Twenty years of molecular analysis of bacterial communities in soils and what have we learned about function?

O’Donnell, Anthony G.; Colvan, Stephanie R.; Malosso, Elaine; Supaphol, Savaporn

doi:10.1017/cbo9780511541926.004

Cited by 17 publications

(5 citation statements)

References 57 publications

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“…S4 ). On the other hand, the bacterial diversity was maintained at a high level, which may be caused by the rich resources provided by the high aboveground productivity and the functional redundancy of bacterial communities 23 . The asynchronous variation in the above- and below-ground communities during succession could be a plausible explanation for the negative correlation in α-diversity between the two sides.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Aboveground-belowground biodiversity linkages differ in early and late successional temperate forests

Wang

Liang

et al. 2015

Sci Rep

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Understanding ecological linkages between above- and below-ground biota is critical for deepening our knowledge on the maintenance and stability of ecosystem processes. Nevertheless, direct comparisons of plant-microbe diversity at the community level remain scarce due to the knowledge gap between microbial ecology and plant ecology. We compared the α- and β- diversities of plant and soil bacterial communities in two temperate forests that represented early and late successional stages. We documented different patterns of aboveground-belowground diversity relationships in these forests. We observed no linkage between plant and bacterial α-diversity in the early successional forest, and even a negative correlation in the late successional forest, indicating that high bacterial α-diversity is not always linked to high plant α-diversity. Beta-diversity coupling was only found at the late successional stage, while in the early successional forest, the bacterial β-diversity was closely correlated with soil property distances. Additionally, we showed that the dominant competitive tree species in the late successional forest may play key roles in driving forest succession by shaping the soil bacterial community in the early successional stage. This study sheds new light on the potential aboveground-belowground linkage in natural ecosystems, which may help us understand the mechanisms that drive ecosystem succession.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Aboveground-belowground biodiversity linkages differ in early and late successional temperate forests

Wang

Liang

et al. 2015

Sci Rep

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“…The much-vaunted belief that the gene is the appropriate level to measure the state of the system (e.g. reviews by Insam 2001;Torsvik & Ovreas 2002;Kirk et al 2004;O'Donnell 2005) may be misguided, distorted by a strong contemporary focus on (predominantly organismal) genomics in biology. In particular, it may be an inappropriate paradigm for soil communities due to their extraordinary diversity.…”

Section: (C) Biotic Indicatorsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Soil health in agricultural systems

Kibblewhite

Ritz

Swift

2007

Phil. Trans. R. Soc. B

852

457

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Soil health is presented as an integrative property that reflects the capacity of soil to respond to agricultural intervention, so that it continues to support both the agricultural production and the provision of other ecosystem services. The major challenge within sustainable soil management is to conserve ecosystem service delivery while optimizing agricultural yields. It is proposed that soil health is dependent on the maintenance of four major functions: carbon transformations; nutrient cycles; soil structure maintenance; and the regulation of pests and diseases. Each of these functions is manifested as an aggregate of a variety of biological processes provided by a diversity of interacting soil organisms under the influence of the abiotic soil environment. Analysis of current models of the soil community under the impact of agricultural interventions (particularly those entailing substitution of biological processes with fossil fuel-derived energy or inputs) confirms the highly integrative pattern of interactions within each of these functions and leads to the conclusion that measurement of individual groups of organisms, processes or soil properties does not suffice to indicate the state of the soil health. A further conclusion is that quantifying the flow of energy and carbon between functions is an essential but non-trivial task for the assessment and management of soil health.

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“…PLFAs are one of the most commonly used methods of characterizing the soil microbial community in ecological studies (O'Donnell et al 2005), in part because the method provides a relatively simple, reliable, and ecologically relevant measure of microbial community structure (Joergensen and Wichern 2008). We used a protocol modified from White et al (1979) for optimal extraction for this soil texture.…”

Section: Soil Measurementsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Legacy effects overwhelm the short-term effects of exotic plant invasion and restoration on soil microbial community structure, enzyme activities, and nitrogen cycling

et al. 2011

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Plant invasions can have substantial consequences for the soil ecosystem, altering microbial community structure and nutrient cycling. However, relatively little is known about what drives these changes, making it difficult to predict the effects of future invasions. In addition, because most studies compare soils from uninvaded areas to long-established dense invasions, little is known about the temporal dependence of invasion impacts. We experimentally manipulated forest understory vegetation in replicated sites dominated either by exotic Japanese barberry (Berberis thunbergii), native Viburnums, or native Vacciniums, so that each vegetation type was present in each site-type. We compared the short-term effect of vegetation changes to the lingering legacy effects of the previous vegetation type by measuring soil microbial community structure (phospholipid fatty acids) and function (extracellular enzymes and nitrogen mineralization). We also replaced the aboveground litter in half of each plot with an inert substitute to determine if changes in the soil microbial community were driven by aboveground or belowground plant inputs. We found that after 2 years, the microbial community structure and function was largely determined by the legacy effect of the previous vegetation type, and was not affected by the current vegetation. Aboveground litter removal had only weak effects, suggesting that changes in the soil microbial community and nutrient cycling were driven largely by belowground processes. These results suggest that changes in the soil following either invasion or restoration do not occur quickly, but rather exhibit long-lasting legacy effects from previous belowground plant inputs.

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Twenty years of molecular analysis of bacterial communities in soils and what have we learned about function?

Cited by 17 publications

References 57 publications

Aboveground-belowground biodiversity linkages differ in early and late successional temperate forests

Aboveground-belowground biodiversity linkages differ in early and late successional temperate forests

Soil health in agricultural systems

Legacy effects overwhelm the short-term effects of exotic plant invasion and restoration on soil microbial community structure, enzyme activities, and nitrogen cycling

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