The role of multiple global change factors in driving soil functions and microbial biodiversity.
Ontology highlight
ABSTRACT:
SUBMITTER: Rillig MC
PROVIDER: S-EPMC6941939 | biostudies-literature | 2019 Nov
REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature
Publications
The role of multiple global change factors in driving soil functions and microbial biodiversity.
Rillig Matthias C MC Ryo Masahiro M Lehmann Anika A Aguilar-Trigueros Carlos A CA Buchert Sabine S Wulf Anja A Iwasaki Aiko A Roy Julien J Yang Gaowen G
Science (New York, N.Y.) 20191101 6467
Soils underpin terrestrial ecosystem functions, but they face numerous anthropogenic pressures. Despite their crucial ecological role, we know little about how soils react to more than two environmental factors at a time. Here, we show experimentally that increasing the number of simultaneous global change factors (up to 10) caused increasing directional changes in soil properties, soil processes, and microbial communities, though there was greater uncertainty in predicting the magnitude of chan ...[more]
Similar Datasets
Project description:Biodiversity on the Earth is changing at an unprecedented rate due to a variety of global change factors (GCFs). However, the effects of GCFs on microbial diversity is unclear despite that soil microorganisms play a critical role in biogeochemical cycling. Here, we synthesize 1235 GCF observations worldwide and show that microbial rare species are more sensitive to GCFs than common species, while GCFs do not always lead to a reduction in microbial diversity. GCFs-induced shifts in microbial alpha diversity can be predominately explained by the changed soil pH. In addition, GCF impacts on soil functionality are explained by microbial community structure and biomass rather than the alpha diversity. Altogether, our findings of GCF impacts on microbial diversity are fundamentally different from previous knowledge for well-studied plant and animal communities, and are crucial to policy-making for the conservation of microbial diversity hotspots under global changes.
| S-EPMC7300008 | biostudies-literature
Project description:Researchers agree that climate change factors such as rising atmospheric [CO2] and warming will likely interact to modify ecosystem properties and processes. However, the response of the microbial communities that regulate ecosystem processes is less predictable. We measured the direct and interactive effects of climatic change on soil fungal and bacterial communities (abundance and composition) in a multifactor climate change experiment that exposed a constructed old-field ecosystem to different atmospheric CO2 concentration (ambient, +300 ppm), temperature (ambient, +3 degrees C), and precipitation (wet and dry) might interact to alter soil bacterial and fungal abundance and community structure in an old-field ecosystem. We found that (i) fungal abundance increased in warmed treatments; (ii) bacterial abundance increased in warmed plots with elevated atmospheric [CO2] but decreased in warmed plots under ambient atmospheric [CO2]; (iii) the phylogenetic distribution of bacterial and fungal clones and their relative abundance varied among treatments, as indicated by changes in 16S rRNA and 28S rRNA genes; (iv) changes in precipitation altered the relative abundance of Proteobacteria and Acidobacteria, where Acidobacteria decreased with a concomitant increase in the Proteobacteria in wet relative to dry treatments; and (v) changes in precipitation altered fungal community composition, primarily through lineage specific changes within a recently discovered group known as soil clone group I. Taken together, our results indicate that climate change drivers and their interactions may cause changes in bacterial and fungal overall abundance; however, changes in precipitation tended to have a much greater effect on the community composition. These results illustrate the potential for complex community changes in terrestrial ecosystems under climate change scenarios that alter multiple factors simultaneously.
| S-EPMC2820983 | biostudies-literature
Project description:Environmental properties are important factors in structuring soil microbial communities. The primary driving factors vary in different ecosystems. In the present work, we analyzed the microbial communities of rhizosphere and bulk soils associated with the halophyte Alhagi sparsifolia across three salt/water gradients in the desert area around Ebinur Lake Basin, China, using high-throughput sequencing technology. We found that there were significant differences in soil water content (SWC), soil salinity (SAL), total nitrogen (TN), and total phosphorus (TP) contents between the three water/salt gradients. In the L (low water and salt) plot, Actinobacteria was the most abundant bacterial phylum while Ascomycota was the dominant fungal phylum. The relative abundance of Actinobacteria was negatively correlated with soil pH, soil organic carbon (SOC), TP, and available phosphorus (AP). The abundance of Bacteroidetes was significantly positively correlated with soil SOC, SWC, SAL, pH, TN, and TP (P < 0.05). The abundance of fungal phylum Chytridiomycota was significantly positively correlated with pH (P < 0.01), SWC, AP, and sulfate ion (P < 0.05). SOC and nitrate nitrogen were the main factors impacting the bacterial community, while ammonium nitrogen (NH4+) and TP were the main driving forces for the fungal community. Soil nutrients were the main contributors to the dissimilarities in the bacterial and fungal communities, explaining 48.06% and 44.45% of the variation. SWC, SAL, and pH explained only a small percentage of the microbial community dissimilarity. In conclusion, soil microbial community structure was affected by SWC, SAL, pH, and soil nutrients, with soil nutrients as the main driving factors. Nitrogen has a differential effect on the different microbial communities: bacterial communities of Alhagi sparsifolia were mainly affected by nitrate nitrogen, while fungal communities were mainly driven by ammonium nitrogen.
| S-EPMC8270470 | biostudies-literature
Project description:Maintaining stability of ecosystem functions in the face of global change calls for a better understanding regulatory factors of functionally specialized microbial groups and their population response to disturbance. In this study, we explored this issue by collecting soils from 54 managed ecosystems in China and conducting a microcosm experiment to link disturbance, elemental stoichiometry, and genetic resistance. Soil carbon:nitrogen:phosphorus (C:N:P) stoichiometry imparted a greater effect on the abundance of microbial groups associated with main C, N, and P biogeochemical processes in comparison with mean annual temperature and precipitation. Nitrogen cycling genes, including bacterial amoA-b, nirS, narG, and norB, exhibited the highest genetic resistance to N deposition. The amoA-a and nosZ genes exhibited the highest resistance to warming and drying-wetting cycles, respectively. Soil total C, N, and P contents and their ratios had a strong direct effect on the genetic resistance of microbial groups, which was dependent on mean annual temperature and precipitation. Specifically, soil C/P ratio was the main predictor of N cycling genetic resistance to N deposition. Soil total C and N contents and their ratios were the main predictors of P cycling genetic resistance to N deposition, warming, and drying-wetting. Overall, our work highlights the importance of soil stoichiometric balance for maintaining the ability of ecosystem functions to withstand global change.IMPORTANCE To be effective in predicting future stability of soil functions in the context of various external disturbances, it is necessary to follow the effects of global change on functionally specialized microbes related to C and nutrient cycling. Our study represents an exploratory effort to couple the stoichiometric drivers to microbial populations related with main C, N, and P cycling and their resistances to global change. The abundance of microbial groups involved in cellulose, starch, and xylan degradation, nitrification, N fixation, denitrification, organic P mineralization, and inorganic P dissolution showed a high stoichiometry dependency. Resistance of these microbial populations to global change could be predicted by soil C:N:P stoichiometry. Our work highlights that stoichiometric balance in soil C and nutrients is instrumental in maintaining the stability and adaptability of ecosystem functions under global change.
| S-EPMC7329320 | biostudies-literature
Project description:Soils harbor a substantial fraction of the world's biodiversity, contributing to many crucial ecosystem functions. It is thus essential to identify general macroecological patterns related to the distribution and functioning of soil organisms to support their conservation and consideration by governance. These macroecological analyses need to represent the diversity of environmental conditions that can be found worldwide. Here we identify and characterize existing environmental gaps in soil taxa and ecosystem functioning data across soil macroecological studies and 17,186 sampling sites across the globe. These data gaps include important spatial, environmental, taxonomic, and functional gaps, and an almost complete absence of temporally explicit data. We also identify the limitations of soil macroecological studies to explore general patterns in soil biodiversity-ecosystem functioning relationships, with only 0.3% of all sampling sites having both information about biodiversity and function, although with different taxonomic groups and functions at each site. Based on this information, we provide clear priorities to support and expand soil macroecological research.
| S-EPMC7400591 | biostudies-literature
Project description:The world demand for phosphate has gradually increased over the last decades, currently achieving alarming levels considering available rock reserves. The use of soil microorganisms, such as arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi (AMF), has been suggested as a promising alternative to improve phosphorus-use efficiency. However, the effect of the source of phosphorus on the interactions within the soil microbial community remains unclear. Here, we evaluated the links between the total dry matter content of sugarcane and the interactions within the soil microbial community under different phosphate sources, with/without AMF inoculation. The phosphate sources were Simple Superphosphate (SS, 18% of P2O5), Catalão rock phosphate (CA, 2.93% of P2O5) and Bayovar rock phosphate (BA, 14% of P2O5). The results indicated that the BA source led to the largest total dry matter content. The phosphate source affected total dry matter and the structure of the soil microbial communities. The bacterial interactions increased across sources with high percentage of P2O5, while the fungal interactions decreased. The interactions between bacterial and fungal microorganisms allowed to identify the percentage of P2O5 resulting in the highest total sugarcane dry matter. Our findings suggested the soil microbial interactions as a potential microbial indicator helping to improve the agricultural management.
| S-EPMC6416284 | biostudies-literature
Project description:Biodiversity is crucial for the provision of ecosystem functions. However, ecosystems are now exposed to a rapidly growing number of anthropogenic pressures, and it remains unknown whether biodiversity can still promote ecosystem functions under multifaceted pressures. Here we investigated the effects of soil microbial diversity on soil functions and properties when faced with an increasing number of simultaneous global change factors in experimental microcosms. Higher soil microbial diversity had a positive effect on soil functions and properties when no or few (i.e., 1-4) global change factors were applied, but this positive effect was eliminated by the co-occurrence of numerous global change factors. This was attributable to the reduction of soil fungal abundance and the relative abundance of an ecological cluster of coexisting soil bacterial and fungal taxa. Our study indicates that reducing the number of anthropogenic pressures should be a goal in ecosystem management, in addition to biodiversity conservation.
| S-EPMC9308766 | biostudies-literature
Project description:International policy is placing increasing emphasis on adaptation to climate change, including the allocation of new funds to assist adaptation efforts. Climate change adaptation funding may be most effective where it meets integrated goals, but global geographic priorities based on multiple development and ecological criteria are not well characterized. Here we show that human and natural adaptation needs related to maintaining agricultural productivity and ecosystem integrity intersect in ten major areas globally, providing a coherent set of international priorities for adaptation funding. An additional seven regional areas are identified as worthy of additional study. The priority areas are locations where changes in crop suitability affecting impoverished farmers intersect with changes in ranges of restricted-range species. Agreement among multiple climate models and emissions scenarios suggests that these priorities are robust. Adaptation funding directed to these areas could simultaneously address multiple international policy goals, including poverty reduction, protecting agricultural production and safeguarding ecosystem services.
| S-EPMC3749124 | biostudies-literature
Project description:Mounting evidence indicates that we are witnessing the sixth mass extinction period. Given the important goods and services biodiversity delivers to humans, there is a need for a continued commitment to investigate what pre-disposes some taxa to greater risk of extinction. Here, we investigate this question using a phylogenetic comparative method and fitting a cumulative link mixed effect model on biological, ecological and evolutionary data of cycads, the most threatened lineage in the plant kingdom. We identified nine groups of threats to cycads, with habitat loss, over-collection, fire and reproduction failure being the most prominent, but only four of these threats (habitat loss, over-collection, medicinal uses and reproduction failure) clustered on the cycad tree of life. This clustering suggests that closely related species may be exposed to similar threats, perhaps because of geographic regionalization of cycad genera. Nonetheless, the diversity of threats and several variables linked to the biology and ecology of cycads correlate with extinction risk (e.g. altitude, height, diameter, geographic range), and different variables seem to be linked to different IUCN status of cycads. Although their predictive power is generally?<?50?%, geographic range and maximum diameter stood out as the best predictors particularly for the Vulnerable (VU) category, with a predictive power of 87?% and 69?%, respectively. Using our best model for VU, we predicted all five Data Deficient (DD) species of cycads to be in the VU category. Collectively, our results elucidate the pattern of extinction risk in cycads and, since most threats that we identified as drivers of extinction risk of cycads are anthropogenically mediated, we recommend stronger legislation to regulate human-cycad interactions and the commitment of all governments globally to implement this regulation.
| S-EPMC5506724 | biostudies-literature
Project description:Conserving different spatial and temporal dimensions of biological diversity is considered necessary for maintaining ecosystem functions under predicted global change scenarios. Recent work has shifted the focus from spatially local (α-diversity) to macroecological scales (β- and γ-diversity), emphasizing links between macroecological biodiversity and ecosystem functions (MB-EF relationships). However, before the outcomes of MB-EF analyses can be useful to real-world decisions, empirical modeling needs to be developed for natural ecosystems, incorporating a broader range of data inputs, environmental change scenarios, underlying mechanisms, and predictions. We outline the key conceptual and technical challenges currently faced in developing such models and in testing and calibrating the relationships assumed in these models using data from real ecosystems. These challenges are explored in relation to two potential MB-EF mechanisms: "macroecological complementarity" and "spatiotemporal compensation." Several regions have been sufficiently well studied over space and time to robustly test these mechanisms by combining cutting-edge spatiotemporal methods with remotely sensed data, including plant community data sets in Australia, Europe, and North America. Assessing empirical MB-EF relationships at broad spatiotemporal scales will be crucial in ensuring these macroecological processes can be adequately considered in the management of biodiversity and ecosystem functions under global change.
| S-EPMC4798165 | biostudies-literature