Crossing Treeline: Bacterioplankton Communities of Alpine and Subalpine Rocky Mountain Lakes

From the aboveground vegetation to the belowground microbes, terrestrial communities differ between the highly divergent alpine (above treeline) and subalpine (below treeline) ecosystems. Yet, much less is known about the partitioning of microbial communities between alpine and subalpine lakes. Our...

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Autores principales: Vincent, Kim, Holland-Moritz, Hannah, Solon, Adam J., Gendron, Eli M. S., Schmidt, Steven K.
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: Frontiers Media S.A. 2022
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8762171/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/35046907
http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fmicb.2021.533121
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author Vincent, Kim
Holland-Moritz, Hannah
Solon, Adam J.
Gendron, Eli M. S.
Schmidt, Steven K.
author_facet Vincent, Kim
Holland-Moritz, Hannah
Solon, Adam J.
Gendron, Eli M. S.
Schmidt, Steven K.
author_sort Vincent, Kim
collection PubMed
description From the aboveground vegetation to the belowground microbes, terrestrial communities differ between the highly divergent alpine (above treeline) and subalpine (below treeline) ecosystems. Yet, much less is known about the partitioning of microbial communities between alpine and subalpine lakes. Our goal was to determine whether the composition of bacterioplankton communities of high-elevation mountain lakes differed across treeline, identify key players in driving the community composition, and identify potential environmental factors that may be driving differences. To do so, we compared bacterial community composition (using 16S rDNA sequencing) of alpine and subalpine lakes in the Southern Rocky Mountain ecoregion at two time points: once in the early summer and once in the late summer. In the early summer (July), shortly after peak runoff, bacterial communities of alpine lakes were distinct from subalpine lakes. Interestingly, by the end of the summer (approximately 5 weeks after the first visit in August), bacterial communities of alpine and subalpine lakes were no longer distinct. Several bacterial amplicon sequence variants (ASVs) were also identified as key players by significantly contributing to the community dissimilarity. The community divergence across treeline found in the early summer was correlated with several environmental factors, including dissolved organic carbon (DOC), pH, chlorophyll-a (chl-a), and total dissolved nitrogen (TDN). In this paper, we offer several potential scenarios driven by both biotic and abiotic factors that could lead to the observed patterns. While the mechanisms for these patterns are yet to be determined, the community dissimilarity in the early summer correlates with the timing of increased hydrologic connections with the terrestrial environment. Springtime snowmelt brings the flushing of mountain watersheds that connects terrestrial and aquatic ecosystems. This connectivity declines precipitously throughout the summer after snowmelt is complete. Regional climate change is predicted to bring alterations to precipitation and snowpack, which can modify the flushing of solutes, nutrients, and terrestrial microbes into lakes. Future preservation of the unique alpine lake ecosystem is dependent on a better understanding of ecosystem partitioning across treeline and careful consideration of terrestrial-aquatic connections in mountain watersheds.
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spelling pubmed-87621712022-01-18 Crossing Treeline: Bacterioplankton Communities of Alpine and Subalpine Rocky Mountain Lakes Vincent, Kim Holland-Moritz, Hannah Solon, Adam J. Gendron, Eli M. S. Schmidt, Steven K. Front Microbiol Microbiology From the aboveground vegetation to the belowground microbes, terrestrial communities differ between the highly divergent alpine (above treeline) and subalpine (below treeline) ecosystems. Yet, much less is known about the partitioning of microbial communities between alpine and subalpine lakes. Our goal was to determine whether the composition of bacterioplankton communities of high-elevation mountain lakes differed across treeline, identify key players in driving the community composition, and identify potential environmental factors that may be driving differences. To do so, we compared bacterial community composition (using 16S rDNA sequencing) of alpine and subalpine lakes in the Southern Rocky Mountain ecoregion at two time points: once in the early summer and once in the late summer. In the early summer (July), shortly after peak runoff, bacterial communities of alpine lakes were distinct from subalpine lakes. Interestingly, by the end of the summer (approximately 5 weeks after the first visit in August), bacterial communities of alpine and subalpine lakes were no longer distinct. Several bacterial amplicon sequence variants (ASVs) were also identified as key players by significantly contributing to the community dissimilarity. The community divergence across treeline found in the early summer was correlated with several environmental factors, including dissolved organic carbon (DOC), pH, chlorophyll-a (chl-a), and total dissolved nitrogen (TDN). In this paper, we offer several potential scenarios driven by both biotic and abiotic factors that could lead to the observed patterns. While the mechanisms for these patterns are yet to be determined, the community dissimilarity in the early summer correlates with the timing of increased hydrologic connections with the terrestrial environment. Springtime snowmelt brings the flushing of mountain watersheds that connects terrestrial and aquatic ecosystems. This connectivity declines precipitously throughout the summer after snowmelt is complete. Regional climate change is predicted to bring alterations to precipitation and snowpack, which can modify the flushing of solutes, nutrients, and terrestrial microbes into lakes. Future preservation of the unique alpine lake ecosystem is dependent on a better understanding of ecosystem partitioning across treeline and careful consideration of terrestrial-aquatic connections in mountain watersheds. Frontiers Media S.A. 2022-01-03 /pmc/articles/PMC8762171/ /pubmed/35046907 http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fmicb.2021.533121 Text en Copyright © 2022 Vincent, Holland-Moritz, Solon, Gendron and Schmidt. 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
Vincent, Kim
Holland-Moritz, Hannah
Solon, Adam J.
Gendron, Eli M. S.
Schmidt, Steven K.
Crossing Treeline: Bacterioplankton Communities of Alpine and Subalpine Rocky Mountain Lakes
title Crossing Treeline: Bacterioplankton Communities of Alpine and Subalpine Rocky Mountain Lakes
title_full Crossing Treeline: Bacterioplankton Communities of Alpine and Subalpine Rocky Mountain Lakes
title_fullStr Crossing Treeline: Bacterioplankton Communities of Alpine and Subalpine Rocky Mountain Lakes
title_full_unstemmed Crossing Treeline: Bacterioplankton Communities of Alpine and Subalpine Rocky Mountain Lakes
title_short Crossing Treeline: Bacterioplankton Communities of Alpine and Subalpine Rocky Mountain Lakes
title_sort crossing treeline: bacterioplankton communities of alpine and subalpine rocky mountain lakes
topic Microbiology
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8762171/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/35046907
http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fmicb.2021.533121
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