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Biological Soil Crust Bacterial Communities Vary Along Climatic and Shrub Cover Gradients Within a Sagebrush Steppe Ecosystem
Numerous studies have examined bacterial communities in biological soil crusts (BSCs) associated with warm arid to semiarid ecosystems. Few, however, have examined bacterial communities in BSCs associated with cold steppe ecosystems, which often span a wide range of climate conditions and are sensit...
Autores principales: | , , , , , |
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Formato: | Online Artículo Texto |
Lenguaje: | English |
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Frontiers Media S.A.
2021
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Materias: | |
Acceso en línea: | https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8134670/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/34025590 http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fmicb.2021.569791 |
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author | You, Yaqi Aho, Ken Lohse, Kathleen A. Schwabedissen, Stacy G. Ledbetter, Rhesa N. Magnuson, Timothy S. |
author_facet | You, Yaqi Aho, Ken Lohse, Kathleen A. Schwabedissen, Stacy G. Ledbetter, Rhesa N. Magnuson, Timothy S. |
author_sort | You, Yaqi |
collection | PubMed |
description | Numerous studies have examined bacterial communities in biological soil crusts (BSCs) associated with warm arid to semiarid ecosystems. Few, however, have examined bacterial communities in BSCs associated with cold steppe ecosystems, which often span a wide range of climate conditions and are sensitive to trends predicted by relevant climate models. Here, we utilized Illumina sequencing to examine BSC bacterial communities with respect to climatic gradients (elevation), land management practices (grazing vs. non-grazing), and shrub/intershrub patches in a cold sagebrush steppe ecosystem in southwestern Idaho, United States. Particular attention was paid to shifts in bacterial community structure and composition. BSC bacterial communities, including keystone N-fixing taxa, shifted dramatically with both elevation and shrub-canopy microclimates within elevational zones. BSC cover and BSC cyanobacteria abundance were much higher at lower elevation (warmer and drier) sites and in intershrub areas. Shrub-understory BSCs were significantly associated with several non-cyanobacteria diazotrophic genera, including Mesorhizobium and Allorhizobium-Neorhizobium-Pararhizobium-Rhizobium. High elevation (wetter and colder) sites had distinct, highly diverse, but low-cover BSC communities that were significantly indicated by non-cyanobacterial diazotrophic taxa including families in the order Rhizobiales and the family Frankiaceae. Abiotic soil characteristics, especially pH and ammonium, varied with both elevation and shrub/intershrub level, and were strongly associated with BSC community composition. Functional inference using the PICRUSt pipeline identified shifts in putative N-fixing taxa with respect to both the elevational gradient and the presence/absence of shrub canopy cover. These results add to current understanding of biocrust microbial ecology in cold steppe, serving as a baseline for future mechanistic research. |
format | Online Article Text |
id | pubmed-8134670 |
institution | National Center for Biotechnology Information |
language | English |
publishDate | 2021 |
publisher | Frontiers Media S.A. |
record_format | MEDLINE/PubMed |
spelling | pubmed-81346702021-05-21 Biological Soil Crust Bacterial Communities Vary Along Climatic and Shrub Cover Gradients Within a Sagebrush Steppe Ecosystem You, Yaqi Aho, Ken Lohse, Kathleen A. Schwabedissen, Stacy G. Ledbetter, Rhesa N. Magnuson, Timothy S. Front Microbiol Microbiology Numerous studies have examined bacterial communities in biological soil crusts (BSCs) associated with warm arid to semiarid ecosystems. Few, however, have examined bacterial communities in BSCs associated with cold steppe ecosystems, which often span a wide range of climate conditions and are sensitive to trends predicted by relevant climate models. Here, we utilized Illumina sequencing to examine BSC bacterial communities with respect to climatic gradients (elevation), land management practices (grazing vs. non-grazing), and shrub/intershrub patches in a cold sagebrush steppe ecosystem in southwestern Idaho, United States. Particular attention was paid to shifts in bacterial community structure and composition. BSC bacterial communities, including keystone N-fixing taxa, shifted dramatically with both elevation and shrub-canopy microclimates within elevational zones. BSC cover and BSC cyanobacteria abundance were much higher at lower elevation (warmer and drier) sites and in intershrub areas. Shrub-understory BSCs were significantly associated with several non-cyanobacteria diazotrophic genera, including Mesorhizobium and Allorhizobium-Neorhizobium-Pararhizobium-Rhizobium. High elevation (wetter and colder) sites had distinct, highly diverse, but low-cover BSC communities that were significantly indicated by non-cyanobacterial diazotrophic taxa including families in the order Rhizobiales and the family Frankiaceae. Abiotic soil characteristics, especially pH and ammonium, varied with both elevation and shrub/intershrub level, and were strongly associated with BSC community composition. Functional inference using the PICRUSt pipeline identified shifts in putative N-fixing taxa with respect to both the elevational gradient and the presence/absence of shrub canopy cover. These results add to current understanding of biocrust microbial ecology in cold steppe, serving as a baseline for future mechanistic research. Frontiers Media S.A. 2021-05-06 /pmc/articles/PMC8134670/ /pubmed/34025590 http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fmicb.2021.569791 Text en Copyright © 2021 You, Aho, Lohse, Schwabedissen, Ledbetter and Magnuson. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) and the copyright owner(s) are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms. |
spellingShingle | Microbiology You, Yaqi Aho, Ken Lohse, Kathleen A. Schwabedissen, Stacy G. Ledbetter, Rhesa N. Magnuson, Timothy S. Biological Soil Crust Bacterial Communities Vary Along Climatic and Shrub Cover Gradients Within a Sagebrush Steppe Ecosystem |
title | Biological Soil Crust Bacterial Communities Vary Along Climatic and Shrub Cover Gradients Within a Sagebrush Steppe Ecosystem |
title_full | Biological Soil Crust Bacterial Communities Vary Along Climatic and Shrub Cover Gradients Within a Sagebrush Steppe Ecosystem |
title_fullStr | Biological Soil Crust Bacterial Communities Vary Along Climatic and Shrub Cover Gradients Within a Sagebrush Steppe Ecosystem |
title_full_unstemmed | Biological Soil Crust Bacterial Communities Vary Along Climatic and Shrub Cover Gradients Within a Sagebrush Steppe Ecosystem |
title_short | Biological Soil Crust Bacterial Communities Vary Along Climatic and Shrub Cover Gradients Within a Sagebrush Steppe Ecosystem |
title_sort | biological soil crust bacterial communities vary along climatic and shrub cover gradients within a sagebrush steppe ecosystem |
topic | Microbiology |
url | https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8134670/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/34025590 http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fmicb.2021.569791 |
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