Changes in composition and abundance of functional groups of arctic fungi in response to long-term summer warming

We characterized fungal communities in dry and moist tundra and investigated the effect of long-term experimental summer warming on three aspects of functional groups of arctic fungi: richness, community composition and species abundance. Warming had profound effects on community composition, abundance, and, to a lesser extent, on richness of fungal functional groups. In addition, our data show that even within functional groups, the direction and extent of response to warming tend to be species-specific and we recommend that studies on fungal communities and their roles in nutrient cycling take into account species-level responses.

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Tundra Type Drives Distinct Trajectories of Functional and Taxonomic Composition of Arctic Fungal Communities in Response to Climate Change – Results From Long-Term Experimental Summer Warming and Increased Snow Depth

Frontiers in Microbiology ◽

10.3389/fmicb.2021.628746 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 12 ◽

Author(s):

József Geml ◽

Luis N. Morgado ◽

Tatiana A. Semenova-Nelsen

Keyword(s):

Climate Change ◽

Community Composition ◽

Fungal Community ◽

Snow Depth ◽

Fungal Communities ◽

The Arctic ◽

Fungal Community Composition ◽

Summer Warming ◽

Edaphic Variables

The arctic tundra is undergoing climate-driven changes and there are serious concerns related to the future of arctic biodiversity and altered ecological processes under possible climate change scenarios. Arctic land surface temperatures and precipitation are predicted to increase further, likely causing major transformation in terrestrial ecosystems. As a response to increasing temperatures, shifts in vegetation and soil fungal communities have already been observed. Little is known, however, how long-term experimental warming coupled with increased snow depth influence the trajectories of soil fungal communities in different tundra types. We compared edaphic variables and fungal community composition in experimental plots simulating the expected increase in summer warming and winter snow depth, based on DNA metabarcoding data. Fungal communities in the sampled dry and moist acidic tundra communities differed greatly, with tundra type explaining ca. one-third of compositional variation. Furthermore, dry and moist tundra appear to have different trajectories in response to climate change. Specifically, while both warming and increased snow depth had significant effects on fungal community composition and edaphic variables in dry tundra, the effect of increased snow was greater. However, in moist tundra, fungal communities mainly were affected by summer warming, while increased snow depth had a smaller effect and only on some functional groups. In dry tundra, microorganisms generally are limited by moisture in the summer and extremely low temperatures in winter, which is in agreement with the stronger effect of increased snow depth relative to warming. On the contrary, moist tundra soils generally are saturated with water, remain cold year-round and show relatively small seasonal fluctuations in temperature. The greater observed effect of warming on fungi in moist tundra may be explained by the narrower temperature optimum compared to those in dry tundra.

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Landscape-level DNA metabarcoding study in the Pannonian forests reveals differential effects of slope aspect on taxonomic and functional groups of fungi

10.1101/281337 ◽

2018 ◽

Cited By ~ 1

Author(s):

József Geml

Keyword(s):

Functional Groups ◽

Community Composition ◽

Fungal Community ◽

Environmental Conditions ◽

Community Dynamics ◽

Fungal Communities ◽

Slope Aspect ◽

Fungal Community Composition ◽

Dna Metabarcoding ◽

Landscape Level

AbstractIn temperate regions, slope aspect is one of the most influential drivers of environmental conditions at landscape level. The effect of aspect on vegetation has been well studied, but virtually nothing is known about how fungal communities are shaped by aspect-driven environmental conditions. I carried out DNA metabarcoding of fungi from soil samples taken in a selected study area of Pannonian forests to compare richness and community composition of taxonomic and functional groups of fungi between slopes of predominantly southerly vs. northerly aspect and to assess the influence of selected environmental variables on fungal community composition. The deep sequence data presented here (i.e. 980 766 quality-filtered sequences) indicate that both niche (environmental filtering) and neutral (stochastic) processes shape fungal community composition at landscape level. Fungal community composition correlated strongly with aspect, with many fungi showing preference for either south-facing or north-facing slopes. Several taxonomic and functional groups showed significant differences in richness between north-and south-facing slopes and strong compositional differences were observed in all functional groups. The effect of aspect on fungal communities likely is mediated through contrasting mesoclimatic conditions, that in turn influence edaphic processes as well as vegetation. Finally, the data presented here provide an unprecedented insight into the diversity and landscape-level community dynamics of fungi in the Pannonian forests.

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Prognosis of recurrent bacterial vaginosis based on longitudinal changes in abundance of Lactobacillus and specific species of Gardnerella

PLoS ONE ◽

10.1371/journal.pone.0256445 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 16 (8) ◽

pp. e0256445

Author(s):

Essence Turner ◽

Jack D. Sobel ◽

Robert A. Akins

Keyword(s):

Bacterial Vaginosis ◽

Clinical Outcomes ◽

Species Abundance ◽

Standard Of Care ◽

Species Specific ◽

Specific Species ◽

Prevalent Species ◽

Improve Patient ◽

Oral Metronidazole

Refractory responses to standard-of-care oral metronidazole among recurrent bacterial vaginosis (BV) patients is not rare, and recurrence within a year is common. A better understanding of the bacterial determinants of these outcomes is essential. In this study we ask whether changes in specific species of Gardnerella are associated with poor short or long term clinical outcomes, and if and how resurgence of Lactobacillus species affects these outcomes. We quantify Lactobacillus isolates as a proportion of total vaginal bacteria using the LbRC5 qPCR assay, and 5 prevalent species of Gardnerella using primers that target species-specific polymorphisms within the cpn60 gene. The study includes 43 BV patients: 18 refractory, 16 recurrent, and 11 remission patients, sampled daily for up to two weeks post-treatment; clinical outcomes were tracked for up to 9 months. Persistently high titers of Gardnerella Gsp07 were associated with refractory responses, and persistently low abundance of Gardnerella Gsp07 and G. swidsinskii / G. leopoldii were associated with remission. Lactobacillus species abundance rose in 4–14 days after initiation of treatment in most but not all recurrent and remission patients, although increases were more sustained among remission patients. The findings suggest that Gardnerella Gsp07 and G. swidsinskii / G. leopoldii are markers of poor clinical outcome or may directly or indirectly suppress recovery of Lactobacillus species, thereby interfering with clinical recovery. Therapies that target these strains may improve patient outcome.

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Four Years Continuous Monitoring Reveals Different Effects of Urban Constructed Wetlands on Bats

Land ◽

10.3390/land10101087 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 10 (10) ◽

pp. 1087

Author(s):

Han Li ◽

Radmila Petric ◽

Zinah Alazzawi ◽

Jake Kauzlarich ◽

Rania H. Mahmoud ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Community Composition ◽

Constructed Wetlands ◽

Wildlife Conservation ◽

Artificial Wetlands ◽

Bat Activity ◽

Conservation Actions ◽

Species Specific ◽

The City ◽

Term Monitoring

Proactive artificial wetland constructions have been implemented to mitigate the loss of wetlands and their ecosystem services. As wetlands are habitats for bats, short-term (one or two years) studies find that constructed wetlands can immediately increase local bat activity and diversity. However, it is not clear how constructed wetlands affect bats through time while the wetlands are aging. We collected four years of continuous bat acoustic monitoring data at two constructed wetlands in an urban park in Greensboro, NC, USA. We examined bat activity and community composition patterns at these wetlands and compared them with reference sites in the city. With four years of data, we found that the effects of constructed wetlands were both habitat- and species-specific. The wetland in forests significantly increased bat activity, while the wetland in the open grass altered bat community composition. Specifically, in terms of species, we found that over time, constructed wetlands no longer attracted more big brown, silver-haired, or evening bats than control sites while the wetlands aged, highlighting the need to study broadly how each bat species uses natural and artificial wetlands. We emphasize the importance of long-term monitoring and the periodical evaluation of wildlife conservation actions.

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The effect of long-term nutrient deficiency on the abundance and community composition of arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi in a mountainous grassland

10.5194/egusphere-egu21-12688 ◽

2021 ◽

Author(s):

Kian Jenab ◽

Stefan Gorka ◽

Sean Darcy ◽

Lucia Fuchslueger ◽

Alberto Canarini ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Fatty Acid ◽

Community Composition ◽

Plant Community ◽

Fungal Biomass ◽

Nutrient Deficiency ◽

Soil Nutrient ◽

Am Fungi ◽

Fungal Communities ◽

Plant Community Composition

Arbuscular mycorrhiza (AM) fungi are associated with almost all land plants and provide soil nutrients and other benefits to their plant hosts in exchange for photosynthetic products. While fertilization regimes in managed grasslands or agricultural systems are tailored for increasing plant biomass, their potential effects on AM fungi are rarely taken into account. Nutrient-driven changes in abundance and community composition of AM fungi, however, may feedback on ecosystem performance in the long term. Therefore, it is necessary to get a better understanding on how AM fungal communities respond to changes and imbalances in soil nutrient availabilities.Here, we evaluated how long-term nutrient deficiency of phosphorus (P), nitrogen (N) and potassium (K) affects the abundance and community composition of AM fungi in a mountainous grassland. In addition, we investigated how the responses of AM fungi to those deficiencies were modulated by liming and the type of fertilizer addition (inorganic versus organic).Our study was carried out on a long-term nutrient deficiency experimental grassland site in Admont (Styria, Austria), established in 1946. Different fertilization treatments were applied for more than 70 years in a randomized block design, including numerous combinations of inorganic (P, N, K with/without lime) and organic (solid manure and liquid slurry) fertilizers. The hay meadow at the site is cut three times per year and biomass is not returned to the system. Therefore, biomass and nutrients have been continuously removed for decades, leading to different types of soil nutrient deficiency. In this study, we collected both root and soil samples in July 2019 and quantified AM fungi and other microbial groups by measuring neutral fatty acid (NLFA) and phospholipid fatty acid (PLFA) biomarkers, respectively. Additionally, we applied DNA and RNA-based amplicon sequencing of the 18S rRNA gene to identify AM fungal community composition.Our data shows that deficiencies of one or more elements had a major impact on both AM fungal biomass and community composition. AM fungal biomass was higher in plots that received no fertilizers compared to inorganically fertilized plots, but lower in plots which were deficient only in certain single or multiple elements, specifically in plots fertilized with inorganic N only (i.e., deficient in P and K). Conversely, liming and organic fertilizer amendments increased AM fungal biomass compared to plots containing inorganic fertilizers without lime. Across all treatments, AM fungal biomass was positively correlated with pH and soil water content, and negatively with dissolved N compounds, indicating indirect effects via responses of other soil parameters to nutrient deficiency. Long-term nutrient deficiency also altered plant community composition, which may also have indirectly affected AM fungal communities.We conclude that long-term nutrient deficiency, and in particular the stoichiometry of available nutrients, strongly affects the abundance and community composition of AM fungi in grassland soil. This response may be linked to changes in plant community composition or soil chemistry both as a result and as a cause, emphasizing the complexity of feedbacks determining the response of grassland ecosystems to changing nutrient conditions.

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Long-Term Phytoremediation of Coastal Saline Soil Reveals Plant Species-Specific Patterns of Microbial Community Recruitment

mSystems ◽

10.1128/msystems.00741-19 ◽

2020 ◽

Vol 5 (2) ◽

Cited By ~ 2

Author(s):

Xiaogai Wang ◽

Ruibo Sun ◽

Yinping Tian ◽

Kai Guo ◽

Hongyong Sun ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Plant Species ◽

Rhizosphere Soil ◽

Saline Soil ◽

Fungal Communities ◽

Salt Tolerant ◽

Content Type ◽

Tolerant Plants ◽

Barren Soil ◽

Species Specific

ABSTRACT Soil salinization is one of the major land degradation processes that decreases soil fertility and crop production worldwide. In this study, a long-term coastal saline soil remediation experiment was conducted with three salt-tolerant plant species: Lycium chinense Mill. (LCM), Tamarix chinensis Lour. (TCL), and Gossypium hirsutum Linn. (GHL). The three plant species successfully remediated the saline soil but showed different efficacies. The archaeal, bacterial, and fungal communities in barren soil and in four rhizocompartments (distal-rhizosphere soil, proximal-rhizosphere soil, rhizoplane, and endosphere) of the three plant species were assessed. All three plant species significantly decreased the richness of the archaeal communities but increased that of the bacterial and fungal communities in both the rhizosphere and rhizoplane compared with those in the barren soil. The archaeal and bacterial community structures were strongly influenced by the rhizocompartment, while specific fungal communities were recruited by different plant species. The microbial taxa whose abundance either increased or decreased significantly during remediation were identified. Soil electrical conductivity (EC) was identified as the main factor driving the variation in microbial community composition between the remediated and barren soil, and total nitrogen (TN), total carbon (TC), and available potassium (AK) were the main factors driving the differences among plant species. This report provides new insights into the responses of the root zone microbial communities of different salt-tolerant plant species during phytoremediation. IMPORTANCE Despite knowing that phytoremediation by salt-tolerant plants is an effective technology for ameliorating saline soils and that microorganisms contribute significantly to plant stress tolerance and soil fertility, we still lack a comprehensive understanding of how microbes respond to the growth of salt-tolerant plants and the subsequent decline in soil salinity. The results of this study revealed different response patterns among bacterial, archaeal, and fungal communities and indicated that the decline in archaeal abundance might be a sign of successful remediation of coastal saline soils. The recruitment of specific fungal communities by different plant species indicated the importance of fungi in plant species-specific remediation functions. We also identified the taxa that may play key roles during remediation, and these taxa could potentially be used as indicators of phytoremediation. Overall, these findings highlight the importance of microbes in the phytoremediation of saline soil and suggest that the mechanisms involved are plant species specific.

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Spatiotemporal Dynamics of Mediterranean Shallow Coastal Fish Communities along a Gradient of Marine Protection

Water ◽

10.3390/w12061537 ◽

2020 ◽

Vol 12 (6) ◽

pp. 1537

Author(s):

Anthony R. Marshak ◽

Just Cebrian ◽

Kenneth L. Heck ◽

Crystal L. Hightower ◽

Andrea M. Kroetz ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Community Composition ◽

Marine Reserves ◽

Marine Reserve ◽

Species Abundance ◽

Habitat Diversity ◽

Influential Factor ◽

Fish Density ◽

Southern Mediterranean ◽

Surrounding Areas ◽

Species Specific

The importance of habitat factors in designing marine reserves and evaluating their performance over time has been regularly documented. Over three biennial sampling periods, we examined the effects of vegetated coverage and habitat diversity (i.e., patchiness) on fish density, community composition, and species-specific patterns along a gradient of protection from harvest in the shallow Spanish southern Mediterranean, including portions of the Tabarca marine reserve. With the exception of two herbivores (Sarpa salpa and Symphodus tinca), vegetated cover did not significantly affect fish densities, while habitat diversity was an influential factor across all three sampling periods. Overall, fish density was more positively associated with more continuous vegetated or unvegetated habitats, and was greatest in areas of highest protection (Tabarca II – Isla Nao site). These patterns were usually observed for four abundant fish species (Boops boops, Chromis chromis, Oblada melanura, and S. salpa). Fish community composition was distinct in the most protected portion of the Tabarca reserve, where it was also most stable. Our findings align with previous investigations of the Tabarca reserve and its surrounding areas, and demonstrate its continued effectiveness in conserving fish biomass and habitat. Together with effective management, marine reserves can facilitate greater species abundance, more stable biological communities, and resilient ecosystems.

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The Responses to Long-Term Water Addition of Soil Bacterial, Archaeal, and Fungal Communities in A Desert Ecosystem

Microorganisms ◽

10.3390/microorganisms9050981 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 9 (5) ◽

pp. 981

Author(s):

Ying Gao ◽

Xiaotian Xu ◽

Junjun Ding ◽

Fang Bao ◽

Yashika G. De De Costa ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Soil Moisture ◽

Community Composition ◽

Relative Abundance ◽

Archaeal Community ◽

Fungal Communities ◽

Desert Ecosystem ◽

Water Addition ◽

Water Exposure ◽

Soil Bacterial

The response of microbial communities to continual and prolonged water exposure provides useful insight when facing global climate changes that cause increased and uneven precipitation and extreme rainfall events. In this study, we investigated an in situ manipulative experiment with four levels of water exposure (ambient precipitation +0%, +25%, +50%, and +100% of local annual mean precipitation) in a desert ecosystem of China. After 9 years of water addition, Illumina sequencing was used to analyze taxonomic compositions of the soil bacterial, archaeal, and fungal communities. The results showed significant increases in microbial biomass carbon (MBC) at higher amended precipitation levels, with the highest values reported at 100% precipitation. Furthermore, an increase in the bacterial species richness was observed along the water addition gradient. In addition, the relative abundance of several bacterial phyla, such as Proteobacteria, significantly increased, whereas that of some drought-tolerant taxa, including Actinobacteria, Firmicutes, and Bacteroidetes, decreased. In addition, the phyla Planctomycetes and Nitrospirae, associated with nitrification, positively responded to increased precipitation. Archaeal diversity significantly reduced under 100% treatment, with changes in the relative abundance of Thaumarchaeota and Euryarchaeota being the main contributors to shifts in the archaeal community. The fungal community composition was stable in response to water addition. Results from the Mantel test and structural equation models suggested that bacterial and archaeal communities reacted contrastingly to water addition. Bacterial community composition was directly affected by changing soil moisture and temperature, while archaeal community composition was indirectly affected by changing nitrogen availability. These findings highlight the importance of soil moisture and nitrogen in driving microbial responses to long-term precipitation changes in the desert ecosystem.

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Microbial temperature adaptation across a European gradient

10.5194/egusphere-egu21-4867 ◽

2021 ◽

Author(s):

Carla Cruz Paredes ◽

Daniel Tajmel ◽

Johannes Rousk

Keyword(s):

Microbial Communities ◽

Community Composition ◽

Bacterial Growth ◽

Microbial Community Composition ◽

Thermal Adaptation ◽

Soil Microbial Communities ◽

Fungal Growth ◽

Fungal Communities ◽

Soil Microbial

Temperature is one of the most important environmental factors controlling both microbial growth and respiration. Warmer temperatures accelerate the rate at which microorganisms respire. Therefore, it is expected that climate warming will induce losses of carbon to the atmosphere through soil microbial respiration, representing a positive feedback to climate warming. However, there are multiple gaps in our understanding on responses of microorganisms to warming. For instance, long-term experiments have shown that the increase in soil respiration found in warming experiments diminishes with time, recovering to ambient values. This suggests that soil C losses might not be as extensive as previously suggested. This can be due to substrate depletion or shifts in the microbial community composition that led to thermal adaptation. To test thermal adaptation of soil microbial communities to their climate, variation along latitudinal gradients is a useful context. Such geographical gradients have long-term and large temperature differences thus patterns in thermal adaptation should have had sufficient time for ecological and evolutionary processes to act, allowing us to test if soil microbial communities have adapted to thermal regimes.We investigated a latitudinal gradient across Europe with 76 sites that spanned a gradient of decadal mean annual temperature (MAT) from -3.1 to 18.3&#176;C. We investigated if respiration, bacterial and fungal growth responses were adapted to long-term temperature differences in this gradient. We did this by estimating the temperature dependences of bacterial growth, fungal growth and respiration. We determined the temperature sensitivity (Q10), the minimum temperature (Tmin) for growth and the optimum temperature (Topt) for growth. These metrics were then correlated to MAT. Additionally, we sequenced bacterial (16S) and fungal (ITS) amplicons from the different sites to also assess variance in community composition and structure. We hypothesized that microbes should be adapted to their historical temperature; microbial communities in warmer environments will be warm-shifted and vice versa.We could effectively represent temperature relationships for bacterial growth, fungal growth, and respiration for all soils. As expected, temperature relationships correlated with the environmental temperature of the site, such that higher temperatures resulted in microbial communities with warm-adapted growth and respiration. This could be seen as a strong positive correlation between Tmin values and environmental temperatures which range from -14 to -5&#176;C for bacteria, -11.5 to -4&#176;C for fungi and -8 to -2&#176;C for respiration. We found that MAT explains the microbial communities&#8217; temperature dependencies for bacterial growth and respiration, but not for fungal growth. With 1&#176;C rise in MAT, Tmin increased 0.17&#176;C for bacterial growth, while Tmin for respiration increased by 0.11. Similarly, bacterial and fungal communities&#8217; composition were correlated with MAT (r2=0.38; r2=0.62), and Tmin (r2=0.16; r2=0.21). These findings suggest that thermal adaptation occurs in processes such as bacterial growth and respiration, probably due to shifts in the microbial community composition. However, fungal growth seems to be less sensitive to changes in temperature, even though fungal communities&#8217; composition was correlated with MAT.

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Phenology of high-arctic butterflies and their floral resources: Species-specific responses to climate change

Current Zoology ◽

10.1093/czoolo/60.2.243 ◽

2014 ◽

Vol 60 (2) ◽

pp. 243-251 ◽

Cited By ~ 31

Author(s):

Toke T. Høye ◽

Anne Eskildsen ◽

Rikke R. Hansen ◽

Joseph J. Bowden ◽

Niels M. Schmidt ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Climate Change ◽

High Arctic ◽

Species Level ◽

The Arctic ◽

Floral Resources ◽

Butterfly Species ◽

Pitfall Traps ◽

Flight Season ◽

Species Specific

Abstract Current global warming is particularly pronounced in the Arctic and arthropods are expected to respond rapidly to these changes. Long-term studies of individual arthropod species from the Arctic are, however, virtually absent. We examined butterfly specimens collected from yellow pitfall traps over 14 years (1996–2009) at Zackenberg in high-arctic, north-east Greenland. Specimens were previously sorted to the family level. We identified them to the species level and examined long-term species-specific phenological responses to recent summer warming. Two species were rare in the samples (Polaris fritillary Bolo-ria polaris and Arctic blue Plebejus glandon) and statistical analyses of phenological responses were therefore restricted to the two most abundant species (Arctic fritillary, B. chariclea and Northern clouded yellow Colias hecla). Our analyses demonstrated a trend towards earlier flight seasons in B. chariclea, but not in C. hecla. The timing of onset, peak and end of the flight season in B. chariclea were closely related to snowmelt, July temperature and their interaction, whereas onset, peak and end of the flight season in C. hecla were only related to timing of snowmelt. The duration of the butterfly flight season was significantly positively related to the temporal overlap with floral resources in both butterfly species. We further demonstrate that yellow pitfall traps are a useful alternative to transect walks for butterfly recording in tundra habitats. More phenological studies of Arctic arthropods should be carried out at the species level and ideally be analysed in context with interacting species to assess how ongoing climate change will affect Arctic biodiversity in the near future.

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