Cyanobacterial diversity of western European biological soil crusts along a latitudinal gradient

Abstract

Cyanobacteria associated with biological soil crusts (BSCs) have important attributes, such as nitrogen fixation and soil stabilisation. However, research on these organisms has been minimal, and their diversity and distribution throughout temperate Europe is currently unknown. The SCIN (Soil Crust International) project is a multidisciplinary research initiative that aims to achieve improved understanding of the BSCs of Europe, one facet being an investigation into the cyanobacterial communities of BSCs across a latitudinal gradient. Cyanobacteria assemblages were analysed by both morphological and molecular analysis. Two treatments were applied prior to DNA extraction, continued sample wetting and a dry sample process, and 16S ribosomal RNA (rRNA) amplicons were processed by Illumina MiSeq sequencing. The results reveal high and variable cyanobacterial diversity with each site showing a unique assemblage. Many common cyanobacterial genera, for example Nostoc and Microcoleus, were found in all sites but the abundances of different genera varied considerably. The polyphasic approach was found to be essential in recording the presence of important cyanobacteria that a single method itself did not highlight. The wet and dry treatments showed some differences in diversity, but mainly in abundance, this may suggest how cyanobacterial composition of BSCs changes with seasonal variability.

Strong in combination: Polyphasic approach enhances arguments for cold‐assigned cyanobacterial endemism

“…Both culturing and fingerprinting methods resulted in the highest diversity at Hochtor and the lowest found at Livingston (Table ), which corresponds with the trends found in the fingerprint diversity and species richness calculations. A similar study that applied next generation sequencing to investigate the cyanobacterial diversity stated 11 species for Hochtor with almost identical species (Williams, Loewen‐Schneider, Maier, & Büdel, ), supporting the validity of DGGE. The distinct species composition at each site is supported by the patterns found in the cluster analysis and MDS (Figure ).…”

Cyanobacterial biocrust diversity in Mediterranean ecosystems along a latitudinal and climatic gradient

“…As with other strains, thermophysiological bioassays agree with this result, since Scytonema isolates were also thermotolerant. Scytonema is in fact typical for other warm sites in the Negev (Hagemann et al ., ), the hyperarid Atacama desert (Patzelt et al ., ), and other sites in southern Spain (Williams et al ., ). In addition, in an arid grassland of the Colorado Plateau S. hyalinum was most abundant in autumn, after the warm and dry season (Yeager et al ., ).…”

“…The relatively high abundance of colonial cyanobacteria, largely Chroococcidiopsis phylotypes, was rather remarkable, as they are typically considered hypolithic organisms rather than major crust inhabitants, although they have also been reported in many aerophytic habitats (e.g. see Uher & Kovacik, ; Uher et al ., ) and, recently, also from biocrusts (Hagemann et al ., ; Williams et al ., ); they could contribute to nitrogen fixing in the soils, since some species do so in culture (Bothe et al ., ). Representatives of Pleurocapsa , seldom a reported crust inhabitant (Dojani et al ., ), were also detected.…”

“…Representatives of Pleurocapsa , seldom a reported crust inhabitant (Dojani et al ., ), were also detected. The filamentous nonheterocystous cyanobacterial morphogenus Leptolyngbya showed high relative abundance, in agreement with recent studies of desert (Dojani et al ., ; Hagemann et al ., ; Williams et al ., ) and Arctic biocrusts (Pushkareva et al ., ; Rippin et al ., ). Leptolyngbya is a cyanobacterial genus of polyphyletic nature (i.e.…”

Assessing recovery of biological soil crusts across a latitudinal gradient in Western Europe

“…Cyanobacteria are essential components of biological soil crust successional processes, usually creating the initial structural integrity that allows further development of the crust (Belnap & Lange 2003). Their function and diversity within soil crusts has been widely investigated worldwide, including the Negev Desert in Israel (Lange et al 1992;Hagemann et al 2015), the Colorado Plateau region in the United States (Garcia-Pichel et al 2001;Yeager et al 2004), the Gurbantunggut Desert in China (Zhang et al 2011), Adam and Muscat in Oman (Abed et al 2010), the cold Himalayan deserts (Janatkova et al 2013;Čapková et al 2016), and Western Europe (Williams et al 2016). Apart from studies on successional changes, few have explored shifts in cyanobacterial community structure, although a limited number have considered climatic influences (Yeager et al 2012;Garcia-Pichel et al 2013;Hagemann et al 2015) and investigated coverage (Dojani et al 2011;Ferrenberg et al 2015).…”