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A novel testate amoebae trait-based approach to infer environmental disturbance in Sphagnum peatlands.

ABSTRACT: Species' functional traits are closely related to ecosystem processes through evolutionary adaptation, and are thus directly connected to environmental changes. Species' traits are not commonly used in palaeoecology, even though they offer powerful advantages in understanding the impact of environmental disturbances in a mechanistic way over time. Here we show that functional traits of testate amoebae (TA), a common group of palaeoecological indicators, can serve as an early warning signal of ecosystem disturbance and help determine thresholds of ecosystem resilience to disturbances in peatlands. We analysed TA traits from two Sphagnum-dominated mires, which had experienced different kinds of disturbances in the past 2000 years - fire and peat extraction, respectively. We tested the effect of disturbances on the linkages between TA community structure, functional trait composition and functional diversity using structural equation modelling. We found that traits such as mixotrophy and small hidden apertures (plagiostomic apertures) are strongly connected with disturbance, suggesting that these two traits can be used as palaeoecological proxies of peatland disturbance. We show that TA functional traits may serve as a good proxy of past environmental changes, and further analysis of trait-ecosystem relationships could make them valuable indicators of the contemporary ecosystem state.

SUBMITTER: Marcisz K

PROVIDER: S-EPMC5034269 | biostudies-literature | 2016 Sep

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

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A novel testate amoebae trait-based approach to infer environmental disturbance in Sphagnum peatlands.

Marcisz Katarzyna K Colombaroli Daniele D Jassey Vincent E J VE Tinner Willy W Kołaczek Piotr P Gałka Mariusz M Karpińska-Kołaczek Monika M Słowiński Michał M Lamentowicz Mariusz M

Scientific reports 20160923

Species' functional traits are closely related to ecosystem processes through evolutionary adaptation, and are thus directly connected to environmental changes. Species' traits are not commonly used in palaeoecology, even though they offer powerful advantages in understanding the impact of environmental disturbances in a mechanistic way over time. Here we show that functional traits of testate amoebae (TA), a common group of palaeoecological indicators, can serve as an early warning signal of ec ...[more]

PMID: 27658521

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Project description:Peatland testate amoebae (TA) are well-established bioindicators for depth to water table (DWT), but effects of hydrological changes on TA communities have never been tested experimentally. We tested this in a field experiment by placing Sphagnum carpets (15 cm diameter) collected in hummock, lawn and pool microsites (origin) at three local conditions (dry, moist and wet) using trenches dug in a peatland. One series of samples was seeded with microorganism extract from all microsites. TA community were analysed at T0: 8-2008, T1: 5-2009 and T2: 8-2009. We analysed the data using conditional inference trees, principal response curves (PRC) and DWT inferred from TA communities using a transfer function used for paleoecological reconstruction. Density declined from T0 to T1 and then increased sharply by T2. Species richness, Simpson diversity and Simpson evenness were lower at T2 than at T0 and T1. Seeded communities had higher species richness in pool samples at T0. Pool samples tended to have higher density, lower species richness, Simpson diversity and Simpson Evenness than hummock and/or lawn samples until T1. In the PRC, the effect of origin was significant at T0 and T1, but the effect faded away by T2. Seeding effect was strongest at T1 and lowest vanished by T2. Local condition effect was strong but not in line with the wetness gradient at T1 but started to reflect it by T2. Likewise, TA-inferred DWT started to match the experimental conditions by T2, but more so in hummock and lawn samples than in pool samples. This study confirmed that TA responds to hydrological changes over a 1-year period. However, sensitivity of TA to hydrological fluctuations, and thus the accuracy of inferred DWT changes, was habitat specific, pool TA communities being least responsive to environmental changes. Lawns and hummocks may be thus better suited than pools for paleoecological reconstructions. This, however, contrasts with the higher prediction error and species' tolerance for DWT with increasing dryness observed in transfer function models.

Project description:Arcellinida (testate lobose amoebae) were examined from 40 near-surface sediment samples (top 0.5 cm) from two lakes impacted by arsenic (As) contamination associated with legacy gold mining in subarctic Canada. The objectives of the study are two folds: quantify the response of Arcellinida to intra-lake variability of As and other physicochemical controls, and evaluate whether the impact of As contamination derived from two former gold mines, Giant Mine (1938-2004) and Tundra Mine (1964-1968 and 1983-1986), on the Arcellinida distribution in both lakes is comparable or different. Cluster analysis and nonmetric multidimensional scaling (NMDS) were used to identify Arcellinida assemblages in both lakes, and redundancy analysis (RDA) was used to quantify the relationship between the assemblages, As, and other geochemical and sedimentological parameters. Cluster analysis and NMDS revealed four distinct arcellinidan assemblages in Frame Lake (assemblages 1-4) and two in Hambone Lake (assemblages 5 and 6): (1) Extreme As Contamination (EAC) Assemblage; (2) High calcium (HC) Assemblage; (3) Moderate As Contamination (MAC) assemblages; (4) High Nutrients (HN) Assemblage; (5) High Diversity (HD) Assemblage; and (6) Centropyxis aculeata (CA) Assemblage. RDA analysis showed that the faunal structure of the Frame Lake assemblages was controlled by five variables that explained 43.2% of the total faunal variance, with As (15.8%), Olsen phosphorous (Olsen-P; 10.5%), and Ca (9.5%) being the most statistically significant (p < 0.004). Stress-tolerant arcellinidan taxa were associated with elevated As concentrations (e.g., EAC and MAC; As concentrations range = 145.1-1336.6 mg kg-1; n = 11 samples), while stress-sensitive taxa thrived in relatively healthier assemblages found in substrates with lower As concentrations and higher concentrations of nutrients, such as Olsen-P and Ca (e.g., HC and HM; As concentrations range = 151.1-492.3 mg kg-1; n = 14 samples). In contrast, the impact of As on the arcellinidan distribution was not statistically significant in Hambone Lake (7.6%; p-value = 0.152), where the proportion of silt (24.4%; p-value = 0.005) and loss-on-ignition-determined minerogenic content (18.5%; p-value = 0.021) explained a higher proportion of the total faunal variance (58.4%). However, a notable decrease in arcellinidan species richness and abundance and increase in the proportions of stress-tolerant fauna near Hambone Lake's outlet (e.g., CA samples) is consistent with a spatial gradient of higher sedimentary As concentration near the outlet, and suggests a lasting, albeit weak, As influence on Arcellinida distribution in the lake. We interpret differences in the influence of sedimentary As concentration on Arcellinida to differences in the predominant As mineralogy in each lake, which is in turn influenced by differences in ore-processing at the former Giant (roasting) and Tundra mines (free-milling).

Project description:Mid- to high-latitude peatlands are a major terrestrial carbon stock but become carbon sources during droughts, which are increasingly frequent as a result of climate warming. A critical question within this context is the sensitivity to drought of peatland microbial food webs. Microbiota drive key ecological and biogeochemical processes, but their response to drought is likely to impact these processes. Peatland food webs have, however, been little studied, especially the response of microbial predators. We studied the response of microbial predators (testate amoebae, ciliates, rotifers, and nematodes) living in Sphagnum moss carpet to droughts, and their influence on lower trophic levels and on related microbial enzyme activity. We assessed the impact of reduced water availability on microbial predators in two peatlands using experimental (Linje mire, Poland) and natural (Forbonnet mire, France) water level gradients, reflecting a sudden change in moisture regime (Linje), and a typically drier environment (Forbonnet). The sensitivity of different microbial groups to drought was size dependent; large sized microbiota such as testate amoebae declined most under dry conditions (-41% in Forbonnet and -80% in Linje). These shifts caused a decrease in the predator-prey mass ratio (PPMR). We related microbial enzymatic activity to PPMR; we found that a decrease in PPMR can have divergent effects on microbial enzymatic activity. In a community adapted to drier conditions, decreasing PPMR stimulated microbial enzyme activity, while in extreme drought experiment, it reduced microbial activity. These results suggest that microbial enzymatic activity resulting from food web structure is optimal only within a certain range of PPMR, and that different trophic mechanisms are involved in the response of peatlands to droughts. Our findings confirm the importance of large microbial consumers living at the surface of peatlands on the functioning of peatlands, and illustrate their value as early warning indicators of change.

Dataset Information

A novel testate amoebae trait-based approach to infer environmental disturbance in Sphagnum peatlands.

Publications

A novel testate amoebae trait-based approach to infer environmental disturbance in Sphagnum peatlands.

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