Dataset Information

Land-Use Intensity Rather Than Plant Functional Identity Shapes Bacterial and Fungal Rhizosphere Communities.

ABSTRACT: The rhizosphere encompasses the soil surrounding the surface of plants' fine roots. Accordingly, the microbiome present is influenced by both soil type and plant species. Furthermore, soil microbial communities respond to land-use intensity due to the effects on soil conditions and plant performance. However, there is limited knowledge about the impact of grassland management practices under field conditions on the composition of both bacteria and fungi in the rhizosphere of different plant functional groups. In spring 2014 we planted four phytometer species, two forbs (Plantago lanceolata, Achillea millefolium) and two grasses (Dactylis glomerata, Arrhenatherum elatius) into 13 permanent experimental grassland plots, differing in management. After 6 months, rhizosphere and bulk soil associated with the phytometer plants were sampled, microbial genomic DNA was extracted and bacterial 16S and fungal ITS rDNA were sequenced using Illumina MiSeq. Our study revealed that the rhizosphere microbial community was more diverse than the bulk soil community. There were no differences in microbial community composition between the two plant functional groups, but a clear impact of root traits and edaphic conditions. Land-use intensity strongly affected plant productivity, neighboring plant richness and edaphic conditions, especially soil C/N ratio, which in turn had a strong influence on root traits and thereby explained to large extent microbial community composition. Rhizosphere microbes were mainly affected by abiotic factors, in particular by land-use intensity, while plant functional type had only subordinate effects. Our study provides novel insights into the assembly of rhizosphere bacterial and fungal communities in response to land-use intensity and plant functional groups in managed grassland ecosystems.

SUBMITTER: Schops R

PROVIDER: S-EPMC6255942 | biostudies-literature | 2018

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

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Land-Use Intensity Rather Than Plant Functional Identity Shapes Bacterial and Fungal Rhizosphere Communities.

Schöps Ricardo R Goldmann Kezia K Herz Katharina K Lentendu Guillaume G Schöning Ingo I Bruelheide Helge H Wubet Tesfaye T Buscot François F

Frontiers in microbiology 20181120

The rhizosphere encompasses the soil surrounding the surface of plants' fine roots. Accordingly, the microbiome present is influenced by both soil type and plant species. Furthermore, soil microbial communities respond to land-use intensity due to the effects on soil conditions and plant performance. However, there is limited knowledge about the impact of grassland management practices under field conditions on the composition of both bacteria and fungi in the rhizosphere of different plant func ...[more]

PMID: 30515138

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Project description:Plant communities and fungi inhabiting their phyllospheres change along precipitation gradients and often respond to changes in land use. Many studies have focused on the changes in foliar fungal communities on specific plant species, however, few have addressed the association between whole plant communities and their phyllosphere fungi. We sampled plant communities and associated phyllosphere fungal communities in native prairie remnants and post-agricultural sites across the steep precipitation gradient in the central plains in Kansas, USA. Plant community cover data and MiSeq ITS2 metabarcode data of the phyllosphere fungal communities indicated that both plant and fungal community composition respond strongly to mean annual precipitation (MAP), but less so to land use (native prairie remnants vs. post-agricultural sites). However, plant and fungal diversity were greater in the native remnant prairies than in post-agricultural sites. Overall, both plant and fungal diversity increased with MAP and the communities in the arid and mesic parts of the gradient were distinct. Analyses of the linkages between plant and fungal communities (Mantel and Procrustes tests) identified strong correlations between the composition of the two. However, despite the strong correlations, regression models with plant richness, diversity, or composition (ordination axis scores) and land use as explanatory variables for fungal diversity and evenness did not improve the models compared to those with precipitation and land use (ΔAIC < 2), even though the explanatory power of some plant variables was greater than that of MAP as measured by R2. Indicator taxon analyses suggest that grass species are the primary taxa that differ in the plant communities. Similar analyses of the phyllosphere fungi indicated that many plant pathogens are disproportionately abundant either in the arid or mesic environments. Although decoupling the drivers of fungal communities and their composition - whether abiotic or host-dependent - remains a challenge, our study highlights the distinct community responses to precipitation and the tight tracking of the plant communities by their associated fungal symbionts.

Project description:Grassland biodiversity is vulnerable to land use change. How to best manage semi-natural grasslands for maintaining biodiversity is still unclear in many cases because land-use processes may depend on environmental conditions and the indirect effects of land-use on biodiversity mediated by altered abiotic and biotic factors are rarely considered. Here we evaluate the relative importance of the direct and indirect effects of grazing intensity on plant communities along an elevational gradient on a large topographic scale in the Eastern Carpathians in Ukraine. We sampled for two years 31 semi-natural grasslands exposed to cattle grazing. Within each grassland site we measured plant community properties such as the number of species, functional groups, and the proportion of species undesirable for grazing. In addition, we recorded cattle density (as a proxy for grazing intensity), soil properties (bare soil exposure, soil organic carbon, and soil pH) and densities of soil decomposers (earthworms and soil microorganisms). We used structural equation modelling to explore the direct and indirect effects of grazing intensity on plant communities along the elevation gradient. We found that cattle density decreased plant species and functional diversity but increased the proportion of undesirable species. Some of these effects were directly linked to grazing intensity (i.e., species richness), while others (i.e., functional diversity and proportion of undesirable species) were mediated via bare soil exposure. Although grazing intensity decreased with elevation, the effects of grazing on the plant community did not change along the elevation gradient. Generally, elevation had a strong positive direct effect on plant species richness as well as a negative indirect effect, mediated via altered soil acidity and decreased decomposer density. Our results indicate that plant diversity and composition are controlled by the complex interplay among grazing intensity and changing environmental conditions along an elevation gradient. Furthermore, we found lower soil pH, organic carbon and decomposer density with elevation, indicating that the effects of grazing on soil and related ecosystem functions and services in semi-natural grasslands may be more pronounced with elevation. This demonstrates that we need to account for environmental gradients when attempting to generalize effects of land-use intensity on biodiversity.

Project description:BackgroundPhyllosphere microbes play important roles in host plant performance and fitness. Recent studies have suggested that tropical and temperate forests harbor diverse phyllosphere bacterial and fungal communities and their assembly is driven by host species identity and plant traits. However, no study has yet examined how seasonality (e.g. dry vs. wet seasons) influences phyllosphere microbial community assembly in natural forests. In addition, in subtropical forests characterized as the transitional zonal vegetation type from tropical to temperate forests, how tree phyllosphere microbial communities are assembled remains unknown. In this study, we quantified bacterial and fungal community structure and diversity on the leaves of 45 tree species with varying phylogenetic identities and importance values within a 20-ha lower subtropical evergreen broad-leaved forest plot in dry and wet seasons. We explored if and how the microbial community assembly varies with host species identity, plant traits and seasonality.ResultsPhyllosphere microbial communities in the subtropical forest are more abundant and diverse than those in tropical and temperate forests, and the tree species share a "core microbiome" in either bacteria or fungi. Variations in phyllosphere bacterial and fungal community assembly are explained more by host species identity than by seasonality. There is a strong clustering of the phyllosphere microbial assemblage amongst trees by seasonality, and the seasonality effects are more pronounced on bacterial than fungal community assembly. Host traits have different effects on community compositions and diversities of both bacteria and fungi, and among them calcium concentration and importance value are the most powerful explaining variables for bacteria and fungi, respectively. There are significant evolutionary associations between host species and phyllosphere microbiome.ConclusionsOur results suggest that subtropical tree phyllosphere microbial communities vary with host species identity, plant traits and seasonality. Host species identity, compared to seasonality, has greater effects on phyllosphere microbial community assembly, and such effects differ between bacterial and fungal communities. These findings advance our understanding of the patterns and drivers of phyllosphere microbial community assembly in zonal forests at a global scale.

Dataset Information

Land-Use Intensity Rather Than Plant Functional Identity Shapes Bacterial and Fungal Rhizosphere Communities.

Publications

Land-Use Intensity Rather Than Plant Functional Identity Shapes Bacterial and Fungal Rhizosphere Communities.

Similar Datasets

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