Recurrence and Frequency of Disturbance have Cumulative Effect on Methanotrophic Activity, Abundance, and Community Structure

Ho, Adrian; Brink, Erik van den; Reim, Andreas; Krause, Sascha; Bodelier, Paul L. E.

doi:10.3389/fmicb.2015.01493

Cited by 42 publications

(33 citation statements)

References 39 publications

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“…If disturbed areas do not recover sufficiently between two disturbance events, the effects of recurrent, randomly distributed disturbances accumulate, and eventually the function deteriorates across the whole simulation area after some time. That the cumulative effect of recurrent disturbances can result in a functional collapse was also shown in an experimental study assessing how drying-rewetting cycle frequencies influence microbial activity (Ho et al, 2015). Similar to our findings, an increase in disturbance frequency increased the probability of functional collapse.…”

Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 90%

Disturbance Size Can Be Compensated for by Spatial Fragmentation in Soil Microbial Ecosystems

et al. 2019

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One major interest in soil systems ecology is to maintain ecosystem functions. As soil is exposed to disturbances of different spatial configurations, identifying disturbance characteristics that still allow for maintaining functions is crucial. In macro-ecology, the influence of fragmentation on ecosystems is continuously debated, especially in terms of extinction thresholds on the landscape scale. Whether this influence is positive or negative depends on the considered type of fragmentation: habitat fragmentation often promotes population extinction, whereas spatially fragmented disturbances reduce extinction probability in many cases. In this study, we make use of these concepts to analyze how spatial disturbance characteristics determine functional resilience on the microscale. We used the numerical model eColony considering bacterial growth, substrate consumption, and dispersal for analyzing the dynamic response of biodegradation as an exemplary important microbial ecosystem function to disturbance events. We systematically varied the frequency of the disturbance events, and the size and fragmentation of the disturbed area. We found that the influence of the disturbance size on functional recovery depends on the spatial fragmentation of the disturbance, indicating that to some extent disturbance size can be compensated for by the spatial configuration of the disturbed area. In general, biodegradation performance decreases as the disturbed area increases in size, and becomes more contiguous. However, if a disturbance is highly fragmented, an increase in disturbance size has no influence on biodegradation performance unless the disturbance is critically large. In this case, the functional performance decreases dramatically. Under recurrent disturbances, this critical disturbance size is shifted toward lower values depending on the disturbance frequency. Our results indicate the importance of spatial disturbance characteristics for functional resilience of soil microbial ecosystems. Critical values for disturbance size and degree of fragmentation emerge from an interplay between both characteristics. Consequently, these characteristics which are widely discussed on the landscape scale need to be equally considered on smaller scales when assessing functional resilience of soil ecosystems.

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Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 90%

Disturbance Size Can Be Compensated for by Spatial Fragmentation in Soil Microbial Ecosystems

et al. 2019

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“…, Ho et al. , b), a process that will only stabilize function through time if a sufficiently diverse pool of taxa is available.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Positive diversity‐functioning relationships in model communities of methanotrophic bacteria

Schnyder

Bodelier

Hartmann

et al. 2018

Ecology

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we tested effects of biodiversity on the functioning of methanotrophs, a specialized group of soil 27 bacteria that plays a key role in mediating greenhouse gas emissions from soils. Using pure 28 strains of methanotrophic bacteria, we assembled artificial communities of different diversity 29 levels, with which we inoculated sterile soil microcosms. To assess the functioning of these 30 communities, we measured methane oxidation by gas chromatography throughout the 31 experiment and determined changes in community composition and community size at several 32 time points by quantitative PCR and sequencing. We demonstrate that microbial diversity had a 33 positive overyielding-effect on methane oxidation, in particular at the beginning of the 34 experiment. This higher assimilation of CH 4 at high diversity translated into increased growth 35 and significantly larger communities towards the end of the study. The overyielding of mixtures 36 with respect to CH 4 consumption and community size was positively correlated. The temporal 37 CH 4 consumption profiles of strain monocultures differed, raising the possibility that temporal 38 complementarity of component strains drove the observed community-level strain richness 39 effects; however, the community niche metric we derived from the temporal activity profiles did 40 not explain the observed strain richness effect. The strain richness effect also was unrelated to 41 both the phylogenetic and functional trait diversity of mixed communities. Overall, our results 42 suggest that positive biodiversity-ecosystem function relationships show similar patterns across 43 different scales and may be widespread in nature. Additionally, biodiversity is probably also 44 important in natural methanotrophic communities for the ecosystem function methane oxidation. 45 3 Therefore, maintaining soil conditions that support a high diversity of methanotrophs may help 46 to reduce the emission of the greenhouse gas methane. 47 48

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“…In contrast, freshwater MOB seem to be more flexible and should be able to adapt to marine environments. However, as pointed out by Ho et al (2016), in the long run, the indigenous population with more competitive traits will become an active part of a stable MOB population again.…”

Section: Response Of Marine Mob Communities To Decreasing Salinitymentioning

confidence: 98%

“…And for MOB in soils, the soil salinity was responsible for the niche separations (Bissett et al 2012). In addition, the frequency of disturbances as well as the site history are further important factors in assessing the resilience of the MOB community to changes in salinity (Ho et al 2016).…”

Section: Response Of Marine Mob Communities To Decreasing Salinitymentioning

confidence: 99%

Effect of salinity on microbial methane oxidation in freshwater and marine environments

Osudar¹,

Klings²,

Wagner³

et al. 2017

Aquat. Microb. Ecol.

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Salinity is an important environmental control of aerobic methane oxidation, which reduces the emission of the potent greenhouse gas methane into the atmosphere. The effect of salinity on methane oxidation is especially severe in river estuaries and adjacent coastal waters, which are important sources of methane emission and, at the same time, are usually characterized by pronounced salinity gradients. Using methane oxidation rates determined by a radiotracer technique as a measure of methanotrophic activity, we tested the effect of immediate and gradual salinity changes on pure cultures of methanotrophic bacteria, and natural freshwater (Elbe River) and natural marine (North Sea) methanotrophic populations. According to our results, Methylomonas sp. and Methylosinus trichosporium are resistant to an increase in salinity, whereas Methylovulum sp. and Methylobacter luteus are sensitive to such an increase. Natural methanotrophic populations from freshwater are more resistant to an increase in salinity than those from marine water are to a decrease in salinity. In contrast to an immediate change of salinity, gradual change (1.25 PSU d −1) can attenuate salinity stress. Experiments with the natural populations revealed different reactions to changes in salinity; thus, we assume that the initial composition of the methanotrophic population, i.e. the ratio of sensitive versus resistant strains, also governs the community response to salinity stress.

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Recurrence and Frequency of Disturbance have Cumulative Effect on Methanotrophic Activity, Abundance, and Community Structure

Cited by 42 publications

References 39 publications

Disturbance Size Can Be Compensated for by Spatial Fragmentation in Soil Microbial Ecosystems

Disturbance Size Can Be Compensated for by Spatial Fragmentation in Soil Microbial Ecosystems

Positive diversity‐functioning relationships in model communities of methanotrophic bacteria

Effect of salinity on microbial methane oxidation in freshwater and marine environments

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