scholarly journals Plant genotype controls wetland soil microbial functioning in response to sea-level rise

2021 ◽  
Vol 18 (23) ◽  
pp. 6133-6146
Author(s):  
Hao Tang ◽  
Susanne Liebner ◽  
Svenja Reents ◽  
Stefanie Nolte ◽  
Kai Jensen ◽  
...  

Abstract. Climate change can strongly alter soil microbial functioning via plant–microbe interactions, often with important consequences for ecosystem carbon and nutrient cycling. Given the high degree of intraspecific trait variability in plants, it has been hypothesized that genetic shifts within plant species yield a large potential to control the response of plant–microbe interactions to climate change. Here we examined if sea-level rise and plant genotype interact to affect soil microbial communities in an experimental coastal wetland system, using two known genotypes of the dominant salt-marsh grass Elymus athericus characterized by differences in their sensitivity to flooding stress – i.e., a tolerant genotype from low-marsh environments and an intolerant genotype from high-marsh environments. Plants were exposed to a large range of flooding frequencies in a factorial mesocosm experiment, and soil microbial activity parameters (exo-enzyme activity and litter breakdown) and microbial community structure were assessed. Plant genotype mediated the effect of flooding on soil microbial community structure and determined the presence of flooding effects on exo-enzyme activities and belowground litter breakdown. Larger variability in microbial community structure, enzyme activities, and litter breakdown in soils planted with the intolerant plant genotype supported our general hypothesis that effects of climate change on soil microbial activity and community structure can depend on plant intraspecific genetic variation. In conclusion, our data suggest that adaptive genetic variation in plants could suppress or facilitate the effects of sea-level rise on soil microbial communities. If this finding applies more generally to coastal wetlands, it yields important implications for our understanding of ecosystem–climate feedbacks in the coastal zone.

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Hao Tang ◽  
Susanne Liebner ◽  
Svenja Reents ◽  
Stefanie Nolte ◽  
Kai Jensen ◽  
...  

Abstract. Climate change induced shifts in plant community composition affect the decomposition of soil organic matter via plant-microbe interactions, often with important consequences for ecosystem carbon and nutrient cycling. Given the high degree of intraspecific trait variability in plants, it has been hypothesized that genetic shifts within species yield a similar potential to affect soil microbial functioning.We examined if sea-level rise and plant genotype interact to affect soil microbial communities in an experimental coastal wetland system, using two known genotypes of the dominant salt-marsh grass Elymus athericus characterized by differences in their sensitivity to flooding stress – i.e. an adapted genotype from low-marsh environments and an unadapted genotype from high-marsh environments. Plants were exposed to a large range of flooding frequencies in a factorial mesocosm experiment, and soil microbial-activity parameters (exo-enzyme activity and litter breakdown) and microbial community structure were assessed.Plant genotype mediated the effect of flooding on soil microbial community structure and determined the presence of flooding effects on exo-enzyme activities and belowground litter breakdown. Larger variability in microbial community structure, enzyme activities, and litter breakdown in soils planted with the unadapted plant genotype supported our general hypothesis that effects of climate change on soil microbial activity and community structure can depend on plant intraspecific adaptations. We conclude that adaptive genetic variation in plants can suppress or facilitate the effects of climate change on soil microbial communities. If this finding applies more generally to wetland ecosystems and beyond, it yields important implications for experimental climate change research and models of soil organic matter accumulation.


Author(s):  
Lanying Ma ◽  
Fernando Igne Rocha ◽  
Jaejin Lee ◽  
Jinlyung Choi ◽  
Mauricio Tejera ◽  
...  

Yield of the perennial grass Miscanthus × giganteus has shown an inconsistent and unpredictable response to nitrogen (N) fertilizer, yet fertilization underpins the crop’s environmental and economic sustainability. The interactions among soil microbial communities, N availability, and M. × giganteus and management may explain changes in plant productivity. In this study, soil samples from different stand ages of M. × giganteus in a replicated chronosequence field trial were used to investigate the effects of stand age and N fertilizer rates on microbial community structure. We hypothesized that there is a definable M. × giganteus soil microbiome and that this community varies significantly with stand age and fertilization. Our results showed that the main phyla in soil microbial communities, regardless of plant age, are similar but microbial community structures are significantly different. The variation in observed microbial communities generally decreases in older stand ages. The amount of N fertilizer applied also affected the microbial community structure associated with different aged M. × giganteus. Specifically, the relative abundance of Proteobacteria (Alphaproteobacteria and Gammaproteobacteria) and Acidobacteria (Subgroup Gp1) increased shortly after fertilization and were more associated with younger M. × giganteus. Further, our results show a significant relationship between bacterial alpha diversity and fertilization rates and that this response is also impacted by stand age. Overall, our results emphasize linkages between microbial community structure, plant age, and fertilization in M. × giganteus.


2015 ◽  
Vol 2 (2) ◽  
pp. 1393-1418
Author(s):  
J. S. Buyer ◽  
A. Schmidt-Küntzel ◽  
M. Nghikembua ◽  
J. E. Maul ◽  
L. Marker

Abstract. Savanna ecosystems are subject to desertification and bush encroachment, which reduce the carrying capacity for wildlife and livestock. Bush thinning is a management approach that can, at least temporarily, restore grasslands and raise the grazing value of the land. In this study we examined the soil microbial communities under bush and grass in Namibia. We analyzed the soil through a chronosequence where bush was thinned at 9, 5, or 3 years before sampling. Soil microbial biomass, the biomass of specific taxonomic groups, and overall microbial community structure was determined by phospholipid fatty acid analysis, while the community structure of Bacteria, Archaea, and fungi was determined by multiplex terminal restriction fragment length polymorphism analysis. Soil under bush had higher pH, C, N, and microbial biomass than under grass, and the microbial community structure was also altered under bush compared to grass. A major disturbance to the ecosystem, bush thinning, resulted in an altered microbial community structure compared to control plots, but the magnitude of this perturbation gradually declined with time. Community structure was primarily driven by pH, C, and N, while vegetation type, bush thinning, and time since bush thinning were of secondary importance.


SOIL ◽  
2016 ◽  
Vol 2 (1) ◽  
pp. 101-110 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jeffrey S. Buyer ◽  
Anne Schmidt-Küntzel ◽  
Matti Nghikembua ◽  
Jude E. Maul ◽  
Laurie Marker

Abstract. Savanna ecosystems are subject to desertification and bush encroachment, which reduce the carrying capacity for wildlife and livestock. Bush thinning is a management approach that can, at least temporarily, restore grasslands and raise the grazing value of the land. In this study we examined the soil microbial communities under bush and grass in Namibia. We analyzed the soil through a chronosequence where bush was thinned at 9, 5, or 3 years before sampling. Soil microbial biomass, the biomass of specific taxonomic groups, and overall microbial community structure was determined by phospholipid fatty acid analysis, while the community structure of Bacteria, Archaea, and fungi was determined by multiplex terminal restriction fragment length polymorphism analysis. Soil under bush had higher pH, C, N, and microbial biomass than under grass, and the microbial community structure was also altered under bush compared to grass. A major disturbance to the ecosystem, bush thinning, resulted in an altered microbial community structure compared to control plots, but the magnitude of this perturbation gradually declined with time. Community structure was primarily driven by pH, C, and N, while vegetation type, bush thinning, and time since bush thinning were of secondary importance.


2020 ◽  
Vol 21 (17) ◽  
pp. 6008
Author(s):  
Ahmad Ali ◽  
Muhammad Imran Ghani ◽  
Ding Haiyan ◽  
Muhammad Iqbal ◽  
Zhihui Cheng ◽  
...  

Garlic substrate could influence plant growth through affecting soil microbiome structure. The relationship mechanism between changes in soil microbial communities, disease suppression and plant development, however, remains unclear, particularly in the degraded soil micro-ecological environment. In this study, garlic substrates as a soil amendment were incorporated with different ratios (1:100, 3:100 and 5:100 g/100 g of soil) in a replanted disturbed soil of long-term cucumber monoculture (annual double cropping system in a greenhouse). The results indicated that higher amount of C-amended garlic substrate significantly induced soil suppressiveness (35.9% greater than control (CK) against the foliar disease incidence rate. This inhibitory effect consequently improved the cucumber growth performance and fruit yield to 20% higher than the non-amended soil. Short-term garlic substrate addition modified the soil quality through an increase in soil organic matter (SOM), nutrient availability and enzymatic activities. Illumina MiSeq sequencing analysis revealed that soil bacterial and fungal communities in the garlic amendment were significantly different from the control. Species richness and diversity indices significantly increased under treated soil. The correlation-based heat map analysis suggested that soil OM, nutrient contents and biological activators were the primary drivers reshaping the microbial community structure. Furthermore, garlic substrate inhibited soil-borne pathogen taxa (Fusarium and Nematoda), and their reduced abundances, significantly affecting the crop yield. In addition, the host plant recruited certain plant-beneficial microbes due to substrate addition that could directly contribute to plant–pathogen inhibition and crop biomass production. For example, abundant Acidobacteria, Ascomycota and Glomeromycota taxa were significantly associated with cucumber yield promotion. Firmicutes, Actinobacteria, Bacteroidetes, Basidiomycota and Glomeromycota were the associated microbial taxa that possibly performed as antagonists of Fusarium wilt, with plant pathogen suppression potential in monocropped cucumber-planted soil.


2018 ◽  
Vol 156 (7) ◽  
pp. 857-864 ◽  
Author(s):  
H. M. Tang ◽  
Y. L. Xu ◽  
X. P. Xiao ◽  
C. Li ◽  
W. Y. Li ◽  
...  

AbstractThe response of soil microbial communities to soil quality changes is a sensitive indicator of soil ecosystem health. The current work investigated soil microbial communities under different fertilization treatments in a 31-year experiment using the phospholipid fatty acid (PLFA) profile method. The experiment consisted of five fertilization treatments: without fertilizer input (CK), chemical fertilizer alone (MF), rice (Oryza sativaL.) straw residue and chemical fertilizer (RF), low manure rate and chemical fertilizer (LOM), and high manure rate and chemical fertilizer (HOM). Soil samples were collected from the plough layer and results indicated that the content of PLFAs were increased in all fertilization treatments compared with the control. The iC15:0 fatty acids increased significantly in MF treatment but decreased in RF, LOM and HOM, while aC15:0 fatty acids increased in these three treatments. Principal component (PC) analysis was conducted to determine factors defining soil microbial community structure using the 21 PLFAs detected in all treatments: the first and second PCs explained 89.8% of the total variance. All unsaturated and cyclopropyl PLFAs except C12:0 and C15:0 were highly weighted on the first PC. The first and second PC also explained 87.1% of the total variance among all fertilization treatments. There was no difference in the first and second PC between RF and HOM treatments. The results indicated that long-term combined application of straw residue or organic manure with chemical fertilizer practices improved soil microbial community structure more than the mineral fertilizer treatment in double-cropped paddy fields in Southern China.


2008 ◽  
Vol 38 (6) ◽  
pp. 1504-1516 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lisbet Holm Bach ◽  
Åsa Frostegård ◽  
Mikael Ohlson

We investigated soil microbial community structure by phospholipid fatty acid (PLFA) analysis in a mature boreal spruce forest landscape in southern Norway, with low diversity of vascular plants. We investigated the spatial variation in PLFAs and the importance of environmental variables in 10 plots (each 13 samples) in a study area of 1 km × 1 km. The scales investigated were 15 cm to 10 m within study plots and 100 m to 1 km between study plots. Soil microbial biomass varied 10-fold and we found a large variation in microbial community structure, even at distances of 15 cm. Samples aggregated into plots when PLFAs were subjected to a principal components analysis. Plot identity explained 36.3% of the variation in the PLFAs and geostatistical analysis showed that the microbial community structure displayed spatial dependence at within-plot distances. Environmental variables differed significantly between all plots but explained only minor parts of the variation in the overall PLFA pattern. The vegetation variables were, however, the best at explaining the PLFA pattern, and up to 60% of within-plot variation in individual plots, respectively, could be explained by vegetation variables, pH, and soil depth.


2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jingjie Hao ◽  
Yen Ning Chai ◽  
Raziel A. Ordóñez ◽  
Emily E. Wright ◽  
Sotirios Archontoulis ◽  
...  

AbstractThe determination of how microbial community structure changes within the soil profile, will be beneficial to understanding the long-term health of agricultural soil ecosystems and will provide a first step towards elucidating how deep soil microbial communities contribute to carbon sequestration. This study aimed to investigate the differences in the microbial community abundance, composition and diversity throughout from the surface layers down to deep soils in corn and soybean fields in Iowa, USA. We used 16S rRNA amplicon sequencing of soil samples to characterize the change in microbial community structure. Our results revealed decreased richness and diversity in bacterial community structure with increasing soil depth. We also observed distinct distribution patterns of bacterial community composition along soil profiles. Soil and root data at different depths enabled us to demonstrate that the soil organic matter, soil bulk density and plant water availability were all significant factors in explaining the variation in soil microbial community composition. Our findings provide valuable insights in the changes in microbial community structure to depths of 180 cm in one of the most productive agricultural regions in the world. This knowledge will be important for future management and productivity of agroecosystems in the face of increasing demand for food and climate change.


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Fiona M Seaton ◽  
Robert I Griffiths ◽  
Tim Goodall ◽  
Inma Lebron ◽  
Lisa R Norton

Pasture is a globally important managed habitat providing both food and income. The way in which it is managed leads to a wide range of impacts on soil microbial communities and associated soil health. While there have been several studies comparing pasture farming to other forms of land use, we still have limited understanding of how the soil microbial communities vary between pasture farms and according to management practices. Here we present the results of a field survey across 56 UK livestock farms that are managed by members of the Pasture fed Livestock Association, using amplicon sequencing of the 16S and ITS regions to characterise the soil bacterial and fungal community within fields that have been under pasture for differing durations. We show that grazing management intensity has only limited effects upon microbial community structure, while the duration of pasture since ploughing (ranging from 1 year to over 100 years) impacted the fungal community structure. The impact of management duration was conditional upon soil physicochemical properties, particularly pH. Plant community effects on upon soil bacterial and fungal composition appear to also interact with the soil chemistry, highlighting the importance of plant-soil interactions in determining microbial community structure. Analyses of microbial indicators revealed proportionally more fungal taxa that responded to multiple ecosystem health associated properties than bacterial taxa. We also identified several fungal taxa that both acted as indicators of soil health related properties within our dataset and showed differentiation between grassland types in a national survey, indicating the generality of some fungal indicators to the national level. Members of the Agaricomycetes were associated with multiple indicators of soil health. Our results show the importance of maintaining grassland for the development of plant-soil interactions and microbial community structure with concomitant effects on soil and general ecosystem health.


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