scholarly journals Changes in Soil Microbial Communities across an Urbanization Gradient: A Local-Scale Temporal Study in the Arid Southwestern USA

2021 ◽  
Vol 9 (7) ◽  
pp. 1470
Author(s):  
Yongjian Chen ◽  
Adalee Martinez ◽  
Sydney Cleavenger ◽  
Julia Rudolph ◽  
Albert Barberán
Keyword(s):  
Microbial Communities ◽  
Community Composition ◽  
Mycorrhizal Fungi ◽  
Marker Gene ◽  
Soil Microbial Communities ◽  
Ecosystem Functions ◽  
Ammonia Oxidizing Bacteria ◽  
Human Pathogens ◽  
Urbanization Gradient ◽  
Southwestern Usa

Urban development is one of the leading causes of biodiversity change. Understanding how soil microorganisms respond to urbanization is particularly important because they are crucial for the provisioning of ecosystem functions and services. Here, we collected monthly soil samples over one year across three locations representing an urbanization gradient (low-moderate-high) in the arid Southwestern USA, and we characterized their microbial communities using marker gene sequencing. Our results showed that microbial richness and community composition exhibited nonsignificant changes over time regardless of the location. Soil fungal richness was lower in moderately and highly urbanized locations, but soil bacterial/archaeal richness was not significantly different among locations. Both bacteria/archaea and fungi exhibited significant differences in community composition across locations. After inferring potential functional groups, soils in the highly urbanized location had lower proportions of arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi and soil saprotrophic fungi but had higher proportions of bacterial taxa involved in aromatic compound degradation, human pathogens, and intracellular parasites. Furthermore, ammonia-oxidizing bacteria were more abundant in the highly urbanized location, but ammonia-oxidizing archaea were more abundant in lowly and moderately urbanized locations. Together, these results highlight the significant changes in belowground microbial communities across an urbanization gradient, and these changes might have important implications for aboveground–belowground interactions, nutrient cycling, and human health.

scholarly journals Soil Bacterial and Fungal Response to Wildfires in the Canadian Boreal Forest Across a Burn Severity Gradient

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Thea Whitman ◽  
Ellen Whitman ◽  
Jamie Woolet ◽  
Mike D Flannigan ◽  
Dan K Thompson ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Boreal Forest ◽  
Microbial Communities ◽  
Community Composition ◽  
Soil Microbial Communities ◽  
Total Carbon ◽  
Burn Severity ◽  
Ecosystem Functions ◽  
Moisture Regime ◽  
Soil Microbial ◽  
Canadian Boreal Forest

Global fire regimes are changing, with increases in wildfire frequency and severity expected for many North American forests over the next 100 years. Fires can result in dramatic changes to C stocks and can restructure plant and microbial communities, which can have long-lasting effects on ecosystem functions. We investigated wildfire effects on soil microbial communities (bacteria and fungi) in an extreme fire season in the northwestern Canadian boreal forest, using field surveys, remote sensing, and high-throughput amplicon sequencing. We found that fire occurrence, along with vegetation community, moisture regime, pH, total carbon, and soil texture are all significant predictors of soil microbial community composition. Communities become increasingly dissimilar with increasingly severe burns, and the burn severity index (an index of the fractional area of consumed organic soils and exposed mineral soils) best predicted total bacterial community composition, while burned/unburned was the best predictor for fungi. Globally abundant taxa were identified as significant positive fire responders, including the bacteria Massilia sp. (64x more abundant with fire) and Arthrobacter sp. (35x), and the fungi Penicillium sp. (22x) and Fusicladium sp. (12x) Bacterial and fungal co-occurrence network modules were characterized by fire responsiveness as well as pH and moisture regime. Building on the efforts of previous studies, our results identify specific fire-responsive microbial taxa and suggest that accounting for burn severity improves our understanding of their response to fires, with potentially important implications for ecosystem functions.

scholarly journals Antarctic Water Tracks: Microbial Community Responses to Variation in Soil Moisture, pH, and Salinity

2021 ◽  
Vol 12 ◽  
Author(s):  
Scott F. George ◽  
Noah Fierer ◽  
Joseph S. Levy ◽  
Byron Adams
Keyword(s):  
Microbial Community ◽  
Microbial Communities ◽  
Community Composition ◽  
Environmental Conditions ◽  
Microbial Community Composition ◽  
Soil Microbial Communities ◽  
Vapor Flow ◽  
Arid Soils ◽  
Opposite Pattern ◽  
Dry Valley

Ice-free soils in the McMurdo Dry Valleys select for taxa able to cope with challenging environmental conditions, including extreme chemical water activity gradients, freeze-thaw cycling, desiccation, and solar radiation regimes. The low biotic complexity of Dry Valley soils makes them well suited to investigate environmental and spatial influences on bacterial community structure. Water tracks are annually wetted habitats in the cold-arid soils of Antarctica that form briefly each summer with moisture sourced from snow melt, ground ice thaw, and atmospheric deposition via deliquescence and vapor flow into brines. Compared to neighboring arid soils, water tracks are highly saline and relatively moist habitats. They represent a considerable area (∼5–10 km2) of the Dry Valley terrestrial ecosystem, an area that is expected to increase with ongoing climate change. The goal of this study was to determine how variation in the environmental conditions of water tracks influences the composition and diversity of microbial communities. We found significant differences in microbial community composition between on- and off-water track samples, and across two distinct locations. Of the tested environmental variables, soil salinity was the best predictor of community composition, with members of the Bacteroidetes phylum being relatively more abundant at higher salinities and the Actinobacteria phylum showing the opposite pattern. There was also a significant, inverse relationship between salinity and bacterial diversity. Our results suggest water track formation significantly alters dry soil microbial communities, likely influencing subsequent ecosystem functioning. We highlight how Dry Valley water tracks could be a useful model system for understanding the potential habitability of transiently wetted environments found on the surface of Mars.

scholarly journals Novel Approach to Study the Diversity of Soil Microbial Communities in Qatar

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jane Oja ◽  
Sakeenah Adenan ◽  
Abdel-Fattah Talaat ◽  
Juha Alatalo
Keyword(s):  
Microbial Communities ◽  
High Throughput ◽  
Mycorrhizal Fungi ◽  
High Throughput Sequencing ◽  
Soil Microbial Communities ◽  
Arbuscular Mycorrhizal ◽  
Soil Microbial ◽  
Fungal Abundance ◽  
Novel Approach ◽  
Soil Climate

A broad diversity of microorganisms can be found in soil, where they are essential for nutrient cycling and energy transfer. Recent high-throughput sequencing methods have greatly advanced our knowledge about how soil, climate and vegetation variables structure the composition of microbial communities in many world regions. However, we are lacking information from several regions in the world, e.g. Middle-East. We have collected soil from 19 different habitat types for studying the diversity and composition of soil microbial communities (both fungi and bacteria) in Qatar and determining which edaphic parameters exert the strongest influences on these communities. Preliminary results indicate that in overall bacteria are more abundant in soil than fungi and few sites have notably higher abundance of these microbes. In addition, we have detected some soil patameters, which tend to have reduced the overall fungal abundance and enhanced the presence of arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi and N-fixing bacteria. More detailed information on the diversity and composition of soil microbial communities is expected from the high-throughput sequenced data.

scholarly journals Towards a function-first framework to make soil microbial ecology predictive

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Johannes Rousk ◽  
Lettice Hicks
Keyword(s):  
Microbial Community ◽  
Environmental Factors ◽  
Microbial Communities ◽  
Functional Response ◽  
Community Composition ◽  
Ecosystem Function ◽  
Bacterial Growth ◽  
Response Curve ◽  
Ecosystem Functions ◽  
Soil Microbial

<p>Soil microbial communities perform vital ecosystem functions, such as the decomposition of organic matter to provide plant nutrition. However, despite the functional importance of soil microorganisms, attribution of ecosystem function to particular constituents of the microbial community has been impeded by a lack of information linking microbial function to community composition and structure. Here, we propose a function-first framework to predict how microbial communities influence ecosystem functions.</p><p>We first view the microbial community associated with a specific function as a whole, and describe the dependence of microbial functions on environmental factors (e.g. the intrinsic temperature dependence of bacterial growth rates). This step defines the aggregate functional response curve of the community. Second, the contribution of the whole community to ecosystem function can be predicted, by combining the functional response curve with current environmental conditions. Functional response curves can then be linked with taxonomic data in order to identify sets of “biomarker” taxa that signal how microbial communities regulate ecosystem functions. Ultimately, such indicator taxa may be used as a diagnostic tool, enabling predictions of ecosystem function from community composition.</p><p>In this presentation, we provide three examples to illustrate the proposed framework, whereby the dependence of bacterial growth on environmental factors, including temperature, pH and salinity, is defined as the functional response curve used to interlink soil bacterial community structure and function. Applying this framework will make it possible to predict ecosystem functions directly from microbial community composition.</p>

Soil microbial communities in microaggregates are less affected by top-down effects of collembolans than those in macroaggregates

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Amandine Erktan ◽  
MD Ekramul Haque ◽  
Jérôme Cortet ◽  
Paul Henning Krogh ◽  
Stefan Scheu
Keyword(s):  
Microbial Community ◽  
Microbial Communities ◽  
Community Composition ◽  
Trophic Interactions ◽  
Phospholipid Fatty Acid ◽  
Microbial Community Composition ◽  
Soil Microbial Communities ◽  
Trophic Levels ◽  
Soil Matrix ◽  
Fungal Abundance

<p>Trophic regulation of microbial communities is receiving growing interest in soil ecology. Most studies investigated the effect of higher trophic levels on microbial communities at the bulk soil level. However, microbes are not equally accessible to consumers. They may be hidden in small pores and thus protected from consumers, suggesting that trophic regulation may depend on the localization of microbes within the soil matrix. As microaggregates (< 250 µm) usually are more stable than macroaggregates (> 250 µm) and embedded in the latter, we posit that they will be less affected by trophic regulations than larger aggregates. We quantified the effect of four contrasting species of collembolans (Ceratophysella denticulata, Protaphorura fimata, Folsomia candida, Sinella curviseta) on the microbial community composition in macro- (250 µm – 2mm) and microaggregates (50 – 250 µm). To do so, we re-built consumer-prey systems comprising remaining microbial background (post-autoclaving), fungal prey (Chaetomium globosum), and collembolan species (added as single species or combined). After three months, we quantified microbial community composition using phospholipid fatty acid markers (PLFAs). We found that the microbial communities in macroaggregates were more affected by the addition of collembolans than the communities in microaggregates. In particular, the fungal-to-bacterial (F:B) ratio significantly decreased in soil macroaggregates in the presence of collembolans. In the microaggregates, the F:B ratio remained lower and unaffected by collembolan inoculation. Presumably, fungal hyphae were more abundant in macroaggregates because they offered more habitat space for them, and the collembolans reduced fungal abundance because they consumed them. On the contrary, microaggregates presumably contained microbial communities protected from consumers. In addition, collembolans increased the formation of macroaggregates but did not influence their stability, despite their negative effect on fungal abundance, a well-known stabilizing agent. Overall, we show that trophic interactions between microbial communities and collembolans depend on the aggregate size class considered and, in return, soil macroaggregation is affected by these trophic interactions.</p>

scholarly journals Soil Microbial Biogeography in a Changing World: Recent Advances and Future Perspectives

mSystems ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 5 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Haiyan Chu ◽  
Gui-Feng Gao ◽  
Yuying Ma ◽  
Kunkun Fan ◽  
Manuel Delgado-Baquerizo
Keyword(s):  
Microbial Communities ◽  
Soil Microbial Communities ◽  
Well Being ◽  
Ecosystem Functions ◽  
Soil Microbial ◽  
Microbial Biogeography ◽  
Recent Advances ◽  
Technological Advances ◽  
Global Change Scenarios ◽  
Changing World

ABSTRACT Soil microbial communities are fundamental to maintaining key soil processes associated with litter decomposition, nutrient cycling, and plant productivity and are thus integral to human well-being. Recent technological advances have exponentially increased our knowledge concerning the global ecological distributions of microbial communities across space and time and have provided evidence for their contribution to ecosystem functions. However, major knowledge gaps in soil biogeography remain to be addressed over the coming years as technology and research questions continue to evolve. In this minireview, we state recent advances and future directions in the study of soil microbial biogeography and discuss the need for a clearer concept of microbial species, projections of soil microbial distributions toward future global change scenarios, and the importance of embracing culture and isolation approaches to determine microbial functional profiles. This knowledge will be critical to better predict ecosystem functions in a changing world.

scholarly journals Response of Soil Microbial Communities to Warming and Clipping in Alpine Meadows in Northern Tibet

2020 ◽  
Vol 12 (14) ◽  
pp. 5617
Author(s):  
Haorui Zhang ◽  
Shaowei Li ◽  
Guangyu Zhang ◽  
Gang Fu
Keyword(s):  
Microbial Communities ◽  
Community Composition ◽  
Soil Microbial Communities ◽  
Alpine Meadows ◽  
Soil Microbial ◽  
Alpine Steppe ◽  
Total Plfa ◽  
Kobresia Meadow ◽  
Low Altitude ◽  
Steppe Meadow

In order to explore responses of soil microbial communities among different alpine meadows under warming and clipping, soil microorganisms of three alpine meadow sites (low altitude: 4313 m, alpine steppe meadow, 30°30′ N, 91°04′ E; mid-altitude: 4513 m, alpine steppe meadow, 30°31′ N, 91°04′ E; and high altitude: 4693, alpine Kobresia meadow, 30°32′ N, 91°03′ E) were measured using the phospholipid fatty acid (PLFA) method. Both warming and clipping significantly reduced PLFA content and changed the community composition of soil microbial taxa, which belong to bacterial and fungal communities in the alpine Kobresia meadow. Warming significantly reduced the soil total PLFA content by 36.1% and the content of soil fungi by 37.0%; the clipping significantly reduced the soil total PLFA content by 57.4%, the content of soil fungi by 49.9%, and the content of soil bacteria by 60.5% in the alpine Kobresia meadow. Only clipping changed the total fungal community composition at a low altitude. Neither clipping nor warming changed the microbial community composition at a moderate altitude. Soil temperature, soil moisture, and pH were the main factors affecting soil microbial communities. Therefore, the effects of warming and clipping on soil microbial communities in alpine meadows were related to grassland types and soil environmental conditions.

scholarly journals Impacts of Soil Microbiome Variations on Root Colonization by Fungi and Bacteria and on the Metabolome of Populus tremula × alba

2020 ◽  
Vol 4 (2) ◽  
pp. 142-155 ◽  
Author(s):  
L. Mangeot-Peter ◽  
T. J. Tschaplinski ◽  
N. L. Engle ◽  
C. Veneault-Fourrey ◽  
F. Martin ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Microbial Communities ◽  
Mycorrhizal Fungi ◽  
Root Colonization ◽  
Soil Microbial Communities ◽  
Populus Tremula ◽  
Soil Microbiome ◽  
Gas Chromatography Mass Spectrometry ◽  
Natural Soil ◽  
Tree Roots ◽  
Natural Variations

Trees depend on beneficial interactions between roots and soil microbes for their nutrition and protection against stresses. The soil microbiome provides the main reservoir of microbes for root colonization and is subject to natural variations that can affect its composition. It is not clear whether the tree’s root system is able to buffer the natural variations occurring in the soil microbiome to capture a stable and effective microbiome or whether these variations affect its microbiome to impact its physiology. To address this question, we planted cuttings of Gray Poplar (Populus tremula × alba clone 717-1B4) in natural soil taken from a poplar stand under the same tree over two consecutive years and grew them in a greenhouse. We analyzed the soil and root microbiomes by high throughput Illumina MiSeq sequencing of fungal rDNA internal transcribed spacer and bacterial 16S rRNA amplicons and we characterized the root metabolome by gas chromatography-mass spectrometry. Soil and root microbial communities significantly shifted over the 2 years. A modification of the balance between endophytes, saprophytes, and mycorrhizal fungi occurred in the roots as well as a replacement of some dominant operational taxonomic units by others. These modifications were correlated with a significant alteration of the levels of about 10% of primary and secondary metabolites, suggesting that natural fluctuations in soil microbial communities can have a profound impact on tree root metabolism and physiology. Tree roots functioning may thus be indirectly strongly affected by the effects of future extreme climatic variations on the soil microbiome.

scholarly journals Cheatgrass invasion alters the abundance and composition of dark septate fungal communities in sagebrush steppe

Botany ◽  
2016 ◽  
Vol 94 (6) ◽  
pp. 481-491 ◽  
Author(s):  
Catherine A. Gehring ◽  
Michaela Hayer ◽  
Lluvia Flores-Rentería ◽  
Andrew F. Krohn ◽  
Egbert Schwartz ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Community Composition ◽  
Plant Species ◽  
Mycorrhizal Fungi ◽  
Native Species ◽  
Invasive Plant ◽  
Soil Microbial Communities ◽  
Sagebrush Steppe ◽  
Native Plant ◽  
Native Plant Species ◽  
Dark Septate Fungi

Invasive, non-native plant species can alter soil microbial communities in ways that contribute to their persistence. While most studies emphasize mycorrhizal fungi, invasive plants also may influence communities of dark septate fungi (DSF), which are common root endophytes that can function like mycorrhizas. We tested the hypothesis that a widespread invasive plant in the western United States, cheatgrass (Bromus tectorum L.), influenced the abundance and community composition of DSF by examining the roots and rhizosphere soils of cheatgrass and two native plant species in cheatgrass-invaded and noninvaded areas of sagebrush steppe. We focused on cheatgrass because it is negatively affected by mycorrhizal fungi and colonized by DSF. We found that DSF root colonization and operational taxonomic unit (OTU) richness were significantly higher in sagebrush (Artemisia tridentata Nutt.) and rice grass (Achnatherum hymenoides (Roem. & Schult.) Barkworth) from invaded areas than noninvaded areas. Cheatgrass roots had similar levels of DSF colonization and OTU richness as native plants. The community composition of DSF varied with invasion in the roots and soils of native species and among the roots of the three plant species in the invaded areas. The substantial changes in DSF we observed following cheatgrass invasion argue for comparative studies of DSF function in native and non-native plant species.

scholarly journals Effects of Wildfire and Harvest Disturbances on Forest Soil Bacterial Communities

2007 ◽  
Vol 74 (1) ◽  
pp. 216-224 ◽  
Author(s):  
Nancy R. Smith ◽  
Barbara E. Kishchuk ◽  
William W. Mohn
Keyword(s):  
Microbial Biomass ◽  
Microbial Communities ◽  
Community Composition ◽  
Denaturing Gradient Gel Electrophoresis ◽  
Microbial Biomass Carbon ◽  
Bacterial Community Composition ◽  
Soil Microbial Communities ◽  
Rrna Gene ◽  
Microbial Biomass Nitrogen ◽  
Soil Microbial

ABSTRACT Wildfires and harvesting are important disturbances to forest ecosystems, but their effects on soil microbial communities are not well characterized and have not previously been compared directly. This study was conducted at sites with similar soil, climatic, and other properties in a spruce-dominated boreal forest near Chisholm, Alberta, Canada. Soil microbial communities were assessed following four treatments: control, harvest, burn, and burn plus timber salvage (burn-salvage). Burn treatments were at sites affected by a large wildfire in May 2001, and the communities were sampled 1 year after the fire. Microbial biomass carbon decreased 18%, 74%, and 53% in the harvest, burn, and burn-salvage treatments, respectively. Microbial biomass nitrogen decreased 25% in the harvest treatment, but increased in the burn treatments, probably because of microbial assimilation of the increased amounts of available NH4 + and NO3 − due to burning. Bacterial community composition was analyzed by nonparametric ordination of molecular fingerprint data of 119 samples from both ribosomal intergenic spacer analysis (RISA) and rRNA gene denaturing gradient gel electrophoresis. On the basis of multiresponse permutation procedures, community composition was significantly different among all treatments, with the greatest differences between the two burned treatments versus the two unburned treatments. The sequencing of DNA bands from RISA fingerprints revealed distinct distributions of bacterial divisions among the treatments. Gamma- and Alphaproteobacteria were highly characteristic of the unburned treatments, while Betaproteobacteria and members of Bacillus were highly characteristic of the burned treatments. Wildfire had distinct and more pronounced effects on the soil microbial community than did harvesting.

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