Dataset Information

Vegetation, topography, and soil depth drive microbial community structure in two Swedish grasslands.

ABSTRACT: Soil microbial diversity and community composition are shaped by various factors linked to land management, topographic position, and vegetation. To study the effects of these drivers, we characterized fungal and bacterial communities from bulk soil at four soil depths ranging from the surface to below the rooting zone of two Swedish grasslands with differing land-use histories, each including both an upper and a lower catenary position. We hypothesized that differences in plant species richness and plant functional group composition between the four study sites would drive the variation in soil microbial community composition and correlate with microbial diversity, and that microbial biomass and diversity would decrease with soil depth following a decline in resource availability. While vegetation was identified as the main driver of microbial community composition, the explained variation was significantly higher for bacteria than for fungi, and the communities differed more between grasslands than between catenary positions. Microbial biomass derived from DNA abundance decreased with depth, but diversity remained relatively stable, indicating diverse microbial communities even below the rooting zone. Finally, plant-microbial diversity correlations were significant only for specific plant and fungal functional groups, emphasizing the importance of functional interactions over general species richness.

SUBMITTER: Guasconi D

PROVIDER: S-EPMC10370287 | biostudies-literature | 2023 Jul

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

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Vegetation, topography, and soil depth drive microbial community structure in two Swedish grasslands.

Guasconi Daniela D Juhanson Jaanis J Clemmensen Karina E KE Cousins Sara A O SAO Hugelius Gustaf G Manzoni Stefano S Roth Nina N Fransson Petra P

FEMS microbiology ecology 20230701 8

Soil microbial diversity and community composition are shaped by various factors linked to land management, topographic position, and vegetation. To study the effects of these drivers, we characterized fungal and bacterial communities from bulk soil at four soil depths ranging from the surface to below the rooting zone of two Swedish grasslands with differing land-use histories, each including both an upper and a lower catenary position. We hypothesized that differences in plant species richness ...[more]

PMID: 37475696

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Project description:Changes in species composition across communities, i.e., β-diversity, is a central focus of ecology. Compared to macroorganisms, the β-diversity of soil microbes and its drivers are less studied. Whether the determinants of soil microbial β-diversity are consistent between soil depths and between abundant and rare microorganisms remains controversial. Here, using the 16S-rRNA of soil bacteria and archaea sampled at different soil depths (0-10 and 30-50 cm) from 32 sites along an aridity gradient of 1500 km in the temperate grasslands in northern China, we compared the effects of deterministic and stochastic processes on the taxonomic and phylogenetic β-diversity of soil microbes. Using variation partitioning and null models, we found that the taxonomic β-diversity of the overall bacterial communities was more strongly determined by deterministic processes in both soil layers (the explanatory power of environmental distance in topsoil: 25.4%; subsoil: 47.4%), while their phylogenetic counterpart was more strongly determined by stochastic processes (the explanatory power of spatial distance in topsoil: 42.1; subsoil 24.7%). However, in terms of abundance, both the taxonomic and phylogenetic β-diversity of the abundant bacteria in both soil layers was more strongly determined by deterministic processes, while those of rare bacteria were more strongly determined by stochastic processes. In comparison with bacteria, both the taxonomic and phylogenetic β-diversity of the overall abundant and rare archaea were strongly determined by deterministic processes. Among the variables representing deterministic processes, contemporary and historical climate and aboveground vegetation dominated the microbial β-diversity of the overall and abundant microbes of both domains in topsoils, but soil geochemistry dominated in subsoils. This study presents a comprehensive understanding on the β-diversity of soil microbial communities in the temperate grasslands in northern China. Our findings highlight the importance of soil depth, phylogenetic turnover, and species abundance in the assembly processes of soil microbial communities.

Project description:Along a long-term ecosystem development gradient, soil nutrient contents and mineralogical properties change, therefore probably altering soil microbial communities. However, knowledge about the dynamics of soil microbial communities during long-term ecosystem development including progressive and retrogressive stages is limited, especially in mineral soils. Therefore, microbial abundances (quantitative PCR) and community composition (pyrosequencing) as well as their controlling soil properties were investigated in soil depth profiles along the 120,000 years old Franz Josef chronosequence (New Zealand). Additionally, in a microcosm incubation experiment the effects of particular soil properties, i.e., soil age, soil organic matter fraction (mineral-associated vs. particulate), O2 status, and carbon and phosphorus additions, on microbial abundances (quantitative PCR) and community patterns (T-RFLP) were analyzed. The archaeal to bacterial abundance ratio not only increased with soil depth but also with soil age along the chronosequence, coinciding with mineralogical changes and increasing phosphorus limitation. Results of the incubation experiment indicated that archaeal abundances were less impacted by the tested soil parameters compared to Bacteria suggesting that Archaea may better cope with mineral-induced substrate restrictions in subsoils and older soils. Instead, archaeal communities showed a soil age-related compositional shift with the Bathyarchaeota, that were frequently detected in nutrient-poor, low-energy environments, being dominant at the oldest site. However, bacterial communities remained stable with ongoing soil development. In contrast to the abundances, the archaeal compositional shift was associated with the mineralogical gradient. Our study revealed, that archaeal and bacterial communities in whole soil profiles are differently affected by long-term soil development with archaeal communities probably being better adapted to subsoil conditions, especially in nutrient-depleted old soils.

Dataset Information

Vegetation, topography, and soil depth drive microbial community structure in two Swedish grasslands.

Publications

Vegetation, topography, and soil depth drive microbial community structure in two Swedish grasslands.

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