ground properties, such as soil nutrient cycling. However, our understanding of how soil microbial communities and their functions respond to nutrient additions in subtropical plantations is still not complete. In this study, we added N and P to Chinese fir plantations in subtropical China to examine how nutrient additions influenced soil microbial community composition and enzyme activities. The results showed that most soil microbial properties were responsive to N and/or P additions, but responses often varied depending on the nutrient added and the quantity added. For instance, there were more than 30 % greater increases in the activities of β-Glucosidase (βG) and N-acetyl-β-D-glucosaminidase (NAG) in the treatments that received nutrient additions compared to the control plot, whereas acid phosphatase (aP) activity was always higher (57 and 71 %, respectively) in the P treatment. N and P additions greatly enhanced the PLFA abundanceespecially in the N2P treatment, the bacterial PLFAs (bacPLFAs), fungal PLFAs (funPLFAs) and actinomycic PLFAs (actPLFAs) were about 2.5, 3 and 4 times higher, respectively, than in the CK. Soil enzyme activities were noticeably higher in November than in July, mainly due to seasonal differences in soil moisture content (SMC). βG or NAG activities were significantly and positively correlated with microbial PLFAs. There were also significant relationships between gram-positive (G+) bacteria and all three soil enzymes. These findings indicate that G+ bacteria is the most important microbial community in C, N, and P transformations in Chinese fir plantations, and that βG and NAG would be useful tools for assessing the biogeochemical transformation and metabolic activity of soil microbes. We recommend combined additions of N and P fertilizer to promote soil fertility and microbial activity in this kind of plantation.

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STRUKTUR KOMUNITAS MIKROBA TANAH DAN IMPLIKASINYA DALAM MEWUJUDKAN SISTEM PERTANIAN BERKELANJUTAN

el–Hayah ◽

10.18860/elha.v1i4.1785 ◽

2012 ◽

Vol 1 (4) ◽

Author(s):

Prihastuti Prihastuti

Keyword(s):

Microbial Community ◽

Microbial Diversity ◽

Microbial Communities ◽

Soil Microbial Community ◽

Soil Microbial Communities ◽

Organic Soil ◽

Plant Type ◽

Soil Microbial Community Structure ◽

Soil Microbial ◽

Wide Range

Soils are made up of organic and an organic material. The organic soil component contains all the living creatures in the soil and the dead ones in various stages of decomposition. Biological activity in soil helps to recycle nutrients, decompose organic matter making nutrient available for plant uptake, stabilize humus, and form soil particles. The extent of the diversity of microbial in soil is seen to be critical to the maintenance of soil health and quality, as a wide range of microbial is involved in important soil functions. That ecologically managed soils have a greater quantity and diversity of soil microbial. The two main drivers of soil microbial community structure, i.e., plant type and soil type, are thought to exert their function in a complex manner. The fact that in some situations the soil and in others the plant type is the key factor determining soil microbial diversity is related to their complexity of the microbial interactions in soil, including interactions between microbial and soil and microbial and plants. The basic premise of organic soil stewardship is that all plant nutrients are present in the soil by maintaining a biologically active soil environment. The diversity of microbial communities has on ecological function and resilience to disturbances in soil ecosystems. Relationships are often observed between the extent of microbial diversity in soil, soil and plant quality and ecosystem sustainability. Agricultural management can be directed toward maximizing the quality of the soil microbial community in terms of disease suppression, if it is possible to shift soil microbial communities.Keywords: structure, microbial, implication, sustainable agriculture

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Distinct assembly processes and determinants of soil microbial communities between farmland and grassland in arid and semiarid areas

Applied and Environmental Microbiology ◽

10.1128/aem.01010-21 ◽

2021 ◽

Author(s):

Aiai Xu ◽

Jie Liu ◽

Zhiying Guo ◽

Changkun Wang ◽

Kai Pan ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Microbial Community ◽

Variable Selection ◽

Microbial Communities ◽

Soil Microbial Community ◽

Environmental Gradient ◽

Soil Microbial Communities ◽

Soil Microbial ◽

Semiarid Areas ◽

Arid And Semiarid Areas ◽

Arid And Semiarid

It is critical to identify the assembly processes and determinants of soil microbial communities to better predict soil microbial responses to environmental change in arid and semiarid areas. Here, soils from 16 grassland-only, 9 paired grassland and farmland, and 16 farmland-only sites were collected across the central Inner Mongolia Plateau covering a steep environmental gradient. Through analyzing the paired samples, we discovered that land uses had strong effects on soil microbial communities, but weak effects on their assembly processes. For all samples, although no environmental variables were significantly correlated with the net relatedness index (NRI), both the nearest taxon index (NTI) and the β-nearest taxon index (βNTI) were most related to mean annual precipitation (MAP). With the increase of MAP, soil microbial taxa at the tips of the phylogenetic tree were more clustered, and the contribution of determinism increased. Determinism (48.6%), especially variable selection (46.3%), and stochasticity (51.4%) were almost equal in farmland, while stochasticity (75.0%) was dominant in grassland. Additionally, Mantel tests and redundancy analyses (RDA) revealed that the main determinants of soil microbial community structure were MAP in grassland, but mean annual temperature (MAT) in farmland. MAP and MAT were also good predictors of the community composition (the top 200 dominant OTUs) in grassland and farmland, respectively. Collectively, in arid and semiarid areas, soil microbial communities were more sensitive to environmental change in farmland than in grassland, and unlike the major impact of MAP on grassland microbial communities, MAT was the primary driver of farmland microbial communities. Importance As one of the most diverse organisms, soil microbes play indispensable roles in many ecological processes in arid and semiarid areas with limited macrofaunal and plant diversity, yet the mechanisms underpinning soil microbial community are not fully understood. In this study, soil microbial communities were investigated along a 500 km transect covering a steep environmental gradient across farmland and grassland in the areas. The results showed that precipitation was the main factor mediating the assembly processes. Determinism was more influential in farmland, and variable selection of farmland was twice that of grassland. Temperature mainly drove farmland microbial communities, while precipitation mainly affected grassland microbial communities. These findings provide new information about the assembly processes and determinants of soil microbial communities in arid and semiarid areas, consequently improving the predictability of the community dynamics, which have implications for sustaining soil microbial diversity and ecosystem functioning, particularly under global climate change conditions.

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Effects of Spatial Variability and Relic DNA Removal on the Detection of Temporal Dynamics in Soil Microbial Communities

mBio ◽

10.1128/mbio.02776-19 ◽

2020 ◽

Vol 11 (1) ◽

Cited By ~ 4

Author(s):

Paul Carini ◽

Manuel Delgado-Baquerizo ◽

Eve-Lyn S. Hinckley ◽

Hannah Holland‐Moritz ◽

Tess E. Brewer ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Microbial Community ◽

Spatial Variability ◽

Spatial Heterogeneity ◽

Microbial Communities ◽

Temporal Variability ◽

Temporal Dynamics ◽

Microbial Community Composition ◽

Soil Microbial Communities ◽

Environmental Preferences ◽

Soil Microbial

ABSTRACT Few studies have comprehensively investigated the temporal variability in soil microbial communities despite widespread recognition that the belowground environment is dynamic. In part, this stems from the challenges associated with the high degree of spatial heterogeneity in soil microbial communities and because the presence of relic DNA (DNA from dead cells or secreted extracellular DNA) may dampen temporal signals. Here, we disentangle the relationships among spatial, temporal, and relic DNA effects on prokaryotic and fungal communities in soils collected from contrasting hillslopes in Colorado, USA. We intensively sampled plots on each hillslope over 6 months to discriminate between temporal variability, intraplot spatial heterogeneity, and relic DNA effects on the soil prokaryotic and fungal communities. We show that the intraplot spatial variability in microbial community composition was strong and independent of relic DNA effects and that these spatial patterns persisted throughout the study. When controlling for intraplot spatial variability, we identified significant temporal variability in both plots over the 6-month study. These microbial communities were more dissimilar over time after relic DNA was removed, suggesting that relic DNA hinders the detection of important temporal dynamics in belowground microbial communities. We identified microbial taxa that exhibited shared temporal responses and show that these responses were often predictable from temporal changes in soil conditions. Our findings highlight approaches that can be used to better characterize temporal shifts in soil microbial communities, information that is critical for predicting the environmental preferences of individual soil microbial taxa and identifying linkages between soil microbial community composition and belowground processes. IMPORTANCE Nearly all microbial communities are dynamic in time. Understanding how temporal dynamics in microbial community structure affect soil biogeochemistry and fertility are key to being able to predict the responses of the soil microbiome to environmental perturbations. Here, we explain the effects of soil spatial structure and relic DNA on the determination of microbial community fluctuations over time. We found that intensive spatial sampling was required to identify temporal effects in microbial communities because of the high degree of spatial heterogeneity in soil and that DNA from nonliving sources masks important temporal patterns. We identified groups of microbes with shared temporal responses and show that these patterns were predictable from changes in soil characteristics. These results provide insight into the environmental preferences and temporal relationships between individual microbial taxa and highlight the importance of considering relic DNA when trying to detect temporal dynamics in belowground communities.

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Transformation of Soil Microbial Community Structure and Rhizoctonia-Suppressive Potential in Response to Apple Roots

Phytopathology ◽

10.1094/phyto.1999.89.10.920 ◽

1999 ◽

Vol 89 (10) ◽

pp. 920-927 ◽

Cited By ~ 84

Author(s):

Mark Mazzola

Keyword(s):

Microbial Community ◽

Microbial Communities ◽

Fungal Community ◽

Soil Microbial Community ◽

Burkholderia Cepacia ◽

Soil Microbial Communities ◽

Apple Trees ◽

Soil Microbial Community Structure ◽

Soil Microbial ◽

Orchard Soil

Changes in the composition of soil microbial communities and relative disease-suppressive ability of resident microflora in response to apple cultivation were assessed in orchard soils from a site possessing trees established for 1 to 5 years. The fungal community from roots of apple seedlings grown in noncultivated orchard soil was dominated by isolates from genera commonly considered saprophytic. Plant-pathogenic fungi in the genera Phytophthora, Pythium, and Rhizoctonia constituted an increasing proportion of the fungal community isolated from seedling roots with increasing orchard block age. Bacillus megaterium and Burkholderia cepacia dominated the bacterial communities recovered from noncultivated soil and the rhizosphere of apple seedlings grown in orchard soil, respectively. Populations of the two bacteria in their respective habitats declined dramatically with increasing orchard block age. Lesion nematode populations did not differ among soil and root samples from orchard blocks of different ages. Similar changes in microbial communities were observed in response to planting noncultivated orchard soil to five successive cycles of ‘Gala’ apple seedlings. Pasteurization of soil had no effect on apple growth in noncultivated soil but significantly enhanced apple growth in third-year orchard block soil. Seedlings grown in pasteurized soil from the third-year orchard block were equal in size to those grown in noncultivated soil, demonstrating that suppression of plant growth resulted from changes in the composition of the soil microbial community. Rhizoctonia solani anastomosis group 5 (AG 5) had no effect on growth of apple trees in noncultivated soil but significantly reduced the growth of apple trees in soil from third-year orchard soil. Changes in the ability of the resident soil microflora to suppress R. solani AG 5 were associated with reductions in the relative populations of Burkholderia cepacia and Pseudomonas putida in the rhizosphere of apple.

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Heavy and wet: The consequences of violating assumptions of measuring soil microbial growth efficiency using the 18O water method

Elem Sci Anth ◽

10.1525/elementa.069 ◽

2020 ◽

Vol 8 (1) ◽

Author(s):

Grace Pold ◽

Luiz A. Domeignoz-Horta ◽

Kristen M. DeAngelis

Keyword(s):

Microbial Community ◽

Microbial Communities ◽

Microbial Growth ◽

Microbial Community Composition ◽

Soil Microbial Communities ◽

Growth Efficiency ◽

Experimental Conditions ◽

Soil Microbial ◽

Use Efficiency ◽

Microbial Growth Efficiency

Soils store more carbon than the biosphere and atmosphere combined, and the efficiency to which soil microorganisms allocate carbon to growth rather than respiration is increasingly considered a proxy for the soil capacity to store carbon. This carbon use efficiency (CUE) is measured via different methods, and more recently, the 18O-H2O method has been embraced as a significant improvement for measuring CUE of soil microbial communities. Based on extrapolating 18O incorporation into DNA to new biomass, this measurement makes various implicit assumptions about the microbial community at hand. Here we conducted a literature review to evaluate how viable these assumptions are and then developed a mathematical model to test how violating them affects estimates of the growth component of CUE in soil. We applied this model to previously collected data from two kinds of soil microbial communities. By changing one parameter at a time, we confirmed our previous observation that CUE was reduced by fungal removal. Our results also show that depending on the microbial community composition, there can be substantial discrepancies between estimated and true microbial growth. Of the numerous implicit assumptions that might be violated, not accounting for the contribution of sources of oxygen other than extracellular water to DNA leads to a consistent underestimation of CUE. We present a framework that allows researchers to evaluate how their experimental conditions may influence their 18O-H2O-based CUE measurements and suggest the parameters that need further constraining to more accurately quantify growth and CUE.

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Effects of Microbial Consortia, Applied as Fertilizer Coating, on Soil and Rhizosphere Microbial Communities and Potato Yield

Frontiers in Agronomy ◽

10.3389/fagro.2021.714700 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 3 ◽

Author(s):

William Overbeek ◽

Thomas Jeanne ◽

Richard Hogue ◽

Donald L. Smith

Keyword(s):

Microbial Community ◽

Microbial Communities ◽

Community Composition ◽

Soil Microbial Community ◽

Microbial Community Composition ◽

Bulk Soil ◽

Microbial Inoculants ◽

Flowering Stage ◽

Soil Microbial ◽

Soil Microbial Community Composition

The use of biological inputs in crop production systems, as complements to synthetic inputs, is gaining popularity in the agricultural industry due to increasing consumer demand for more environmentally friendly agriculture. An approach to meeting this demand is the inoculation of field crops with beneficial microbes to promote plant growth and resistance to biotic and abiotic stresses. However, the scientific literature reports inconsistent results following applications of bio-inoculant to fields. The effects of inoculation with beneficial microbes on bulk soil and rhizospheric microbial communities is often overlooked as precise monitoring of soil microbial communities is difficult. The aim of this research was to use Illumina high throughput sequencing (HTS) to shed light on bulk soil and rhizospheric microbial community responses to two commercial microbial inoculants coated onto fertilizer granules, applied to potato fields. Bulk soil samples were collected 4 days before seeding (May 27th), 7 days after seeding (June 7th), at potato shoot emergence (June 21st) and at mid-flowering (July 26th). Rhizospheric soil was collected at the mid-flowering stage. The Illumina MiSeq HTS results indicated that the bulk soil microbial community composition, especially prokaryotes, changed significantly across potato growth stages. Microbial inoculation did not affect bulk soil or rhizospheric microbial communities sampled at the mid-flowering stage. However, a detailed analysis of the HTS results showed that bulk soil and rhizospheric microbial community richness and composition were different for the first treatment block compared to the other three blocks. The spatial heterogeneity of the soil microbial community between blocks of plots was associated with potato tuber yield changes, indicating links between crop productivity and soil microbial community composition. Understanding these links could help in production of high-quality microbial inoculants to promote potato productivity.

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Short-Term Effects of Different Forest Management Methods on Soil Microbial Communities of a Natural Quercus aliena var. acuteserrata Forest in Xiaolongshan, China

Forests ◽

10.3390/f10020161 ◽

2019 ◽

Vol 10 (2) ◽

pp. 161 ◽

Cited By ~ 4

Author(s):

Pan Wan ◽

Gongqiao Zhang ◽

Zhonghua Zhao ◽

Yanbo Hu ◽

Wenzhen Liu ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Microbial Community ◽

Forest Management ◽

Bacterial Community ◽

Microbial Communities ◽

Relative Abundance ◽

Fungal Community ◽

Soil Microbial Community ◽

Soil Microbial Communities ◽

Short Term ◽

Soil Microbial

One of the aims of sustainable forest management is to preserve the diversity and resilience of ecosystems. Unfortunately, changes in the soil microbial communities after forest management remain unclear. We analyzed and compared the soil microbial community of a natural Quercus aliena var. acuteserrata forest after four years of four different management methods using high-throughput sequencing technology. The forest management methods were close-to-nature management (CNFM), structure-based forest management (SBFM), secondary forest comprehensive silviculture (SFCS) and unmanaged control (CK). The results showed that: (1) the soil microbial community diversity indices were not significantly different among the different management methods. (2) The relative abundance of Proteobacteria in the SBFM treatment was lower than in the CK treatment, while the relative abundance of Acidobacteria in the SBFM was significantly higher than that in the CK treatment. The relative abundance of Ascomycota was highest in the CNFM treatment, and that of Basidiomycota was lowest in the CNFM treatment. However, the relative abundance of dominant bacterial and fungal phyla was not significantly different in CK and SFCS. (3) Redundancy analysis (RDA) showed that the soil organic matter (SOM), total nitrogen (TN), and available nitrogen (AN) significantly correlated with the bacterial communities, and the available potassium (AK) was the only soil nutrient, which significantly correlated with the composition of the fungal communities. The short-term SBFM treatment altered microbial bacterial community compositions, which may be attributed to the phyla present (e.g., Proteobacteria and Acidobacteria), and the short-term CNFM treatment altered microbial fungal community compositions, which may be attributed to the phyla present (e.g., Ascomycota and Basidiomycota). Furthermore, soil nutrients could affect the dominant soil microbial communities, and its influence was greater on the bacterial community than on the fungal community.

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