Project description:The fate of the carbon stocked in permafrost soils following global warming and permafrost thaw is of major concern in view of the potential for increased CH4 and CO2 emissions from these soils. Complex carbon compound degradation and greenhouse gas emissions are due to soil microbial communities, but their composition and functional potential in permafrost soils are largely unknown. Here, a 2 m deep permafrost and its overlying active layer soil were subjected to metagenome sequencing, quantitative PCR, and microarray analyses. The active layer soil and 2 m permafrost soil microbial community structures were very similar, with Actinobacteria being the dominant phylum. The two soils also possessed a highly similar spectrum of functional genes, especially when compared to other already published metagenomes. Key genes related to methane generation, methane oxidation and organic matter degradation were highly diverse for both soils in the metagenomic libraries and some (e.g. pmoA) showed relatively high abundance in qPCR assays. Genes related to nitrogen fixation and ammonia oxidation, which could have important roles following climatic change in these nitrogen-limited environments, showed low diversity but high abundance. The 2 m permafrost soil showed lower abundance and diversity for all the assessed genes and taxa. Experimental biases were also evaluated and showed that the whole community genome amplification technique used caused large representational biases in the metagenomic libraries. This study described for the first time the detailed functional potential of permafrost-affected soils and detected several genes and microorganisms that could have crucial importance following permafrost thaw. A 2m deep permafrost sample and it overlying active layer were sampled and their metagenome analysed. For microarray analyses, 8 other soil samples from the same region were used for comparison purposes.
Project description:Because of severe abiotic limitations, Antarctic soils represent simplified ecosystems, where microorganisms are the principle drivers of nutrient cycling. This relative simplicity makes these ecosystems particularly vulnerable to perturbations, like global warming, and the Antarctic Peninsula is among the most rapidly warming regions on the planet. However, the consequences of the ongoing warming of Antarctica on microorganisms and the processes they mediate are unknown. Here, using 16S rRNA gene pyrosequencing and qPCR, we report a number of highly consistent changes in microbial community structure and abundance across very disparate sub-Antarctic and Antarctic environments following three years of experimental field warming (+ 0.5-2°C). Specifically, we found significant increases in the abundance of fungi and bacteria and in the Alphaproteobacteria-to-Acidobacteria ratio. These alterations were linked to a significant increase in soil respiration. Furthermore, the shifts toward generalist or opportunistic bacterial communities following warming weakened the linkage between bacterial diversity and functional diversity. Warming also increased the abundance of some organisms related to the N-cycle, detected as an increase in the relative abundance of nitrogenase genes via GeoChip microarray analyses. Our results demonstrate that soil microorganisms across a range of sub-Antarctic and Antarctic environments can respond consistently and rapidly to increasing temperatures, thereby potentially disrupting soil functioning. We conducted in situ warming experiments for three years using open-top chambers (OTCs) at one sub-Antarctic (Falkland Islands, 52ºS) and two Antarctic locations (Signy and Anchorage Islands, 60ºS and 67ºS respectively) (see Supplementary Fig. 1 for a map). OTCs increased annual soil temperature by an average of 0.8°C (at a depth of 5 cm), resulting in 8-43% increase in positive-degree days annually and a decrease in freeze-thaw cycle frequency by an average of 15 cycles per year (8). At each location, we included densely vegetated and bare fell-field soils in the experimental design for a total of six environments. Densely vegetated and bare environments represent two contrasting environments for Antarctic soil microorganisms, with large differences in terms of C and N inputs to soils. Massively parallel pyrosequencing (Roche 454 GS FLX Titanium) of 16S rRNA gene amplicons was used to follow bacterial diversity and community composition [GenBank Accession Numbers: HM641909-HM744649], and functional gene microarrays (GeoChip 2.0)(11) were used to assess changes in functional gene distribution. Bacterial and fungal communities were also quantified using real-time PCR.
Project description:The fate of the carbon stocked in permafrost soils following global warming and permafrost thaw is of major concern in view of the potential for increased CH4 and CO2 emissions from these soils. Complex carbon compound degradation and greenhouse gas emissions are due to soil microbial communities, but their composition and functional potential in permafrost soils are largely unknown. Here, a 2 m deep permafrost and its overlying active layer soil were subjected to metagenome sequencing, quantitative PCR, and microarray analyses. The active layer soil and 2 m permafrost soil microbial community structures were very similar, with Actinobacteria being the dominant phylum. The two soils also possessed a highly similar spectrum of functional genes, especially when compared to other already published metagenomes. Key genes related to methane generation, methane oxidation and organic matter degradation were highly diverse for both soils in the metagenomic libraries and some (e.g. pmoA) showed relatively high abundance in qPCR assays. Genes related to nitrogen fixation and ammonia oxidation, which could have important roles following climatic change in these nitrogen-limited environments, showed low diversity but high abundance. The 2 m permafrost soil showed lower abundance and diversity for all the assessed genes and taxa. Experimental biases were also evaluated and showed that the whole community genome amplification technique used caused large representational biases in the metagenomic libraries. This study described for the first time the detailed functional potential of permafrost-affected soils and detected several genes and microorganisms that could have crucial importance following permafrost thaw.
Project description:Peatlands of the Lehstenbach catchment (Germany) house so far unidentified microorganisms with phylogenetically novel variants of the dissimilatory (bi)sulfite reductase genes dsrAB. These genes are characteristic for microorganisms that reduce sulfate, sulfite, or some organosulfonates for energy conservation, but can also be present in anaerobic syntrophs. However, nothing is currently known regarding the abundance, community dynamics, and biogeography of these dsrAB-carrying microorganisms in peatlands. To tackle these issues, soils from a Lehstenbach catchment site (Schlöppnerbrunnen II fen) from different depths were sampled at three time points over a six-year period to analyze the diversity and distribution of dsrAB-containing microorganisms by a newly developed functional gene microarray and quantitative PCR assays. Members of novel, uncultivated dsrAB lineages (approximately representing species-level groups) (i) dominated a temporally stable but spatially structured dsrAB community and (ii) represented ‘core’ members (up to 1-1.7% relative abundance) of the autochthonous microbial community in this fen. In addition, denaturing gradient gel electrophoresis (DGGE)- and clone library-based comparison of the dsrAB diversity in soils from a wet meadow, three bogs, and five fens of various geographic locations (distance ~1-400 km), identified one Syntrophobacter-related and nine novel dsrAB lineages to be widespread in low-sulfate peatlands. Signatures of biogeography in dsrB-DGGE data were not correlated with geographic distance but could largely be explained by soil pH and wetland type, implying that distribution of dsrAB-carrying microorganisms in wetlands on the scale of a few hundred kilometers is not limited by dispersal but determined by contemporary environmental conditions. 36 dsrAB clones for chip evaluation, 33 hybridizations of labeled dsrAB RNA from environmental peatsoil samples
Project description:<p>Drought stress negatively impacts microbial activity, but the magnitude of stress responses are likely dependent on a diversity of below ground interactions. Populus trichocarpa individuals and no plant bulk soils were exposed to extended drought (~0.03% gravimetric water content (GWC) after 12d), re-wet, and a 12-d 'recovery' period to determine the effects of plant presence in mediating soil microbiome stability to water stress. Plant metabolomic analyses indicated that drought exposure increased host investment in C and N metabolic pathways (amino acids, fatty-acids, phenolic glycosides) regardless of recovery. Several metabolites positively correlated with root-associated microbial alpha diversity, but not those of soil communities. Soil bacterial community composition shifted with P. trichocarpa presence and with drought relative to irrigated controls, whereas soil fungal composition only shifted with plant presence. However, root fungal communities strongly shifted with drought, whereas root bacterial communities changed to a lesser degree. The proportion of bacterial water-stress opportunistic OTUs (enriched counts in drought) were high (~11%) at the end of drying phases, and maintained after re-wet, and recovery phases in bulk soils, but declined over time in soils with plants present. For root fungi opportunistic OTUs were high at the end of recovery in drought treatments (~17% abundance), although relatively not responsive in soils, particularly planted soils (< 0.5% abundance for sensitive or opportunistic). These data indicate that plants modulate soil and root associated microbial drought responses via tight plant-microbe linkages during extreme drought scenarios, but trajectories after extreme drought vary with plant habitat and microbial functional groups.</p>