Dataset Information

Divergent accumulation of microbial necromass and plant lignin components in grassland soils.

ABSTRACT: The means through which microbes and plants contribute to soil organic carbon (SOC) accumulation remain elusive due to challenges in disentangling the complex components of SOC. Here we use amino sugars and lignin phenols as tracers for microbial necromass and plant lignin components, respectively, and investigate their distribution in the surface soils across Mongolian grasslands in comparison with published data for other grassland soils of the world. While lignin phenols decrease, amino sugars increase with SOC contents in all examined grassland soils, providing continental-scale evidence for the key role of microbial necromass in SOC accumulation. Moreover, in contrast to clay's control on amino sugar accumulation in fine-textured soils, aridity plays a central role in amino sugar accrual and lignin decomposition in the coarse-textured Mongolian soils. Hence, aridity shifts may have differential impacts on microbial-mediated SOC accumulation in grassland soils of varied textures.

SUBMITTER: Ma T

PROVIDER: S-EPMC6113315 | biostudies-literature | 2018 Aug

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

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Divergent accumulation of microbial necromass and plant lignin components in grassland soils.

Ma Tian T Zhu Shanshan S Wang Zhiheng Z Chen Dima D Dai Guohua G Feng Bowei B Su Xiangyan X Hu Huifeng H Li Kaihui K Han Wenxuan W Liang Chao C Bai Yongfei Y Feng Xiaojuan X

Nature communications 20180828 1

The means through which microbes and plants contribute to soil organic carbon (SOC) accumulation remain elusive due to challenges in disentangling the complex components of SOC. Here we use amino sugars and lignin phenols as tracers for microbial necromass and plant lignin components, respectively, and investigate their distribution in the surface soils across Mongolian grasslands in comparison with published data for other grassland soils of the world. While lignin phenols decrease, amino sugar ...[more]

PMID: 30154479

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Project description:IntroductionHuman concerns about fossil fuel depletion, energy security and environmental degradation have driven the rapid development of solar photovoltaic (PV) power generation. Most of the photovoltaic power generation plants are concentrated in desert, grassland and arable land, which means the change of land use type. However, there is still a gap in the research of the PV panel layout on grassland plant species diversity and ecological function.MethodsIn this study, Illumina high-throughput sequencing technology was used to investigate the effects of PV panel arrangement on grassland plant species diversity and soil microbial diversity. In view of the differences in the microclimate at different sites of the PV panels, quadrates were arranged in front edge (FE), beneath the center of each panel (BP), back edge (BE), the uncovered interspace adjacent to each panel (IS) and the undisturbed grassland around the PV panels (Control), respectively.ResultsPV panels (especially FE) significantly increased the total aboveground productivity (total AGB) and plant species diversity in grasslands. FE increased precipitation accumulation and plant species diversity directly and indirectly changed the diversity of soil bacterial and fungal communities. PV panels decreased the relative abundance of Actinobacteriota, while increased the relative abundance of Proteobacteria, Acidobacteriota, and Methylomirabilota. EC, Margalef' s richness and total AGB were the main factors affecting the composition of bacterial communities, while alkaline hydrolysis nitrogen (AN) and available phosphorus (AP) were the main factors affecting the composition of fungal communities.DiscussionIn conclusion, the arrangement of PV panels increased the plant species diversity and soil microorganisms in grassland. This study provides important information for further understanding the impact of PV panels on grassland ecosystem function and is of great significance for maintaining grassland ecosystem function.

Project description:Microarrays have become established tools for describing microbial systems, however the assessment of expression profiles for environmental microbial communities still presents unique challenges. Notably, the concentration of particular transcripts are likely very dilute relative to the pool of total RNA, and PCR-based amplification strategies are vulnerable to amplification biases and the appropriate primer selection. Thus, we apply a signal amplification approach, rather than template amplification, to analyze the expression of selected lignin-degrading enzymes in soil. Controls in the form of known amplicons and cDNA from Phanerochaete chrysosporium were included and mixed with the soil cDNA both before and after the signal amplification in order to assess the dynamic range of the microarray. We demonstrate that restored prairie soil expresses a diverse range of lignin-degrading enzymes following incubation with lignin substrate, while farmed agricultural soil does not. The mixed additions of control cDNA with soil cDNA indicate that the mixed biomass in the soil does interfere with low abundance transcript changes, nevertheless our microarray approach consistently reports the most robust signals. Keywords: comparative analysis, microbial ecology, soil microbial communities We used lignin degradation as a model process to demonstrate the use of an oligonucleotide microarray for directly detecting gene expression in soil communities using signal amplification instead of template amplification to avoid the introduction of PCR bias. In the current study, we analyzed mRNA isolated from two distinct soil microbial communities and demonstrate our ability to detect the expression of a small subset of lignin degrading genes following exposure to a lignitic substrate. We also included purified control amplicons and mixed target experiments with pure P. chrysosporium genomic cDNA to determine the level of interference from soil biomass on target hybridization.

Dataset Information

Divergent accumulation of microbial necromass and plant lignin components in grassland soils.

Publications

Divergent accumulation of microbial necromass and plant lignin components in grassland soils.

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