Fighting climate change: soil bacteria communities and topography play a role in plant colonization of desert areas

Climate change is expected to alter the Arctic’s carbon (C) balance and changes in these C-rich ecosystems may contribute to a positive feedback on global climate change. Low-center mudboils, a form of patterned ground in the Arctic, are distinct landforms in which the exchange of greenhouse gases between the atmosphere and soil has not been fully characterized, but which may have an important influence on the overall C balance of tundra ecosystems. Chamber systems were used to sample net ecosystem exchange of CO2 (NEE) and CO2 and CH4 effluxes along a 35-m transect intersecting two mudboils in a wet sedge fen in Canada’s Southern Arctic (lat. 64°52′N, long. 111°34′W) during the summer months in 2008. Mudboil features gave rise to dramatic variations in vegetation, soil temperature and thaw depth, and soil organic matter content along this transect. Variations in NEE were driven by variations in the amount of vascular vegetation, while CO2 and CH4 effluxes were remarkably similar among the two mudboil (CO2 effluxes: 1.1 ± 0.9 and 1.4 ± 0.7 µmol m-2 s-1; CH4 effluxes: 83.1 ± 189.4 and 23.1 ± 9.4 nmol m-2 s-1, ± 1 standard deviation) and the sedge fen (CO2 effluxes: 1.6 ± 0.7 mol m-2 s-1 ; CH4 effluxes: 28.0 ± 62.0 nmol m-2 s-1) sampling areas. Vegetation appeared to play an important role in limiting temporal variations in CH4 effluxes through plant mediated transport in both mudboil and sedge fen sampling areas. One of the mudboils had negligible vascular plant colonization presumably due to more active frost heave processes. The relatively high CO2 and CH4 efflux in this mudboil area was speculated to be a result of growth and decomposition of cryptogamic organisms, inflow of dissolved organic C, and warmer soil temperatures. Key words: Patterned ground, nonsorted circle, tundra, net ecosystem exchange, methane, carbon dioxide

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Restricted streptomycin use in apple orchards did not adversely alter the soil bacteria communities

Frontiers in Microbiology ◽

10.3389/fmicb.2013.00383 ◽

2014 ◽

Vol 4 ◽

Cited By ~ 13

Author(s):

Fiona Walsh ◽

Daniel P. Smith ◽

Sarah M. Owens ◽

Brion Duffy ◽

Jürg E. Frey

Keyword(s):

Soil Bacteria ◽

Apple Orchards ◽

Bacteria Communities

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The effect of different organic materials amendment on soil bacteria communities in barren sandy loam soil

Environmental Science and Pollution Research ◽

10.1007/s11356-017-0031-1 ◽

2017 ◽

Vol 24 (30) ◽

pp. 24019-24028 ◽

Cited By ~ 12

Author(s):

Hongcui Dai ◽

Yuanquan Chen ◽

Xiaolei Yang ◽

Jixiao Cui ◽

Peng Sui

Keyword(s):

Soil Bacteria ◽

Organic Materials ◽

Sandy Loam ◽

Sandy Loam Soil ◽

Loam Soil ◽

Bacteria Communities

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Wind erosion in Moroccan argan woodlands under extensive agro-silvo-pastoral management

10.5194/egusphere-egu2020-15068 ◽

2020 ◽

Author(s):

Miriam Marzen ◽

Kirchhoff Mario ◽

Marzolff Irene ◽

Aït Hssaine Ali ◽

Johannes B. Ries

Keyword(s):

Climate Change ◽

Land Use ◽

Empirical Study ◽

Wind Erosion ◽

Surface Characteristics ◽

Dust Production ◽

Litter Cover ◽

Pastoral Management ◽

Desert Areas ◽

Sediment Mobilisation

The Moroccan argan woodlands form a unique ecosystem that is at acute risk of degradation and desertification. Beside the great impact on local and regional socio-economical structure, the characteristic landscape is assumed to protect populated and agriculturally productive areas such as the Souss-Massa-region against desertification processes from the adjacent desert areas in Southwest Morocco and Algeria.The experimental-empirical study with the Trier Portable Wind Simulator was conducted to quantify sediment mobilisation by wind on various surface characteristics associated to argan woodlands under extensive agro-silvo-pastoral management. Tested surfaces included physical and biological crusts, stone and litter cover and ploughed surfaces.We found that the argan woodlands of the Souss region may be a significant source of wind eroded sediment particularly facing effects of overexploitation and climate change. An adapted land management is key to prevent severe dust production and mitigate possible impacts of land use change and climate change related shifts in wind and rainfall patterns. &#160;

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Increasing aridity reduces soil microbial diversity and abundance in global drylands

Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences ◽

10.1073/pnas.1516684112 ◽

2015 ◽

Vol 112 (51) ◽

pp. 15684-15689 ◽

Cited By ~ 269

Author(s):

Fernando T. Maestre ◽

Manuel Delgado-Baquerizo ◽

Thomas C. Jeffries ◽

David J. Eldridge ◽

Victoria Ochoa ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Climate Change ◽

Soil Bacteria ◽

Soil Microbial Communities ◽

Terrestrial Ecosystems ◽

Soil Microbial Diversity ◽

Change Models ◽

Soil Microbial ◽

Soil Bacteria And Fungi ◽

Abundance And Diversity ◽

Bacteria And Fungi

Soil bacteria and fungi play key roles in the functioning of terrestrial ecosystems, yet our understanding of their responses to climate change lags significantly behind that of other organisms. This gap in our understanding is particularly true for drylands, which occupy ∼41% of Earth´s surface, because no global, systematic assessments of the joint diversity of soil bacteria and fungi have been conducted in these environments to date. Here we present results from a study conducted across 80 dryland sites from all continents, except Antarctica, to assess how changes in aridity affect the composition, abundance, and diversity of soil bacteria and fungi. The diversity and abundance of soil bacteria and fungi was reduced as aridity increased. These results were largely driven by the negative impacts of aridity on soil organic carbon content, which positively affected the abundance and diversity of both bacteria and fungi. Aridity promoted shifts in the composition of soil bacteria, with increases in the relative abundance of Chloroflexi and α-Proteobacteria and decreases in Acidobacteria and Verrucomicrobia. Contrary to what has been reported by previous continental and global-scale studies, soil pH was not a major driver of bacterial diversity, and fungal communities were dominated by Ascomycota. Our results fill a critical gap in our understanding of soil microbial communities in terrestrial ecosystems. They suggest that changes in aridity, such as those predicted by climate-change models, may reduce microbial abundance and diversity, a response that will likely impact the provision of key ecosystem services by global drylands.

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Existing Climate Change Will Lead to Pronounced Shifts in the Diversity of Soil Prokaryotes

mSystems ◽

10.1128/msystems.00167-18 ◽

2018 ◽

Vol 3 (5) ◽

Cited By ~ 18

Author(s):

Joshua Ladau ◽

Yu Shi ◽

Xin Jing ◽

Jin-Sheng He ◽

Litong Chen ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Climate Change ◽

North America ◽

Bacterial Communities ◽

Soil Bacteria ◽

Soil Microbial Communities ◽

Terrestrial Ecosystems ◽

Climatic Conditions ◽

Climate Impacts ◽

The Tibetan Plateau ◽

Soil Bacterial Diversity

ABSTRACTSoil bacteria are key to ecosystem function and maintenance of soil fertility. Leveraging associations of current geographic distributions of bacteria with historic climate, we predict that soil bacterial diversity will increase across the majority (∼75%) of the Tibetan Plateau and northern North America if bacterial communities equilibrate with existing climatic conditions. This prediction is possible because the current distributions of soil bacteria have stronger correlations with climate from ∼50 years ago than with current climate. This lag is likely associated with the time it takes for soil properties to adjust to changes in climate. The predicted changes are location specific and differ across bacterial taxa, including some bacteria that are predicted to have reductions in their distributions. These findings illuminate the widespread potential of climate change to influence belowground diversity and the importance of considering bacterial communities when assessing climate impacts on terrestrial ecosystems.IMPORTANCEThere have been many studies highlighting how plant and animal communities lag behind climate change, causing extinction and diversity debts that will slowly be paid as communities equilibrate. By virtue of their short generation times and dispersal abilities, soil bacteria might be expected to respond to climate change quickly and to be effectively in equilibrium with current climatic conditions. We found strong evidence to the contrary in Tibet and North America. These findings could significantly improve understanding of climate impacts on soil microbial communities.

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History Leaves Its Mark on Soil Bacterial Diversity

mBio ◽

10.1128/mbio.00784-16 ◽

2016 ◽

Vol 7 (3) ◽

Cited By ~ 9

Author(s):

Jennifer B. H. Martiny

Keyword(s):

Climate Change ◽

Microbial Diversity ◽

Bacterial Diversity ◽

Soil Bacteria ◽

Future Climate Change ◽

Soil Bacterial Diversity ◽

Soil Microbial Diversity ◽

Climate Conditions ◽

Soil Microbial ◽

Evolutionary Diversification

ABSTRACT Dispersal is closely tied to the origin and maintenance of microbial diversity. With its focus on a narrow group of soil bacteria, recent work by Andam and colleagues on Streptomyces has provided perhaps the strongest support so far that some bacterial diversity in soils can be attributed to regional endemism (C. P. Andam et al., mBio 7:e02200-15, 2016, http://dx.doi.org/10.1128/mBio.02200-15 ). This means that dispersal is limited enough to allow for evolutionary diversification. Further analyses suggest that signatures of climate conditions more than 10,000 years ago can be detected in contemporary populations of this genus. These legacies have implications for how future climate change might alter soil microbial diversity.

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Climate change will lead to pronounced shifts in the diversity of soil microbial communities

10.1101/180174 ◽

2017 ◽

Cited By ~ 2

Author(s):

Joshua Ladau ◽

Yu Shi ◽

Xin Jing ◽

Jin-Sheng He ◽

Litong Chen ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Climate Change ◽

North America ◽

Microbial Communities ◽

Bacterial Communities ◽

Soil Bacteria ◽

Soil Microbial Communities ◽

Climatic Conditions ◽

Climate Impacts ◽

The Tibetan Plateau ◽

Soil Microbial

ABSTRACTSoil bacteria are key to ecosystem function and maintenance of soil fertility. Leveraging associations of current geographic distributions of bacteria with historic climate, we predict that soil bacterial diversity will increase across the majority (~75%) of the Tibetan Plateau and northern North America if bacterial communities equilibrate with existing climatic conditions. This prediction is possible because the current distributions of soil bacteria have stronger correlations with climate from ~50 years ago than with current climate. This lag is likely associated with the time it takes for soil properties to adjust to changes in climate. The predicted changes are location specific and differ across bacterial taxa, including some bacteria that are predicted to have reductions in their distributions. These findings demonstrate the widespread influence that climate change will have on belowground diversity and highlight the importance of considering bacterial communities when assessing climate impacts on terrestrial ecosystems.IMPORTANCEThere have been many studies highlighting how plant and animal communities lag behind climate change, causing extinction and diversity debts that will slowly be paid as communities equilibrate. By virtue of their short generation times and dispersal abilities, soil bacteria might be expected to respond to climate change quickly and to be effectively in equilibrium with current climatic conditions. We found strong evidence to the contrary in Tibet and North America. These findings could significantly improve understanding of climate impacts on soil microbial communities.

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Averting robo-bees: why free-flying robotic bees are a bad idea

Emerging Topics in Life Sciences ◽

10.1042/etls20190063 ◽

2019 ◽

Vol 3 (6) ◽

pp. 723-729

Author(s):

Roslyn Gleadow ◽

Jim Hanan ◽

Alan Dorin

Keyword(s):

Climate Change ◽

Computer Simulation ◽

Food Security ◽

European Countries ◽

Plant Interactions ◽

Plant Insect Interactions ◽

Native Habitat ◽

Insect Pollinators ◽

Insect Interactions

Food security and the sustainability of native ecosystems depends on plant-insect interactions in countless ways. Recently reported rapid and immense declines in insect numbers due to climate change, the use of pesticides and herbicides, the introduction of agricultural monocultures, and the destruction of insect native habitat, are all potential contributors to this grave situation. Some researchers are working towards a future where natural insect pollinators might be replaced with free-flying robotic bees, an ecologically problematic proposal. We argue instead that creating environments that are friendly to bees and exploring the use of other species for pollination and bio-control, particularly in non-European countries, are more ecologically sound approaches. The computer simulation of insect-plant interactions is a far more measured application of technology that may assist in managing, or averting, ‘Insect Armageddon' from both practical and ethical viewpoints.

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