Contrasting microbial biogeographical patterns between anthropogenic subalpine grasslands and natural alpine grasslands

Geremia, R.; Pușcaș, Mihai; Zinger, Lucie; Bonneville, Jean‐Marc; Choler, Philippe

doi:10.1111/nph.13690

Cited by 33 publications

(33 citation statements)

References 80 publications

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“…This trend was also found in a number of other soil-related mountain bacterial studies in the Colorado Rockies, Tibetan Plateau, the European Alps, and the Gorbeia Natural Park in Spain (2,5,8,10,15,16). Other environmental drivers of importance to grassland soil bacterial communities in mountain ecosystems include annual radiation, mean annual temperature, soil ammonium content, litter C:N ratio, snow depth, and plant diversity (2, 5-8, 10, 17).…”

supporting

confidence: 56%

“…Most authors have studied soil grassland bacterial diversity on a single or a few mountain transects, notably to emphasize the elevation factor in mountain ecosystems (3)(4)(5)(6)(7)(8). However, alpine studies that span an important horizontal surface area, along with the vertical elevation gradient, are much fewer, despite that mountain ecosystems are composed of a large spectrum of different topographic, climatic, soil physical, and chemical conditions, interspersed with a wide range of microclimates occupied by varied vegetation and animal populations (2,(9)(10)(11)(12).…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Elevational differences may also relate to human impact, as was shown in a study by Marini and coworkers (20) on the effect of farm size in the Italian Alps. In addition, Geremia and coworkers (10) showed that anthropogenically managed alpine grasslands had different soil bacterial communities than those of natural alpine grasslands. These examples show that observed ecological trends may be difficult to systematically generalize for all alpine soil bacterial communities, notably as a function of elevation.…”

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confidence: 99%

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Local Environmental Factors Drive Divergent Grassland Soil Bacterial Communities in the Western Swiss Alps

Yashiro

Pinto‐Figueroa

Buri

et al. 2016

Appl Environ Microbiol

107

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Mountain ecosystems are characterized by a diverse range of climatic and topographic conditions over short distances and are known to shelter a high biodiversity. Despite important progress, still little is known on bacterial diversity in mountain areas. Here, we investigated soil bacterial biogeography at more than 100 sampling sites randomly stratified across a 700-km 2 area with 2,200-m elevation gradient in the western Swiss Alps. Bacterial grassland communities were highly diverse, with 12,741 total operational taxonomic units (OTUs) across 100 sites and an average of 2,918 OTUs per site. Bacterial community structure was correlated with local climatic, topographic, and soil physicochemical parameters with high statistical significance. We found pH (correlated with % CaO and % mineral carbon), hydrogen index (correlated with bulk gravimetric water content), and annual average number of frost days during the growing season to be among the groups of the most important environmental drivers of bacterial community structure. In contrast, bacterial community structure was only weakly stratified as a function of elevation. Contrasting patterns were discovered for individual bacterial taxa. Acidobacteria responded both positively and negatively to pH extremes. Various families within the Bacteroidetes responded to available phosphorus levels. Different verrucomicrobial groups responded to electrical conductivity, total organic carbon, water content, and mineral carbon contents. Alpine grassland bacterial communities are thus highly diverse, which is likely due to the large variety of different environmental conditions. These results shed new light on the biodiversity of mountain ecosystems, which were already identified as potentially fragile to anthropogenic influences and climate change. IMPORTANCEThis article addresses the question of how microbial communities in alpine regions are dependent on local climatic and soil physicochemical variables. We benefit from a unique 700-km 2 study region in the western Swiss Alps region, which has been exhaustively studied for macro-organismal and fungal ecology, and for topoclimatic modeling of future ecological trends, but without taking into account soil bacterial diversity. Here, we present an in-depth biogeographical characterization of the bacterial community diversity in this alpine region across 100 randomly stratified sites, using 56 environmental variables. Our exhaustive sampling ensured the detection of ecological trends with high statistical robustness. Our data both confirm previously observed general trends and show many new detailed trends for a wide range of bacterial taxonomic groups and environmental parameters.

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confidence: 56%

mentioning

confidence: 99%

mentioning

confidence: 99%

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Local Environmental Factors Drive Divergent Grassland Soil Bacterial Communities in the Western Swiss Alps

Yashiro

Pinto‐Figueroa

Buri

et al. 2016

Appl Environ Microbiol

107

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“…Several recent studies have corroborated earlier findings and provided further genetic evidence for a close biogeographical relationship between the Western Carpathians and the Eastern Alps (also observed in species distribution patterns and community compositions; Puşcaş & Choler, ). Populations from these two areas often share closely‐related genetic lineages (Ronikier et al ., ; Drag et al ., ; György et al ., ) and such affinities have been documented even for microbial communities in high‐mountain grasslands (Geremia et al ., ). Nevertheless, numerous cases of genetic divergence suggesting long‐term isolation of West Carpathians and Eastern Alps populations, often pre‐dating the last glaciation, have also been documented (Dzialuk et al ., ; Homburg et al ., ; Ronikier & Zalewska‐Gałosz, ; Pachschwöll et al ., ; Drees et al ., ; Frajman, Graniszewska & Schönswetter, ).…”

Section: Phylogeographical Patterns Biogeographical Barriers and Crymentioning

confidence: 98%

Biogeography of the Carpathians: evolutionary and spatial facets of biodiversity

Mráz

Ronikier

2016

Biol. J. Linn. Soc.

128

105

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The Carpathians are the largest mountain range in Central Europe. Their geographical position, extent, isolation, landscape heterogeneity, well‐preserved environment, and relatively low impact of Quaternary glaciations make them of utmost importance for studies on European biodiversity and biogeography. In this review, introducing a Special Issue of the Biological Journal of the Linnean Society, we provide an overview of current research and focus on three main aspects: (1) distribution patterns and species richness including endemism; (2) phylogeographical patterns, inference of major barriers, and divergence areas; and (3) cytological studies and cytogeography inferred from vascular plant polyploid complexes. Our survey shows that, although accurate estimation is not possible for several important taxonomic entities because of unavailable or dispersed data, the Carpathians are a clear hotspot of European diversity for many groups of organisms, such as mammals, breeding birds, amphibians, lichens, and vascular plants. Certain groups, not necessarily those with high species richness, are rich in endemic taxa. This holds mainly for subterranean invertebrates, molluscs, grasshoppers, beetles, spiders, and vascular plants. Distribution patterns of endemic richness vary across taxonomic groups, as well as geographically, reflecting both history and habitat features. In general, the South‐Eastern Carpathians have a significantly higher proportion of endemic taxa than the northerly‐situated Western Carpathians. Molecular clock‐based estimations have provided some insight into the diversification age of the Carpathian biota, including a Tertiary origin for some endemic taxa and lineages, especially those confined to environmentally stable habitats. Distribution patterns, as well as phylogeographical and phylogenetic data, corroborate the persistence of many high‐mountain and forest taxa during the Quaternary climatic oscillations, often in multiple spatially delimited areas isolated by physical barriers. Several studies show that the Carpathian massifs played an important role as refugia for rare lineages and/or as stepping stones in migrations. Phylogeographical analysis reveals clear patterns of biogeographical breaks, as well as links, although clear exceptions also confirm that extant distribution patterns are often shaped more by idiosyncratic processes acting at different geological times. Cytogeographical data also uncover several consistent patterns, which probably reflect a deeper evolutionary history. In conclusion, the available data highlight the unique position of the Carpathians in the evolution and preservation of European biota within the European Alpine System.

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“…14,15 In a more recent study, both bacterial and fungal communities exhibited contrasting beta diversity among two types of European subalpine/alpine grasslands, and both bacterial and fungal communities were influenced by grassland type. 16 However, most of these studies have been conducted in temperate northern hemisphere grasslands and none is directly relevant to the unique and defined biomes of South Africa. 17 We argue that more geographically diverse comparative analyses are required in order to better understand how microbial communities are altered by land use.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Arable agriculture changes soil microbial communities in the South African Grassland Biome

Nkuekam¹,

Cowan²,

Valverde³

2018

S. Afr. J. Sci.

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Many studies, mostly in temperate regions of the northern hemisphere, have demonstrated that agricultural practices affect the composition and diversity of soil microbial communities. However, very little is known about the impact of agriculture on the microbial communities in other regions of the world, most particularly on the African continent. In this study, we used MiSeq amplicon sequencing of bacterial 16S rRNA genes and fungal ITS regions to characterise microbial communities in agricultural and natural grassland soils located in the Mpumalanga Province of South Africa. Nine soil chemical parameters were also measured to evaluate the effects of edaphic factors on microbial community diversity. Bacterial and fungal communities were significantly richer and more diverse in natural grassland than in agricultural soils. Microbial taxonomic composition was also significantly different between the two habitat types. The phylum Acidobacteria was significantly more abundant in natural grassland than in agricultural soils, while Actinobacteria and the family Nectriaceae showed the opposite pattern. Soil pH and phosphorus significantly influenced bacterial communities, whereas phosphorus and calcium influenced fungal communities. These findings may be interpreted as a negative impact of land-use change on soil microbial diversity and composition.

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Contrasting microbial biogeographical patterns between anthropogenic subalpine grasslands and natural alpine grasslands

Cited by 33 publications

References 80 publications

Local Environmental Factors Drive Divergent Grassland Soil Bacterial Communities in the Western Swiss Alps

Local Environmental Factors Drive Divergent Grassland Soil Bacterial Communities in the Western Swiss Alps

Biogeography of the Carpathians: evolutionary and spatial facets of biodiversity

Arable agriculture changes soil microbial communities in the South African Grassland Biome

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