Project description:Clipping (i.e., harvesting aboveground plant biomass) is common in agriculture and for bioenergy production. However, microbial responses to clipping in the context of climate warming are poorly understood. We investigated the interactive effects of grassland warming and clipping on soil properties, plant and microbial communities, in particular microbial functional genes. Clipping alone did not change the plant biomass production, but warming and clipping combined increased the C4 peak biomass by 47% and belowground net primary production by 110%. Clipping alone and in combination with warming decreased the soil carbon input from litter by 81% and 75%, respectively. With less carbon input, the abundances of genes involved in degrading relatively recalcitrant carbon increased by 38-137% in response to either clipping or the combined treatment, which could weaken the long-term soil carbon stability and trigger a positive feedback to warming. Clipping alone also increased the abundance of genes for nitrogen fixation, mineralization and denitrification by 32-39%. The potentially stimulated nitrogen fixation could help compensate for the 20% decline in soil ammonium caused by clipping alone, and contribute to unchanged plant biomass. Moreover, clipping tended to interact antagonistically with warming, especially on nitrogen cycling genes, demonstrating that single factor studies cannot predict multifactorial changes. These results revealed that clipping alone or in combination with warming altered soil and plant properties, as well as the abundance and structure of soil microbial functional genes. The aboveground biomass removal for biofuel production needs to be re-considered as the long-term soil carbon stability may be weakened.
Project description:Microbes are responsible for cycling carbon (C) through soils, and predicted changes in soil C stocks under climate change are highly sensitive to shifts in the mechanisms assumed to control the microbial physiological response to warming. Two mecha-nisms have been suggested to explain the long-term warming impact on microbial physiology: microbial thermal acclimation and changes in the quantity and quality of substrates available for microbial metabolism. Yet studies disentangling these two mechanisms are lacking. To resolve the drivers of changes in microbial physiology in response to long-term warming, we sampled soils from 13- and 28-year- old soil warming experiments in different seasons. We performed short-term laboratory incubations across a range of temperatures to measure the relationships between temperature sensitivity of physiology (growth, respiration, carbon use efficiency, and extracellular enzyme activity) and the chemical composition of soil organic matter. We observed apparent thermal acclimation of microbial respiration, but only in sum-mer, when warming had exacerbated the seasonally-induced, already small dissolved organic matter pools. Irrespective of warming, greater quantity and quality of soil carbon increased the extracellular enzymatic pool and its temperature sensitivity. We propose that fresh litter input into the system seasonally cancels apparent thermal acclimation of C-cycling processes to decadal warming. Our findings reveal that long-term warming has indirectly affected microbial physiology via reduced C availability in this system, implying that earth system models including these negative feedbacks may be best suited to describe long-term warming effects on these soils. Citation: Domeignoz-Horta LA, Pold G, Erb H, Sebag D, Verrecchia E, Northen T, Louie K, Eloe-Fadrosh E, Pennacchio C, Knorr MA, Frey SD, Melillo JM, DeAngelis KM. Substrate availability and not thermal acclimation controls microbial temperature sensitivity response to long-term warming. Glob Chang Biol. 2023 Mar;29(6):1574-1590. doi: 10.1111/gcb.16544.
The work (proposal:https://doi.org/10.46936/10.25585/60001340) conducted by the U.S. Department of Energy Joint Genome Institute (https://ror.org/04xm1d337), a DOE Office of Science User Facility, is supported by the Office of Science of the U.S. Department of Energy operated under Contract No. DE-AC02-05CH11231.
Project description:To study mixotrophy, it is desirable to have an organism capable of growth in the presence and absence of both organic and inorganic carbon sources, as well as organic and inorganic energy sources. Metallosphaera sedula is an extremely thermoacidophilic archaeon which has been shown to grow in the presence of inorganic carbon and energy source supplements (autotrophy), organic carbon and energy source supplements (heterotrophy), and in the presence of organic carbon and inorganic energy source supplements. The recent elucidation of M. sedula’s inorganic carbon fixation cycle and its genome sequence further facilitate its use in mixotrophic studies. In this study, we grow M. sedula heterotrophically in the presence of organic carbon and energy sources (0.1% tryptone), autotrophically in the presence of inorganic carbon and energy sources (H2 + CO2), and “mixotrophically” in the presence of both organic and inorganic carbon and energy sources (0.1% tryptone + H2 + CO2 ) to characterize the nature of mixotrophy exhibited.
Project description:The response of soil microbial community to climate warming through both function shift and composition reorganization may profoundly influence global nutrient cycles, leading to potential significant carbon release from the terrain to the atmosphere. Despite the observed carbon flux change in northern permafrost, it remains unclear how soil microbial community contributes to this ecosystem alteration. Here, we applied microarray-based GeoChip 4.0 to investigate the functional and compositional response of subsurface (15~25cm) soil microbial community under about one year’s artificial heating (+2°C) in the Carbon in Permafrost Experimental Heating Research site on Alaska’s moist acidic tundra. Statistical analyses of GeoChip signal intensities showed significant microbial function shift in AK samples. Detrended correspondence analysis and dissimilarity tests (MRPP and ANOSIM) indicated significant functional structure difference between the warmed and the control communities. ANOVA revealed that 60% of the 70 detected individual genes in carbon, nitrogen, phosphorous and sulfur cyclings were substantially increased (p<0.05) by heating. 18 out of 33 detected carbon degradation genes were more abundant in warming samples in AK site, regardless of the discrepancy of labile or recalcitrant C, indicating a high temperature sensitivity of carbon degradation genes in rich carbon pool environment. These results demonstrated a rapid response of northern permafrost soil microbial community to warming. Considering the large carbon storage in northern permafrost region, microbial activity in this region may cause dramatic positive feedback to climate change, which is important and necessary to be integrated into climate change models.
Project description:To study mixotrophy, it is desirable to have an organism capable of growth in the presence and absence of both organic and inorganic carbon sources, as well as organic and inorganic energy sources. Metallosphaera sedula is an extremely thermoacidophilic archaeon which has been shown to grow in the presence of inorganic carbon and energy source supplements (autotrophy), organic carbon and energy source supplements (heterotrophy), and in the presence of organic carbon and inorganic energy source supplements. The recent elucidation of M. sedulaâ??s inorganic carbon fixation cycle and its genome sequence further facilitate its use in mixotrophic studies. In this study, we grow M. sedula heterotrophically in the presence of organic carbon and energy sources (0.1% tryptone), autotrophically in the presence of inorganic carbon and energy sources (H2 + CO2), and â??mixotrophicallyâ?? in the presence of both organic and inorganic carbon and energy sources (0.1% tryptone + H2 + CO2 ) to characterize the nature of mixotrophy exhibited. Two 3 slide loops joined at equivalent conditions (8 slides total) for Mse cells includes 3 conditions tested in duplicate (biological repeats): heterotrophy (H1 and H2), autotrophy (A1 and A2), and mixotrophy (M1 and M2). Half of an RNA sample for one condition was labeled with Cy3 while the other half was labeled with Cy5. The two differently labeled samples were run on different slides. Each probe is spotted on each slide 5 times (5 replicates; spot intensities for all replicates on slide provided in associated raw data file).
Project description:Land cover change has long been recognized that marked effect the amount of soil organic carbon. However, little is known about microbial-mediated effect processes and mechanism on soil organic carbon. In this study, the soil samples in a degenerated succession from alpine meadow to alpine steppe meadow in Qinghai-Tibetan Plateau degenerated, were analyzed by using GeoChip functional gene arrays.
Project description:Rhodopseudomonas palustris strain SA008.1.07 can use syringic acid as sole organic carbon source anaerobically. Grew all anaerobically in various carbon sources: syringic acid, succinate, and p-hydroxybenzoic acid.
Project description:The melting of permafrost and its potential impact on greenhouse gas emissions is a major concern in the context of global warming. The fate of the carbon trapped in permafrost will largely depend on soil physico-chemical characteristics, among which are the quality and quantity of organic matter, pH and water content, and on microbial community composition. In this study, we used microarrays and real-time PCR (qPCR) targeting 16S rRNA genes to characterize the bacterial communities in three different soil types representative of various Arctic settings. The microbiological data were linked to soil physico-chemical characteristics and CO2 production rates. Microarray results indicated that soil characteristics, and especially the soil pH, were important parameters in structuring the bacterial communities at the genera/species levels. Shifts in community structure were also visible at the phyla/class levels, with the soil CO2 production rate being positively correlated to the relative abundance of the Alphaproteobacteria, Bacteroidetes, and Betaproteobacteria. These results indicate that CO2 production in Arctic soils does not only depend on the environmental conditions, but also on the presence of specific groups of bacteria that have the capacity to actively degrade soil carbon. Three different soil types from the Canadian high Arctic were sampled at two depths within the active layer of soil and at two sampling dates (winter and summer conditions), for a total of 20 samples.
Project description:The melting of permafrost and its potential impact on greenhouse gas emissions is a major concern in the context of global warming. The fate of the carbon trapped in permafrost will largely depend on soil physico-chemical characteristics, among which are the quality and quantity of organic matter, pH and water content, and on microbial community composition. In this study, we used microarrays and real-time PCR (qPCR) targeting 16S rRNA genes to characterize the bacterial communities in three different soil types representative of various Arctic settings. The microbiological data were linked to soil physico-chemical characteristics and CO2 production rates. Microarray results indicated that soil characteristics, and especially the soil pH, were important parameters in structuring the bacterial communities at the genera/species levels. Shifts in community structure were also visible at the phyla/class levels, with the soil CO2 production rate being positively correlated to the relative abundance of the Alphaproteobacteria, Bacteroidetes, and Betaproteobacteria. These results indicate that CO2 production in Arctic soils does not only depend on the environmental conditions, but also on the presence of specific groups of bacteria that have the capacity to actively degrade soil carbon.