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146 results for “Microbial function”
Functional gene categories differentiate maize leaf drought-related microbial epiphytic communities
<p>The phyllosphere epiphytic microbiome is composed of microorganisms that colonize the external aerial portions of plants. Relationships of plant responses to specific microorganisms–both pathogenic and beneficial–have been examined, but the phyllosphere microbiome functional and metabolic profile responses are not well described. Changing crop growth conditions, such as increased drought, can have profound impacts on crop productivity. Also, epiphytic microbial communities provide a new target for crop yield optimization. We compared Zea mays leaf microbiomes collected under drought and well-watered conditions by examining functional gene annotation patterns across three physically disparate locations each with and without drought treatment, through the application of short read metagenomic sequencing. Drought samples exhibited different functional sequence compositions at each of the three field sites. Maize phyllosphere functional profiles revealed a wide variety of metabolic and regulatory processes that differed in drought and normal water conditions and provide key baseline information for future selective breeding.</p>
Data from: Stream microbial communities and ecosystem functioning show complex responses to multiple stressors in wastewater
<div> <p>Multiple anthropogenic drivers are changing ecosystems globally, with a disproportionate and intensifying impact on freshwater habitats. A major impact of urbanisation are inputs from wastewater treatment plants (WWTPs). Initially designed to greatly reduce nutrient loads, WWTPs increasingly release a multitude of micropollutants (i.e., synthetic chemicals) and organisms (including antibiotic resistant bacteria) to receiving environments. This pollution may have pervasive impacts on biodiversity and ecosystem services. Viewed through multiple lenses of macroecological and ecotoxicological theory, we combined field, flume, and laboratory experiments to determine the effects of wastewater on microbial communities and organic-matter processing using a standardized decomposition assay. Firstly, we conducted a mensurative experiment using 60 sampling locations above and below WWTP discharges in 20 Swiss streams. This showed that microbial respiration and decomposition rates were positively influenced by inputs of treated effluent via warming and nutrient enrichment, but with a notable exception: wastewater decreased the activation energy of decomposition, indicating a "slowing" of this fundamental ecosystem process in response to temperature. Secondly, next-generation sequencing of microbial communities indicated that community structure below WWTPs was altered, with significant compositional turnover, reduced fungal richness, and evidence of negative micropollutant influences. Thirdly, a series of flume experiments confirmed that although diluted wastewater generally has a positive influence on microbial-mediated processes, the negative effects of micropollutants are 'masked' by the addition of nutrients. Finally, cotton-strip transplant experiments suggested that wastewater-borne microbes enhance rates of decomposition. Taken together, our results affirm the multiple-stressor paradigm by showing that different aspects of wastewater (i.e., temperature, nutrients, microbes, and micropollutants) jointly influence ecosystem functioning in complex ways. Increased respiration rates below WWTPs potentially generate ecosystem 'disservices' via greater carbon evasion from streams and rivers. However, toxic effects of micropollutants may fundamentally alter ecological scaling relationships, indicating the need for a rapprochement between ecotoxicological and macroecological perspectives.</p> </div>
Data from: Microbial functional diversity: from concepts to applications
Functional diversity is increasingly recognized by microbial ecologists as the essential link between biodiversity patterns and ecosystem functioning, determining the trophic relationships and interactions between microorganisms, their participation in biogeochemical cycles and their responses to environmental changes. Consequently, its definition and quantification have practical and theoretical implications. In this opinion paper, we present a synthesis on the concept of microbial functional diversity from its definition to its application. Initially, we revisit to the original definition of functional diversity, highlighting two fundamental aspects, the ecological unit under study and the functional traits used to characterize it. Then, we discuss how the particularities of the microbial world disallow the direct application of the concepts and tools developed for macroorganisms. Next, we provide a synthesis of the literature on the types of ecological units and functional traits available in microbial functional ecology. We also provide a list of more than 400 traits covering a wide array of environmentally relevant functions. Lastly, we provide examples of the use of functional diversity in microbial systems based on the different units and traits discussed herein. It is our hope that this paper will stimulate discussions and help the growing field of microbial functional ecology to realize a potential that thus far has only been attained in macrobial ecology.
Data from: Mammalian engineers drive soil microbial communities and ecosystem functions across a disturbance gradient
The effects of mammalian ecosystem engineers on soil microbial communities and ecosystem functions in terrestrial ecosystems are poorly known. Disturbance from livestock has been widely reported to reduce soil function, but disturbance by animals that forage in the soil may partially offset these negative effects of livestock, directly and/or indirectly by shifting the composition and diversity of soil microbial communities. Understanding the role of disturbance from livestock and ecosystem engineers in driving soil microbes and functions is essential for formulating sustainable ecosystem management and conservation policies. We compared soil bacterial community composition and enzyme concentrations within four microsites: foraging pits of two vertebrates, the indigenous short-beaked echidna (Tachyglossus aculeatus) and the exotic European rabbit (Oryctolagus cuniculus), and surface and subsurface soils along a gradient in grazing-induced disturbance in an arid woodland. Microbial community composition varied little across the disturbance gradient, but there were substantial differences among the four microsites. Echidna pits supported a lower relative abundance of Acidobacteria and Cyanobacteria, but a higher relative abundance of Proteobacteria than rabbit pits and surface microsites. Moreover, these microsite differences varied with disturbance. Rabbit pits had a similar profile to the subsoil or the surface soils under moderate and high, but not low disturbance. Overall, echidna foraging pits had the greatest positive effect on function, assessed as mean enzyme concentrations, but rabbits had the least. The positive effects of echidna foraging on function were indirectly driven via microbial community composition. In particular, increasing activity was positively associated with increasing relative abundance of Proteobacteria, but decreasing Acidobacteria. Our study suggests that soil disturbance by animals may offset, to some degree, the oft-reported negative effects of grazing-induced disturbance on soil function. Further, our results suggest that most of this effect will be derived from echidnas, with little positive effects due to rabbits. Activities that enhance the habitat for echidnas or reduce rabbit populations are likely to have a positive effect on soil function in these systems.
Data from: Warming reduces the effects of enrichment on stability and functioning across levels of organization in an aquatic microbial ecosystem
Warming and nutrient enrichment are major environmental factors shaping ecological dynamics. However, cross-scale investigation of their combined effects by linking theory and experiments is lacking. We collected data from aquatic microbial ecosystems investigating the interactive effects of warming (constant and rising temperatures) and enrichment across levels of organization and contrasted them with community models based on metabolic theory. We found high agreement between our observations and theoretical predictions: we observed in many cases the predicted antagonistic effects of high temperature and high enrichment across levels of organization. Temporal stability of total biomass decreased with warming but did not differ across enrichment levels. Constant and rising temperature treatments with identical mean temperature did not show qualitative differences. Overall, we conclude that model and empirical results are in broad agreement due to robustness of the effects of temperature and enrichment, that the mitigating effects of temperature on effects of enrichment may be common, and that models based on metabolic theory provide qualitatively robust predictions of the combined ecological effects of enrichment and temperature.
The effects of grass silage additive type and barley grain preservation method on rumen function, microbial ecology, and energy metabolism of dairy cows; supplemental material
<p>Supplementary material related to "The effects of grass silage additive type and barley grain preservation method on rumen function, microbial ecology, and energy metabolism of dairy cows"</p>
Data from: No evidence of foliar disease impact on crop root functional strategies and soil microbial communities: What does this mean for organic coffee?
<p><span>Global climate change is increasing pest and pathogen pressures on plant communities, deteriorating optimal plant functioning. In plant communities, root functional trait expression and microbial communities are important indicators of plant functioning belowground, and, when confronted with pathogens aboveground, can simultaneously reflect plant defence strategies. Yet, while research is continuing to emerge on the response of root functional traits and microbial processes to pathogens aboveground, little work has investigated these interactions in tree-crops, or the role organic amendments play in moderating these relationships. The main objective of this study is to disentangle the dynamic effects of pathogens and amendments on root functional traits (i.e., specific root length and area, root diameter, root length density, root nitrogen, and root carbon to nitrogen ratio) and root endophytic fungal communities. As a model, we use <em>Coffea arabica </em>(coffee) variety Caturra along a gradient of Coffee Leaf Rust – a foliar disease prominent in coffee systems – under contrasting but widespread amendment regimes in biodiverse agroforestry systems. We found that root trait expression varies along established conservation and collaboration gradients, where fungal endophyte community composition varies significantly as a function of root traits. Belowground resource acquisition strategies do not change with foliar disease incidence, suggesting they may be decoupled. Rather, amendment regimes </span>differentially shape root trait expression and microbial communities<span>, where coffee plants under organic amendments, regardless of foliar disease incidence, expressed greater acquisitive traits and enhanced collaboration with symbiotic fungi. </span>This is an important first step in disentangling the dynamic inter-relationships between plant traits, endophytes, and pathogens, generating new questions on the role of amendments in sustainable pathogen management in biodiverse agroecosystems.</p> <p> </p>
No evidence that conifer biochar impacts soil functioning by serving as microbial refugia in boreal soils
<p><span>It is well established that application of biochar to soils can promote soil fertility, which ultimately may enhance plant growth. While many mechanisms have been proposed to explain this, one specific mechanism, the "microbial refugia hypothesis" suggests that biochar may provide physical protection for soil microbe from soil micro-fauna that otherwise exert top-down control on microbial biomass and activity. We tested the microbial refugia hypothesis by incubating two boreal soils with and without biochar derived from a wood mixture of boreal tree species (<em>Picea abies </em>and <em>Pinus sylvestris</em>), and with and without soil nematodes. We measured phospholipid fatty acids (PLFA) as a relative measure of microbial biomass, and several variables indicative of microbial activity, including extractable nutrient concentrations (NH<sub>4</sub>+, NO<sub>3</sub><sup>-</sup>, and PO<sub>4</sub><sup>-</sup>), heterotrophic N<sub>2</sub>-fixation, and soil respiration. Contrary to our expectations, we found that biochar by itself did not stimulate microbial biomass or activity. Further, we found that nematode addition to soil stimulated rather than depressed the biomass of several bacterial PLFA groups. Finally, interactive effects between the nematode treatment and biochar never worked in a way that supported the microbial refugia hypothesis. Our findings suggests that a typical boreal biochar applied to boreal soils may not have the same stimulatory effect on microbial biomass and activity that has been shown in some other ecosystems, and that enhanced plant growth in response to biochar addition sometimes observed in boreal environments is likely due to other mechanisms, such as direct nutrient supply from biochar, or amelioration of soil pH.</span></p>
Afforestation can lower microbial diversity and functionality in deep soil layers in a semiarid region
<p>Afforestation is an effective approach to rehabilitate degraded ecosystems, but often depletes deep soil moisture. Presently, it is not known how an afforestation-induced decrease in moisture affects soil microbial community and functionality, hindering our ability to understand the sustainability of the rehabilitated ecosystems. To address this issue, we examined the impacts of 20 years of afforestation on soil bacterial community, co-occurrence pattern and functionalities along vertical profile (0-500 cm depth) in a semiarid region of China's Loess Plateau. We showed that the effects of afforestation with a deep-rooted legume tree on cropland were greater in deep than that of in top layers, resulting in decreased bacterial beta diversity, more responsive bacterial taxa and functional groups, increased homogeneous selection, and decreased network robustness in deep soils (120-500 cm). Organic carbon and nitrogen decomposition rates and multifunctionality also significantly decreased by afforestation, and microbial carbon limitation significantly increased in deep soils. Moreover, changes in microbial community and functionality in deep layer was largely related to changes in soil moisture. Such negative impacts on deep soils should be fully considered for assessing afforestation's eco-environment effects and for the sustainability of ecosystems because deep soils have important influence on forest ecosystems in semiarid and arid climates. </p>
Plant community composition and traits modulate the impacts of drought intensity on soil microbial community composition and function
<p>Terrestrial ecosystems are increasingly threatened by extreme drought events. Soil microbial communities are central to terrestrial ecosystem function via their role in regulating biogeochemical cycling. Consequently, the impact of increasingly intense drought events on soil microbial communities will have knock-on effects for how ecosystems cope with climate change. In an outdoor grassland mesocosm experiment, we determined how increasing drought intensity affects bacterial and fungal community composition, and functioning, during and after drought. We also tested whether plant community resource acquisition strategy (fast- versus slow-strategy plant communities), plant community composition, and plant functional traits mediate soil microbial responses to increasing drought intensity. We found that increasing drought intensity markedly shifted bacterial and fungal community composition, and these effects persisted until the end of the experiment (two months after re-wetting). Bacterial and fungal communities that experienced severe droughts did not return to baseline composition, while those that experienced a mild drought did. Microbial community functioning (potential extracellular enzyme activity) was reduced at peak drought and shortly after re-wetting. While drought intensity effects on bacterial or fungal communities were insensitive to plant community resource acquisition strategy, functional group abundance (aboveground biomass of grass or forb plant species) composition (grass:forb ratio) and leaf traits (leaf dry matter content and leaf nitrogen concentration) explained significant variation in bacterial and fungal community composition during and after drought. Notably, plant community leaf dry matter content and soil nitrogen were the key factors mediating the effect of increasing drought intensity on microbial indicator taxa (ASVs). We conclude that increasing drought intensity affects grassland soil microbial communities during and after drought, and this impact is influenced by plant community composition and functional traits.</p>
Data from: Reconstructing the microbial diversity and function of pre-agricultural tallgrass prairie soils in the United States
Native tallgrass prairie once dominated much of the midwestern United States, but this biome and the soil microbial diversity that once sustained this highly productive system have been almost completely eradicated by decades of agricultural practices. We reconstructed the soil microbial diversity that once existed in this biome by analyzing relict prairie soils and found that the biogeographical patterns were largely driven by changes in the relative abundance of Verrucomicrobia, a poorly studied bacterial phylum that appears to dominate many prairie soils. Shotgun metagenomic data suggested that these spatial patterns were associated with strong shifts in carbon dynamics. We show that metagenomic approaches can be used to reconstruct below-ground biogeochemical and diversity gradients in endangered ecosystems; such information could be used to improve restoration efforts, given that even small changes in below-ground microbial diversity can have important impacts on ecosystem processes.
The trajectories of vegetative structure and soil microbial function diverged across a fire chronosequence of the boreal forests in Northeast China
<p>The role of boreal forest to ameliorate the effect of global climate change largely depends on the regeneration of postfire forests in northeast China. The postfire recovery of boreal forest can be evaluated by the aboveground vegetative structure and soil microbial function. In present study, a 50-year fire chronosequence was established, and the biomass of forbs, shrub and woody plant was separately weighted to assess their contribution to the whole community with the year since fire (YSF). Simultaneously, soil biophysical properties were measured for stands in different time period after fire. Soil microbial functions, i.e., growth efficiency (GE) and carbon use efficiency (CUE), were calculated basing on ecoenzymatic and soil nutrient stoichiometry. In terms of vegetative structure, forbs' proportion decreased from 75% to 1.5%, but the proportion of woody plant increased from 0.04% to 70% across this fire chronosequence. In contrast, soil microbial function reached the highest value in 15 YSF and then began to decrease. As an important variable, soil metal content, particularly the calcium content, showed a positive correlation with woody plant biomass and a negative with soil microbial function. Furthermore, soil metal content was significantly increased in the late stage of this fire chronosequence. Overall, the present work highlighted that the time period of 15 YSF and 31 YSF was a hallmark stage for aboveground vegetative structure and soil microbial function to change in different trends, and the calcium content may partly account for these two divergent trajectories.</p>
Changes in microbial community structure and functioning with elevation are linked to local soil characteristics as well as climatic variables
<p>Mountain forests are important carbon stocks but are threatened by increased insect outbreaks and climate driven forest conversion. Soil microorganisms play an eminent role in nutrient cycling in forests and form the basis of soil food webs. Uncovering the driving factors shaping microbial communities and functioning at mountainsides worldwide is of importance to better understand their dynamics at local and global scales. We investigated microbial communities and their drivers along an elevational gradient of primary forests at Changbai Mountain, China. We analysed substrate-induced respiration and phospholipid fatty acids (PLFA) in litter and two soil layers at seven sites. In the litter layer the increase in microbial biomass (Cmic) as well as in stress indicator ratios with elevation were negatively correlated with Ca concentrations indicating increased nutritional stress in high microbial biomass communities at sites with lower Ca availability. PLFA profiles in litter separated low and high elevations, this was less pronounced in soil, suggesting that leaflitter functions as buffer for soil microbial communities. Annual variations in temperature correlated with PLFA profiles in all layers, while annual variations in precipitation correlated with PLFA profiles in upper soil only. Furthermore, the availability of resources, soil moisture, Ca concentrations and pH structured the microbial communities. Pronounced changes in Cmic and stress indicator ratios in the litter layer between pine dominated (800 – 1100 m) and spruce dominated (1250 – 1700 m) forests indicated a shift in the structure and functioning of microbial communities between forest types. The study highlights strong changes in microbial community structure and functioning along elevational gradients, but also shows that these changes and their driving factors vary between layers. Besides annual variations in temperature and precipitation, carbon accumulation and nitrogen acquisition shape changes in microbial communities with elevation at Changbai Mountain.</p>
Viral genomes, functional genes, and microbial genomes of 144 activated sludge samples taken from 54 WWTPs across 13 countries on a global scale
<p>The study dataset contains 85,114 viral genomes, 1,115,185 viral functional genes, and 3,823 microbial genomes obtained from 54 WWTPs across 13 countries. </p><p>If this study dataset is useful, please cite: Fan, X., Ji, M., Mu, D. <i>et al.</i> Global diversity and biogeography of DNA viral communities in activated sludge systems. <i>Microbiome</i> <strong>11</strong>, 234 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1186/s40168-023-01672-1</p>
Effects of Consumption of Nut Components on Cognitive Function, Intestinal Microbial Communities and Markers of Health
ClinicalTrials.gov study NCT03500601. IPD Sharing: NO. Countries: 1. Publications: 5.
Microbial Soy Milk Consumption, Inflammation and Renal Function Among Type 2 Diabetic Patients With Nephropathy
ClinicalTrials.gov study NCT02704884. IPD Sharing: Not stated. Countries: 1. Publications: 2.
Data from: Tree functional strategies and soil microbial communities regulate forest ecosystem services
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Data from: Peatland vascular plant functional types affect methane dynamics by altering microbial community structure
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Data from: Mammalian engineers drive soil microbial communities and ecosystem functions across a disturbance gradient
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Data from: Reconstructing the microbial diversity and function of pre-agricultural tallgrass prairie soils in the United States
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