Dataset Information

Effect of Alteration in Precipitation Amount on Soil Microbial Community in a Semi-Arid Grassland.

ABSTRACT: Climate models predict significant changes in precipitation magnitude in semi-arid grasslands, so it is vital to improve our understanding of how changing precipitation affects microbial communities in grassland ecosystems. Using a long-term field manipulation experiment, we evaluated the responses of microbial communities to a decrease (DP) and an increase (IP) in precipitation on a semi-arid grassland in northern China. The results showed that bacterial species richness decreased significantly with DP but remained stable under IP. Relative abundance of oligotrophic, slow-growing bacterial phyla (e.g., Chloroflexi and Acidobacteria) increased with DP but decreased with IP, whereas the relative abundance of copiotrophic, fast-growing bacterial phyla (e.g., Proteobacteria and Bacteroidetes) decreased with DP but increased with IP. In contrast, diversity, species composition, and relative abundance of different fungal phyla change little with DP or IP. These results indicate a greater sensitivity of bacteria to precipitation changes than fungi, and the sensitivity of bacteria to DP was higher than IP. Our findings are important for understanding soil microbial dynamics under future climate change scenarios.

SUBMITTER: Li J

PROVIDER: S-EPMC8969558 | biostudies-literature | 2022

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

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Effect of Alteration in Precipitation Amount on Soil Microbial Community in a Semi-Arid Grassland.

Li Junyong J Benti Girmaye G Wang Dong D Yang Zhongling Z Xiao Rui R

Frontiers in microbiology 20220317

Climate models predict significant changes in precipitation magnitude in semi-arid grasslands, so it is vital to improve our understanding of how changing precipitation affects microbial communities in grassland ecosystems. Using a long-term field manipulation experiment, we evaluated the responses of microbial communities to a decrease (DP) and an increase (IP) in precipitation on a semi-arid grassland in northern China. The results showed that bacterial species richness decreased significantly ...[more]

PMID: 35369529

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Project description:IntroductionGlobal climate change may lead to changes in precipitation patterns. This may have a significant impact on the microbial communities present in the soil. However, the way these communities respond to seasonal variations in precipitation, particularly in the context of increased precipitation amounts, is not yet well understood.MethodsTo explore this issue, a five-year (2012-2016) field study was conducted at the northeast boundary of the Ulan Buh Desert, examining the effects of increased precipitation during different periods of the growing season on both bacterial and fungal communities. The study included five precipitation pattern treatments: a control group (C), as well as groups receiving 50 and 100% of the local mean annual precipitation amount (145 mm) during either the early growing season (E50 and E100) or the late growing season (L50 and L100). The taxonomic composition of the soil bacterial and fungal communities was analyzed using Illumina sequencing.ResultsAfter 5 years, the bacterial community composition had significantly changed in all treatment groups, with soil bacteria proving to be more sensitive to changes in precipitation timing than to increased precipitation amounts within the desert ecosystem. Specifically, the alpha diversity of bacterial communities in the late growing season plots (L50 and L100) decreased significantly, while no significant changes were observed in the early growing season plots (E50 and E100). In contrast, fungal community composition remained relatively stable in response to changes in precipitation patterns. Predictions of bacterial community function suggested that the potential functional taxa in the bacterial community associated with the cycling of carbon and nitrogen were significantly altered in the late growing season (L50 and L100).DiscussionThese findings emphasize the importance of precipitation timing in regulating microbial communities and ecosystem functions in arid regions experiencing increased precipitation amounts.

Project description:European dry thin-soil calcareous grasslands (alvars) are species-rich semi-natural habitats. Cessation of traditional management, such as mowing and grazing, leads to shrub and tree encroachment and the local extinction of characteristic alvar species. While soil microbes are known to play a critical role in driving vegetation and ecosystem dynamics, more information is needed about their composition and function in grasslands of different dynamic stages. Here we assess the composition of soil fungal, prokaryotic, and plant communities using soil environmental DNA from restored alvar grasslands in Estonia. The study areas included grasslands that had experienced different degrees of woody encroachment prior to restoration (woody plant removal and grazing), as well as unmanaged open grasslands. We found that, in general, different taxonomic groups exhibited correlated patterns of between-community variation. Previous forest sites, which had prior to restoration experienced a high degree of woody encroachment by ectomycorrhizal Scots pine, were compositionally most distinct from managed open grasslands, which had little woody vegetation even prior to restoration. The functional structure of plant and fungal communities varied in ways that were consistent with the representation of mycorrhizal types in the ecosystems prior to restoration. Compositional differences between managed and unmanaged open grasslands reflecting the implementation of grazing without further management interventions were clearer among fungal, and to an extent prokaryotic, communities than among plant communities. While previous studies have shown that during woody encroachment of alvar grassland, plant communities change first and fungal communities follow, our DNA-based results suggest that microbial communities reacted faster than plant communities during the restoration of grazing management in alvar grassland. We conclude that while the plant community responds faster to cessation of management, the fungal community responds faster to restoration of management. This may indicate hysteresis, where the eventual pathway back to the original state (grazed ecosystem) differs from the pathway taken towards the alternative state (abandoned semi-natural grassland ecosystem).

Project description:Loss in plant diversity is expected to impact biodiversity and ecosystem functioning (BEF) in terrestrial ecosystems. Soil microbes play essential roles in regulating ecosystem functions. However, the important roles and differences in bacterial and fungal diversity and rare microbial taxa in driving soil multifunctionality based on plant diversity remain poorly understood in grassland ecosystems. Here, we carried out an experiment in six study sites with varied plant diversity levels to evaluate the relationships between soil bacterial and fungal diversity, rare taxa, and soil multifunctionality in a semi-arid grassland. We used Illumina HiSeq sequencing to determine soil bacterial and fungal diversity and evaluated soil functions associated with the nutrient cycle. We found that high diversity plant assemblages had a higher ratio of below-ground biomass to above-ground biomass, soil multifunctionality, and lower microbial carbon limitation than those with low diversity. Moreover, the fungal richness was negatively and significantly associated with microbial carbon limitations. The fungal richness was positively related to soil multifunctionality, but the bacterial richness was not. We also found that the relative abundance of saprotrophs was positively correlated with soil multifunctionality, and the relative abundance of pathogens was negatively correlated with soil multifunctionality. In addition, the rare fungal taxa played a disproportionate role in regulating soil multifunctionality. Structural equation modeling showed that the shift of plant biomass allocation patterns increased plant below-ground biomass in the highly diverse plant plots, which can alleviate soil microbial carbon limitations and enhance the fungal richness, thus promoting soil multifunctionality. Overall, these findings expand our comprehensive understanding of the critical role of soil fungal diversity and rare taxa in regulating soil multifunctionality under global plant diversity loss scenarios.

Dataset Information

Effect of Alteration in Precipitation Amount on Soil Microbial Community in a Semi-Arid Grassland.

Publications

Effect of Alteration in Precipitation Amount on Soil Microbial Community in a Semi-Arid Grassland.

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