Long-term changes in soil microbial communities during primary succession

Abstract

Article (refereed) -postprintCutler, Nick A.; Chaput, Dominique L.; van der Gast, Christopher J. 2014. Long-term changes in soil microbial communities during primary succession.Contact CEH NORA team at noraceh@ceh.ac.ukThe NERC and CEH trademarks and logos ('the Trademarks') are registered trademarks of NERC in the UK and other countries, and may not be used without the prior written consent of the Trademark owner. little is known about long-term (decades-centuries) structural changes in these communities. 22The development of aboveground-belowground linkages during century-scale succession is 23 also poorly understood. Our study addressed this knowledge gap by investigating SMC and 24 plant communities undergoing primary succession on an 850-year chronosequence of lava 25 flows in Iceland. We hypothesised that communities of microfungi and bacteria would 26 respond to progressive changes in vegetation and that SMC diversity would increase with 27 terrain age. Soil samples were collected from three lava flows at different stages of primary 28 succession (165, 621 and 852 years after lava flow emplacement). Plant community 29 composition was surveyed as the samples were collected. The composition of the SMCs 30 present in the soil was determined using amplicon pyrosequencing. The physical and 31 chemical properties of the soil were also analysed. The results of the study indicated 32 changes in plant and fungal communities with increasing terrain age. Distinct plant and 33 fungal assemblages were identified on the three sites and both communities became richer 34 and more diverse with increasing terrain age. There was also evidence to suggest the 35 development of mycorrhizal associations on older sites. In contrast, the composition and 36 structure of the bacterial communities did not change systematically with terrain age. 37Similarly, there were few changes in soil properties: SOM concentrations and pH, both of 38 which have been demonstrated to be important to SMCs, were constant across the 39 chronosequence. These results suggest that plant community composition is significant for 40 fungal communities, but less relevant for bacterial communities. This finding has implications 41 for studies of primary succession and the biogeochemical impact of vegetation change in 42 high-latitude ecosystems. 43 44

How Initial Composition Affects the Later Development? - A Secondary Successional Study in Differently Managed Agricultural Sites

“…Along with our findings, it has to be mentioned that, we only found differences among the differently treated sites in the fourth year of the experiment. This finding suggests, that natural development of fungal community in soils, feed-back among vegetation and soil community jointly interacted with the applied treatment, and required a longer time to express in the vegetation composition (Wang et al, 2011;Cutler et al, 2014).…”

“…It triggers this effect by reducing competition among species that facilitate coexistence in the critical phase of community development (Mariotte et al, 2013). Furthermore there are evidences showing that, not only the vegetation can change during succession, but simultaneously soil fungal community, suggesting a sensitive feed-back between plants and soil fungi ( Sikes et al, 2012, Cutler et al, 2014.…”

The Effects of Various Land Reclamation Scenarios on the Succession of Soil Bacteria, Archaea, and Fungi Over the Short and Long Term

“…In a dry environment, microbial succession may lag behind plant succession, but plant and microbes demonstrate a similar succession pattern (Lozano et al, 2014). Previous studies reported that bacteria and fungi evolved along different trajectories under various conditions, such as secondary succession in a restored ecosystem (Banning et al, 2011;Li et al, 2013a), shrub encroachment (Yannarell et al, 2014), and the primary succession of lava flows (Cutler et al, 2014) and glacier soils (Brown and Jumpponen, 2014). The different succession patterns were determined by the range of microbial physiologies, dispersal ability, and assembly pattern .…”

“…Yannarell et al (2014) found that both bacterial and fungal communities demonstrated significant variation along transects spanning the prairie-shrub-forest continuum, but their predominant patterns were different. Cutler et al (2014) showed that the composition of plant communities was significant for fungal communities, but less relevant for bacterial communities during primary succession on an 850-year chronosequence of lava flows. In retreating glaciers, the presence of plants was important in bacterial successional dynamics, but played a minor role in those of fungi (Brown and Jumpponen, 2014).…”

Soil resilience and recovery: rapid community responses to management changes

“…Many studies show differences in communities from soils with contrasting treatments Garbeva et al 2008;Geisseler and Scow 2014;de Quadros et al 2012;Zhalnina et al 2013). In non-agricultural systems there is evidence for the development of distinct bacterial communities selected over centuries (Cutler et al 2014;Jangid et al 2011) and fungal communities over decades (Hogberg et al 2014) with soil pH a major factor in microbial community structure at continental, landscape and field scale (Fierer and Jackson 2006;Griffiths et al 2011;Zhalnina et al 2015). Soil factors including pH and C: N ratio had a greater influence than land use on bacterial communities in Netherlands soil (Kuramae et al 2011), although these factors will also be influenced by agricultural land use.…”