Dataset Information

Fungi in the future: interannual variation and effects of atmospheric change on arbuscular mycorrhizal fungal communities.

ABSTRACT: Understanding the natural dynamics of arbuscular mycorrhizal (AM) fungi and their response to global environmental change is essential for the prediction of future plant growth and ecosystem functions. We investigated the long-term temporal dynamics and effect of elevated atmospheric carbon dioxide (CO2 ) and ozone (O3 ) concentrations on AM fungal communities. Molecular methods were used to characterize the AM fungal communities of soybean (Glycine max) grown under elevated and ambient atmospheric concentrations of both CO2 and O3 within a free air concentration enrichment experiment in three growing seasons over 5 yr. Elevated CO2 altered the community composition of AM fungi, increasing the ratio of Glomeraceae to Gigasporaceae. By contrast, no effect of elevated O3 on AM fungal communities was detected. However, the greatest compositional differences detected were between years, suggesting that, at least in the short term, large-scale interannual temporal dynamics are stronger mediators than atmospheric CO2 concentrations of AM fungal communities. We conclude that, although atmospheric change may significantly alter AM fungal communities, this effect may be masked by the influences of natural changes and successional patterns through time. We suggest that changes in carbon availability are important determinants of the community dynamics of AM fungi.

SUBMITTER: Cotton TE

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4338757 | biostudies-literature | 2015 Mar

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

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Fungi in the future: interannual variation and effects of atmospheric change on arbuscular mycorrhizal fungal communities.

Cotton T E Anne TEA Fitter Alastair H AH Miller R Michael RM Dumbrell Alex J AJ Helgason Thorunn T

The New phytologist 20150105 4

Understanding the natural dynamics of arbuscular mycorrhizal (AM) fungi and their response to global environmental change is essential for the prediction of future plant growth and ecosystem functions. We investigated the long-term temporal dynamics and effect of elevated atmospheric carbon dioxide (CO2 ) and ozone (O3 ) concentrations on AM fungal communities. Molecular methods were used to characterize the AM fungal communities of soybean (Glycine max) grown under elevated and ambient atmosphe ...[more]

PMID: 25560980

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Project description:The ecological impacts of long-term (press) disturbance on mechanisms regulating the relative abundance (i.e., commonness or rarity) and temporal dynamics of species within a community remain largely unknown. This is particularly true for the functionally important arbuscular mycorrhizal (AM) fungi; obligate plant-root endosymbionts that colonize more than two-thirds of terrestrial plant species. Here, we use high-resolution amplicon sequencing to examine how AM fungal communities in a specific extreme ecosystem-mofettes or natural CO2 springs caused by geological CO2 exhalations-are affected by long-term stress. We found that in mofettes, specific and temporally stable communities form as a subset of the local metacommunity. These communities are less diverse and dominated by adapted, "stress tolerant" taxa. Those taxa are rare in control locations and more benign environments worldwide, but show a stable temporal pattern in the extreme sites, consistently dominating the communities in grassland mofettes. This pattern of lower diversity and high dominance of specific taxa has been confirmed as relatively stable over several sampling years and is independently observed across multiple geographic locations (mofettes in different countries). This study implies that the response of soil microbial community composition to long-term stress is relatively predictable, which can also reflect the community response to other anthropogenic stressors (e.g., heavy metal pollution or land use change). Moreover, as AM fungi are functionally differentiated, with different taxa providing different benefits to host plants, changes in community structure in response to long-term environmental change have the potential to impact terrestrial plant communities and their productivity.IMPORTANCEArbuscular mycorrhizal (AM) fungi form symbiotic relationships with more than two-thirds of plant species. In return for using plant carbon as their sole energy source, AM fungi improve plant mineral supply, water balance, and protection against pathogens. This work demonstrates the importance of long-term experiments to understand the effects of long-term environmental change and long-term disturbance on terrestrial ecosystems. We demonstrated a consistent response of the AM fungal community to a long-term stress, with lower diversity and a less variable AM fungal community over time under stress conditions compared to the surrounding controls. We have also identified, for the first time, a suite of AM fungal taxa that are consistently observed across broad geographic scales in stressed and anthropogenically heavily influenced ecosystems. This is critical because global environmental change in terrestrial ecosystems requires an integrative approach that considers both above- and below-ground changes and examines patterns over a longer geographic and temporal scale, rather than just single sampling events.

Project description:Soil bacteria and fungi are known to form niche-specific communities that differ between actively growing and decaying roots. Yet almost nothing is known about the cross-kingdom interactions that frame these communities and the environmental filtering that defines these potentially friendly or competing neighbors. We explored the temporal and spatial patterns of soil fungal (mycorrhizal and nonmycorrhizal) and bacterial cooccurrence near roots of wild oat grass, Avena fatua, growing in its naturalized soil in a greenhouse experiment. Amplicon sequences of the fungal internal transcribed spacer (ITS) and bacterial 16S rRNA genes from rhizosphere and bulk soils collected at multiple plant growth stages were used to construct covariation-based networks as a step toward identifying fungal-bacterial associations. Corresponding stable-isotope-enabled metagenome-assembled genomes (MAGs) of bacteria identified in cooccurrence networks were used to inform potential mechanisms underlying the observed links. Bacterial-fungal networks were significantly different in rhizosphere versus bulk soils and between arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi (AMF) and nonmycorrhizal fungi. Over 12 weeks of plant growth, nonmycorrhizal fungi formed increasingly complex networks with bacteria in rhizosphere soils, while AMF more frequently formed networks with bacteria in bulk soils. Analysis of network-associated bacterial MAGs suggests that some of the fungal-bacterial links that we identified are potential indicators of bacterial breakdown and consumption of fungal biomass, while others intimate shared ecological niches.IMPORTANCE Soils near living and decomposing roots form distinct niches that promote microorganisms with distinctive environmental preferences and interactions. Yet few studies have assessed the community-level cooccurrence of bacteria and fungi in these soil niches as plant roots grow and senesce. With plant growth, we observed increasingly complex cooccurrence networks between nonmycorrhizal fungi and bacteria in the rhizosphere, while mycorrhizal fungal (AMF) and bacterial cooccurrence was more pronounced in soil further from roots, in the presence of decaying root litter. This rarely documented phenomenon suggests niche sharing of nonmycorrhizal fungi and bacteria, versus niche partitioning between AMF and bacteria; both patterns are likely driven by C substrate availability and quality. Although the implications of species cooccurrence are fiercely debated, MAGs matching the bacterial nodes in our networks possess the functional potential to interact with the fungi that they are linked to, suggesting an ecological significance of fungal-bacterial cooccurrence patterns.

Dataset Information

Fungi in the future: interannual variation and effects of atmospheric change on arbuscular mycorrhizal fungal communities.

Publications

Fungi in the future: interannual variation and effects of atmospheric change on arbuscular mycorrhizal fungal communities.

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