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Relationships between nitrogen cycling microbial community abundance and composition reveal the indirect effect of soil pH on oak decline
Tree decline is a global concern and the primary cause is often unknown. Complex interactions between fluctuations in nitrogen (N) and acidifying compounds have been proposed as factors causing nutrient imbalances and decreasing stress tolerance of oak trees. Microorganisms are crucial in regulating...
Autores principales: | , , , , , , |
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Formato: | Online Artículo Texto |
Lenguaje: | English |
Publicado: |
Nature Publishing Group UK
2020
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Materias: | |
Acceso en línea: | https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8027100/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/33067585 http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/s41396-020-00801-0 |
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author | Scarlett, K. Denman, S. Clark, D. R. Forster, J. Vanguelova, E. Brown, N. Whitby, C. |
author_facet | Scarlett, K. Denman, S. Clark, D. R. Forster, J. Vanguelova, E. Brown, N. Whitby, C. |
author_sort | Scarlett, K. |
collection | PubMed |
description | Tree decline is a global concern and the primary cause is often unknown. Complex interactions between fluctuations in nitrogen (N) and acidifying compounds have been proposed as factors causing nutrient imbalances and decreasing stress tolerance of oak trees. Microorganisms are crucial in regulating soil N available to plants, yet little is known about the relationships between soil N-cycling and tree health. Here, we combined high-throughput sequencing and qPCR analysis of key nitrification and denitrification genes with soil chemical analyses to characterise ammonia-oxidising bacteria (AOB), archaea (AOA) and denitrifying communities in soils associated with symptomatic (declining) and asymptomatic (apparently healthy) oak trees (Quercus robur and Q. petraea) in the United Kingdom. Asymptomatic trees were associated with a higher abundance of AOB that is driven positively by soil pH. No relationship was found between AOA abundance and tree health. However, AOA abundance was driven by lower concentrations of NH(4)(+), further supporting the idea of AOA favouring lower soil NH(4)(+) concentrations. Denitrifier abundance was influenced primarily by soil C:N ratio, and correlations with AOB regardless of tree health. These findings indicate that amelioration of soil acidification by balancing C:N may affect AOB abundance driving N transformations, reducing stress on declining oak trees. |
format | Online Article Text |
id | pubmed-8027100 |
institution | National Center for Biotechnology Information |
language | English |
publishDate | 2020 |
publisher | Nature Publishing Group UK |
record_format | MEDLINE/PubMed |
spelling | pubmed-80271002021-04-21 Relationships between nitrogen cycling microbial community abundance and composition reveal the indirect effect of soil pH on oak decline Scarlett, K. Denman, S. Clark, D. R. Forster, J. Vanguelova, E. Brown, N. Whitby, C. ISME J Article Tree decline is a global concern and the primary cause is often unknown. Complex interactions between fluctuations in nitrogen (N) and acidifying compounds have been proposed as factors causing nutrient imbalances and decreasing stress tolerance of oak trees. Microorganisms are crucial in regulating soil N available to plants, yet little is known about the relationships between soil N-cycling and tree health. Here, we combined high-throughput sequencing and qPCR analysis of key nitrification and denitrification genes with soil chemical analyses to characterise ammonia-oxidising bacteria (AOB), archaea (AOA) and denitrifying communities in soils associated with symptomatic (declining) and asymptomatic (apparently healthy) oak trees (Quercus robur and Q. petraea) in the United Kingdom. Asymptomatic trees were associated with a higher abundance of AOB that is driven positively by soil pH. No relationship was found between AOA abundance and tree health. However, AOA abundance was driven by lower concentrations of NH(4)(+), further supporting the idea of AOA favouring lower soil NH(4)(+) concentrations. Denitrifier abundance was influenced primarily by soil C:N ratio, and correlations with AOB regardless of tree health. These findings indicate that amelioration of soil acidification by balancing C:N may affect AOB abundance driving N transformations, reducing stress on declining oak trees. Nature Publishing Group UK 2020-10-16 2021-03 /pmc/articles/PMC8027100/ /pubmed/33067585 http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/s41396-020-00801-0 Text en © The Author(s) 2020 Open Access This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license, and indicate if changes were made. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article’s Creative Commons license, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. If material is not included in the article’s Creative Commons license and your intended use is not permitted by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will need to obtain permission directly from the copyright holder. To view a copy of this license, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/. |
spellingShingle | Article Scarlett, K. Denman, S. Clark, D. R. Forster, J. Vanguelova, E. Brown, N. Whitby, C. Relationships between nitrogen cycling microbial community abundance and composition reveal the indirect effect of soil pH on oak decline |
title | Relationships between nitrogen cycling microbial community abundance and composition reveal the indirect effect of soil pH on oak decline |
title_full | Relationships between nitrogen cycling microbial community abundance and composition reveal the indirect effect of soil pH on oak decline |
title_fullStr | Relationships between nitrogen cycling microbial community abundance and composition reveal the indirect effect of soil pH on oak decline |
title_full_unstemmed | Relationships between nitrogen cycling microbial community abundance and composition reveal the indirect effect of soil pH on oak decline |
title_short | Relationships between nitrogen cycling microbial community abundance and composition reveal the indirect effect of soil pH on oak decline |
title_sort | relationships between nitrogen cycling microbial community abundance and composition reveal the indirect effect of soil ph on oak decline |
topic | Article |
url | https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8027100/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/33067585 http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/s41396-020-00801-0 |
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