Project description:Soils are a huge reservoir of organic C, and the efflux of CO2 from soils is one of the largest fluxes in the global C cycle. Out of all natural environments, soils probably contain the greatest microbial biomass and diversity, which classifies them as one of the most challenging habitats for microbiologists (Mocali and Benedetti, 2010). Until today, it is not well understood how soil microorganisms will respond to a warmer climate. Warming may give competitive advantage to species adapted to higher temperatures (Rinnan et al., 2009). The mechanisms behind temperature adaptations of soil microbes could be shifts within the microbial community. How microbial communities will ultimately respond to climate change, however, is still a matter of speculation. As a post-genomic approach in nature, metaproteomics allows the simultaneous examination of various protein functions and responses, and therefore is perfectly suited to investigate the complex interplay between respiration dynamics, microbial community architecture, and ecosystem functioning in a changing environment (Bastida et al., 2012). Thereby we will gain new insights into responses to climate change from a microbial perspective. Our study site was located at 910 m a.s.l. in the North Tyrolean Limestone Alps, near Achenkirch, Austria The 130 year-old mountain forests consist of Norway spruce (Picea abies) with inter-spread of European beech (Fagus sylvatica) and silver fir (Abies alba). Three experimental plots with 2 × 2 m warmed- and control- subplots were installed in 2004. The temperature difference between control and warmed plots was set to 4 °C at 5 cm soil depth. Soil was warmed during snow-free seasons. In order to extract proteins from forest soil samples, the SDS–phenol method was adopted as previously described by Keiblinger et al. (2012). Protein extractions were performed from each subplot soil samples. The abundance of protein-assigned microbial phylogenetic and functional groups, were calculated based on the normalized spectral abundance factor (NSAF, Zybailov et al., 2006).
Project description:Bacterial community composition in the phyllosphere and rhizosphere of beech (Fagus sylvatica), subjected to woolly beech aphid (Phyllaphis fagi) infestation in a mesocosm experiment
Project description:Young Fagus sylvatica trees (approximately 7 to 8 years) were collected from a natural regeneration beech forest. The trees were excavated with intact soil cores, roots and top organic layer. The trees were then kept outdoors at the Department of Forest Botany, Georg-August-Universität Göttingen. Plants were protected from rain, and light conditions were matched to those of the natural stand using a shading net; otherwise, plants were exposed to natural climatic conditions. The soil moisture was regularly measured; plants were watered with deionized water as needed to keep soil moisture close to the original conditions. Trees was randomly relocated on a weekly basis throughout the experiment to avoid biasses caused by location or light effects. After 21 weeks, a treatment was applied to understand the physiological mechanisms of inorganic nitrogen uptake and assimilation under conditions of an inorganic nitrogen saturated forest simulation: Plants were fertilized with either a 20 mM solution of KNO3, a 20 mM solution of NH4Cl, or demineralized water (control) for 2 days. On the third day, the trees were harvested. Root tips were immediately shock-frozen in liquid nitrogen and used for RNA extraction.
Project description:Transcription profiling of mycorrhized European beech (Fagus sylvatica L.) roots in response to fertilization with different forms of inorganic nitrogen
Project description:Differences in Soil Fungal Communities between European Beech (Fagus sylvatica L.) Dominated Forests Are Related to Soil and Understory Vegetation
