Dataset Information

Disentangling Large- and Small-Scale Abiotic and Biotic Factors Shaping Soil Microbial Communities in an Alpine Cushion Plant System.

ABSTRACT: Microorganisms play a crucial role in biogeochemical cycles and ecosystem processes, but the key factors driving microbial community structure are poorly understood, particularly in alpine environments. In this study, we aim to disentangle the relative contribution of abiotic and biotic factors shaping bacterial and fungal community structure at large and small spatial and integration scales in an alpine system dominated by a stress-tolerant cushion species Thylacospermum ceaspitosum. These effects were assessed in two mountain ranges of northwest China and for two contrasting phenotypes of the cushion species inhabiting two different microtopographic positions. The large- and small-scale abiotic effects include the site and microhabitat effects, respectively, while the large- and small-scale biotic effects include the effects of cushion presence and cushion phenotype, respectively. Soil microbial communities were characterized by Illumina Miseq sequencing. Uni- and multivariate statistics were used to test the effects of abiotic and biotic factors at both scales. Results indicated that the site effect representing the soil pH and abiotic hydrothermal conditions mainly affected bacterial community structure, whereas fungal community structure was mainly affected by biotic factors with an equal contribution of cushion presence and cushion phenotype effects. Future studies should analyze the direct factors contributing to shaping microbial community structure in particular of the cushion phenotypes.

SUBMITTER: Wang C

PROVIDER: S-EPMC7262953 | biostudies-literature | 2020

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

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Disentangling Large- and Small-Scale Abiotic and Biotic Factors Shaping Soil Microbial Communities in an Alpine Cushion Plant System.

Wang Chenyue C Michalet Richard R Liu Ziyang Z Jiang Xingpei X Wang Xiangtai X Zhang Gaosen G An Lizhe L Chen Shuyan S Xiao Sa S

Frontiers in microbiology 20200525

Microorganisms play a crucial role in biogeochemical cycles and ecosystem processes, but the key factors driving microbial community structure are poorly understood, particularly in alpine environments. In this study, we aim to disentangle the relative contribution of abiotic and biotic factors shaping bacterial and fungal community structure at large and small spatial and integration scales in an alpine system dominated by a stress-tolerant cushion species <i>Thylacospermum ceaspitosum</i>. The ...[more]

PMID: 32528430

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Project description:The relative importance of spatial and temporal variability in shaping the distribution of soil microbial communities at a large spatial scale remains poorly understood. Here, we explored the relative importance of space versus time when predicting the distribution of soil bacterial and fungal communities across North China Plain in two contrasting seasons (summer versus winter). Although we found that microbial alpha (number of phylotypes) and beta (changes in community composition) diversities differed significantly between summer and winter, space rather than season explained more of the spatiotemporal variation of soil microbial alpha and beta diversities. Environmental covariates explained some of microbial spatiotemporal variation observed, with fast-changing environmental covariates-climate variables, soil moisture, and available nutrient-likely being the main factors that drove the seasonal variation found in bacterial and fungal beta diversities. Using random forest modeling, we further identified a group of microbial exact sequence variants (ESVs) as indicators of summer and winter seasons and for which relative abundance was associated with fast-changing environmental variables (e.g., soil moisture and dissolved organic nitrogen). Together, our empirical field study's results suggest soil microbial seasonal variation could arise from the changes of fast-changing environmental variables, thus providing integral support to the large emerging body of snapshot studies related to microbial biogeography.IMPORTANCE Both space and time are key factors that regulate microbial community, but microbial temporal variation is often ignored at a large spatial scale. In this study, we compared spatial and seasonal effects on bacterial and fungal diversity variation across an 878-km transect and found direct evidence that space is far more important than season in regulating the soil microbial community. Partitioning the effect of season, space and environmental variables on microbial community, we further found that fast-changing environmental factors contributed to microbial temporal variation.

Dataset Information

Disentangling Large- and Small-Scale Abiotic and Biotic Factors Shaping Soil Microbial Communities in an Alpine Cushion Plant System.

Publications

Disentangling Large- and Small-Scale Abiotic and Biotic Factors Shaping Soil Microbial Communities in an Alpine Cushion Plant System.

Similar Datasets

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