Dataset Information

Seasonal, sub-seasonal and diurnal variation of soil bacterial community composition in a temperate deciduous forest.

ABSTRACT: The temporal dynamics of soil bacterial communities are understudied, but such understanding is critical to elucidating the drivers of community variation. The goal of this study was to characterize how soil bacterial communities vary across diurnal, sub-seasonal and seasonal time-scales in a 5.8 m2 plot and test the hypothesis that bacterial diversity varies on each of these scales. We used 16S rDNA gene amplicon sequencing to quantify the alpha and beta diversity of soil bacteria as well as the Net Relatedness Index and Nearest Taxon Indices to assess the degree of phylogenetic clustering, and the extent to which community shifts were driven by stochastic vs. deterministic limitation. We found that species richness was highest in winter, lowest in fall and that communities were compositionally distinct across seasons. There was no evidence of diurnal-scale shifts; the finest temporal scale over which community shifts were detected using our DNA-based analysis was between sampling dates separated by 6 weeks. Phylogenetic analyses suggested that seasonal-scale differences in community composition were the result of environmental filtering and homogeneous selection. Our findings provide insight into temporal variation of soil bacterial communities across the hourly to seasonal scales while minimizing the potential confounding effect of spatial variation.

SUBMITTER: Landesman WJ

PROVIDER: S-EPMC6353803 | biostudies-literature | 2019 Feb

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

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Seasonal, sub-seasonal and diurnal variation of soil bacterial community composition in a temperate deciduous forest.

Landesman William J WJ Freedman Zachary B ZB Nelson David M DM

FEMS microbiology ecology 20190201 2

The temporal dynamics of soil bacterial communities are understudied, but such understanding is critical to elucidating the drivers of community variation. The goal of this study was to characterize how soil bacterial communities vary across diurnal, sub-seasonal and seasonal time-scales in a 5.8 m2 plot and test the hypothesis that bacterial diversity varies on each of these scales. We used 16S rDNA gene amplicon sequencing to quantify the alpha and beta diversity of soil bacteria as well as th ...[more]

PMID: 30629168

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Project description:Fungal communities have been shown to be highly sensitive toward shifts in plant diversity and species composition in forest ecosystems. However, little is known about the impact of forest management on fungal diversity and community composition of geographically separated sites. This study examined the effects of four different forest management types on soil fungal communities. These forest management types include age class forests of young managed beech (Fagus sylvatica L.), with beech stands age of approximately 30 years, age class beech stands with an age of approximately 70 years, unmanaged beech stands, and coniferous stands dominated by either pine (Pinus sylvestris L.) or spruce (Picea abies Karst.) which are located in three study sites across Germany. Soil were sampled from 48 study plots and we employed fungal ITS rDNA pyrotag sequencing to assess the soil fungal diversity and community structure. We found that forest management type significantly affects the Shannon diversity of soil fungi and a significant interaction effect of study site and forest management on the fungal operational taxonomic units richness. Consequently distinct fungal communities were detected in the three study sites and within the four forest management types, which were mainly related to the main tree species. Further analysis of the contribution of soil properties revealed that C/N ratio being the most important factor in all the three study sites whereas soil pH was significantly related to the fungal community in two study sites. Functional assignment of the fungal communities indicated that 38% of the observed communities were Ectomycorrhizal fungi (ECM) and their distribution is significantly influenced by the forest management. Soil pH and C/N ratio were found to be the main drivers of the ECM fungal community composition. Additional fungal community similarity analysis revealed the presence of study site and management type specific ECM genera. This study extends our knowledge on the impact of forest management type on general and ectomycorrhizal fungal diversity and community structure in temperate forests. High plasticity across management types but also study site specific spatial distribution revealed new insights in the ECM fungal distribution patterns.

Project description:Soil respiration in forests contributes to significant carbon dioxide emissions from terrestrial ecosystems but it varies both spatially and seasonally. Both abiotic and biotic factors influence soil respiration but their relative contribution to spatial and seasonal variability remains poorly understood, which leads to uncertainty in models of global C cycling and predictions of future climate change. Here, we hypothesize that tree diversity, soil diversity, and soil properties contribute to local-scale variability of soil respiration but their relative importance changes in different seasons. To test our hypothesis, we conducted seasonal soil respiration measurements along a local-scale environmental gradient in a temperate forest in Northeast China, analyzed spatial variability of soil respiration and tested the relationships between soil respiration and a variety of abiotic and biotic factors including topography, soil chemical properties, and plant and soil diversity. We found that soil respiration varied substantially across the study site, with spatial coefficients of variation (CV) of 29.1%, 27.3% and 30.8% in spring, summer, and autumn, respectively. Soil respiration was consistently lower at high soil water content, but the influence of other factors was seasonal. In spring, soil respiration increased with tree diversity and biomass but decreased with soil fungal diversity. In summer, soil respiration increased with soil temperature, whereas in autumn, soil respiration increased with tree diversity but decreased with increasing soil nutrient content. However, soil nutrient content indirectly enhanced soil respiration via its effect on tree diversity across seasons, and forest stand structure indirectly enhanced soil respiration via tree diversity in spring. Our results highlight that substantial differences in soil respiration at local scales was jointly explained by soil properties (soil water content and soil nutrients), tree diversity, and soil fungal diversity but the relative importance of these drivers varied seasonally in our temperate forest.

Dataset Information

Seasonal, sub-seasonal and diurnal variation of soil bacterial community composition in a temperate deciduous forest.

Publications

Seasonal, sub-seasonal and diurnal variation of soil bacterial community composition in a temperate deciduous forest.

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