Immediate and legacy effects of snow exclusion on soil fungal diversity and community composition

Background:Soil fungi play crucial roles in ecosystem functions.However,how snow cover change associated with winter warming affects soil fungal communities remains unclear in the Tibetan forest.Methods:We conducted a snow manipulation experiment to explore immediate and legacy effects of snow exclusion on soil fungal community diversity and composition in a spruce forest on the eastern Tibetan Plateau.Soil fungal communities were performed by the high throughput sequencing of gene-fragments.Results:Ascomycota and Basidiomycota were the two dominant fungal phyla and Archaeorhizomyces,Aspergillus and Amanita were the three most common genera across seasons and snow manipulations.Snow exclusion did not affect the diversity and structure of soil fungal community in both snow-covered and snow-free seasons.However,the relative abundance of some fungal communities was different among seasons.Soil fungal groups were correlated with environmental factors(i.e.,temperature and moisture)and soil biochemical variables(i.e.,ammonium and enzyme).Conclusions:These results suggest that the season-driven variations had stronger impacts on soil fungal community than short-term snow cover change.Such findings may have important implications for soil microbial processes in Tibetan forests experiencing significant decreases in snowfall.

Plant property regulates soil bacterial community structure under altered precipitation regimes in a semi-arid desert grassland, China

Variations of precipitation have great impacts on soil carbon cycle and decomposition of soil organic matter.Soil bacteria are crucial participants in regulating these ecological processes and vulnerable to altered precipitation.Studying the impacts of altered precipitation on soil bacterial community structure can provide a novel insight into the potential impacts of altered precipitation on soil carbon cycle and carbon storage of grassland.Therefore,soil bacterial community structure under a precipitation manipulation experiment was researched in a semi-arid desert grassland in Chinese Loess Plateau.Five precipitation levels,i.e.,control,reduced and increased precipitation by 40%and 20%,respectively(referred here as CK,DP40,DP20,IP40,and IP20)were set.The results showed that soil bacterial alpha diversity and rare bacteria significantly changed with altered precipitation,but the dominant bacteria and soil bacterial beta diversity did not change,which may be ascribed to the ecological strategy of soil bacteria.The linear discriminate analysis(LDA)effect size(LEfSe)method found that major response patterns of soil bacteria to altered precipitation were resource-limited and drought-tolerant populations.In addition,increasing precipitation greatly promoted inter-species competition,while decreasing precipitation highly facilitated inter-species cooperation.These changes in species interaction can promote different distribution ratios of bacterial populations under different precipitation conditions.In structural equation model(SEM)analysis,with changes in precipitation,plant growth characteristics were found to be drivers of soil bacterial community composition,while soil properties were not.In conclusion,our results indicated that in desert grassland ecosystem,the sensitive of soil rare bacteria to altered precipitation was stronger than that of dominant taxa,which may be related to the ecological strategy of bacteria,species interaction,and precipitation-induced variations of plant growth characteristics.

Wheat, maize and sunflower cropping systems selectively influence bacteria community structure and diversity in their and succeeding crop's rhizosphere

Wheat and maize are increasingly used as alternative crops to sunflower monocultures that dominate the Hetao Irrigation District in China.Shifts from sunflower monocultures to alternate cropping systems may have significant effects on belowground microbial communities which control nutrient cycling and influence plant productivity.In this research,rhizosphere bacterial communities were compared among sunflower,wheat and maize cropping systems by 454 pyrosequencing.These cropping systems included 2 years wheat(cultivar Yongliang 4) and maize(cultivar Sidan 19) monoculture,more than 20 years sunflower(cultivar 5009) monoculture,and wheat-sunflower and maize-sunflower rotation.In addition,we investigated rhizosphere bacterial communities of healthy and diseased plants at maturity to determine the relationship between plant health and rotation effect.The results revealed taxonomic information about the overall bacterial community.And significant differences in bacterial community structure were detected among these cropping systems.Eight of the most abundant groups including Proteobacteria,Bacteroidetes,Acidobacteria,Gemmatimonadetes,Chloroflexi,Actinobacteria,Planctomycetes and Firmicutes accounted for more than 85%of the sequences in each treatment.The wheat-wheat rhizosphere had the highest proportion of Acidobacteria,Bacteroidetes and the lowest proportion of unclassified bacteria.Wheat-sunflower cropping system showed more abundant Acidobacteria than maize-sunflower and sunflower monoculture,exhibiting some influences of wheat on the succeeding crop.Maize-maize rhizosphere had the highest proportion of γ-Proteobacteria,Pseudomonadales and the lowest proportion of Acidobacteria.Sunflower rotation with wheat and maize could increase the relative abundance of the Acidobacteria while decrease the relative abundance of the unclassified phyla,as was similar with the health plants.This suggests some positive impacts of rotation with wheat and maize on the bacterial communities within a single field.These results demonstrate that different crop rotation systems can have significant effects on rhizosphere microbiomes that potentially alter plant productivities in agricultural systems.

Host plant traits play a crucial role in shaping the composition of epiphytic microbiota in the arid desert,Northwest China

Phyllosphere microorganisms are a crucial component of environmental microorganisms,highly influenced by host characteristics,and play a significant role in plant health and productivity.Nonetheless,the impact of host characteristics on shaping phyllosphere microbial communities of plants with different life forms remains ambiguous.Utilizing high-throughput sequencing technology,this study analyzed the diversity and community composition of phyllosphere epiphytic microorganisms(e.g.,bacteria and fungi)of various plant life forms in the hinterland of the Gurbantunggut Desert,Northwest China.Functional annotation of prokaryotic taxa(FAPROTAX)and fungi function guild(FUNGuild)were employed to assess the ecological functions of microorganisms and to investigate the role of stochastic and deterministic processes in shaping phyllosphere microbial communities.Result showed a diverse array of phyllosphere epiphytic microorganisms in the desert plants,with Proteobacteria,Cyanobacteria,and Actinobacteriota dominating bacterial community,while Ascomycota and Basidiomycota were prevalent in fungal community.Comparison across different plant life forms highlighted distinct microbial communities,indicating strong filtering effects by plant characteristics.FAPROTAX prediction identified intracellular parasites(accounting for 27.44%of bacterial community abundance),chemoheterotrophy(10.12%),and phototrophy(17.41%)as the main functions of epiphytic bacteria on leaves of different life form plants.FUNGuild prediction indicated that phyllosphere epiphytic fungi primarily served as Saprotrophs(81.77%),Pathotrophs(17.41%),and Symbiotrophs(0.82%).Co-occurrence network analysis demonstrated a predominance of positive correlations among different microbial taxa.Raup-Crick dissimilarity index analysis revealed that deterministic processes predominantly influenced phyllosphere bacterial and fungal community assembly.Variance partitioning analysis and random forest modeling suggested that plant leaf functional traits significantly impacted both bacterial and fungal community composition,with fungal community composition showing a closer association with leaf nutrients and physiology compared with bacterial community composition.The distinct responses of bacterial and fungal communities to plant traits were attributed to the differing properties of bacteria and fungi,such as bacteria having higher potential dispersal rates and broader ecological niches than fungi.Overall,the results indicate that phyllosphere bacterial and fungal communities undergo similar community assembly processes,with fungi being more influenced by plant characteristics than bacteria.These findings offer novel insights into the ecology of phyllosphere microbial communities of desert plants.

Spatial and diel variations of the prokaryotic community in the Phaeocystis globosa blooms area of Beibu Gulf,China

While prokaryotes play key roles in nutrient cycling and energy flow during Phaeocystis globosa blooms,the information on the spatial and diel temporal distribution of the prokaryotic community during Phaeocystis blooms remains scarce.In January 2019,we used high-throughput sequencing of the 16S rRNA gene to explore the spatial and diel variations of particle-attached(PA)and free-living(FL)prokaryotic communities during the blooming phase of P.globosa in Beibu Gulf,Guangxi,China.The results suggested a significant spatial variation pattern in the horizontal distribution of prokaryotic communities,while there was no significant difference in the vertical direction.Both spatial distance and environmental variables shaped the horizontal distribution of the prokaryotic community structure,while environmental variables,particularly the abundance of P.globosa colony and Chl a,showed more significant influence and were closely related to the structure and variation of the prokaryotic community.Strong vertical mixing of the water column disrupted the vertical structure heterogeneity of the prokaryotic community in winter.There were significant differences in the diel samples of PA prokaryotic communities,but not in the FL prokaryotic communities.Nitrate,ammonium and the abundance of P.globosa colony were the key environmental variables impacting the diel variations of prokaryotic communities over the sampling period.The present study provided valuable information to depict the spatial-temporal variations of the microbial community and its association with environmental parameters during P.globosa bloom in the tropical gulf.

Diversity and Selectivity of Flowervisiting Insects in Xipu Forest Park

[Objective]This study was conducted to understand the species and quantity of flowervisiting insects in Xipu Forest Park,supplement the data of local flowervisiting insects,and fill the research gap of flowervisiting insects in the Lesser Hinggan Mountain.[Method]The methods of route survey and sample plot survey were used to investigate the community of flowervisiting insects,and the method of net catching was used to collect flowervisiting insects and record relevant data.[Results]A total of 1526 flowervisiting insects belonging to 79 species,27 families and 9 orders were found.Among them,Lepidoptera was the most,accounting for 40.51%,while Odonata,Mantodea,Hemiptera and Thysanoptera are the least.The results showed that the insect diversity index and insect dominance index were higher in the flower cultivation area,the insect evenness index was highest in the lawn area,and the flowervisiting insects in arbor area and flower shrub area were more similar.Rosaceae had the most flowervisiting insects,followed by Compositae,Cruciferae and Leguminosae.[Significance]The study provides scientific basis and data support for the rational development and utilization,biodiversity protection and sustainable development of forest parks.

Distribution of Bacterial Communities in Petroleum-Contaminated Soils from the Dagang Oilfield, China

Diversity in bacterial communities was investigated along a petroleum hydrocarbon content gradient(0-0.4043 g/g)in surface(5-10 cm)and subsurface(35-40 cm)petroleum-contaminated soil samples from the Dagang Oilfield,China.Using 16S rRNA Illumina high-throughput sequencing technology and several statistical methods,the bacterial diversity of the soil was studied.Subsequently,the environmental parameters were measured to analyze its relationship with the community variation.Nonmetric multidimensional scaling and analysis of similarities indicated a significant difference in the structure of the bacterial community between the nonpetroleum-contaminated surface and subsurface soils,but no differences were observed in different depths of petroleum-contaminated soil.Meanwhile,many significant correlations were obtained between diversity in soil bacterial community and physicochemical properties.Total petroleum hydrocarbon,total organic carbon,and total nitrogen were the three important factors that had the greatest impacts on the bacterial community distribution in the long-term petroleum-contaminated soils.Our research has provided references for the bacterial community distribution along a petroleum gradient in both surface and subsurface petroleum-contaminated soils of oilfield areas.

Can an evidence-based fall prevention program be translated for use in culturally diverse communities?

Older adult falls are a significant public health problem,but one that is amenable to preventive interventions.1,2 Despite the progress made in identifying risk factors,developing efficacious health-related interventions,and promoting evidencebased programs in the community,much work remains before these strategies are broadly available and effectively used to reduce fall-related injuries.3 As Newton and ScottFindlay4 have pointed out,the translation of basic scientific knowledge into clinical studies,and the transformation of clinical studies into improvements in health services and public health practices,remain major obstacles to widespread adoption.

Microbial community structure in different wastewater treatment processes characterized by single-strand conformation polymorphism (SSCP) technique

In order to investigate microbial community structures in different wastewater treatment processes and understand the relationship between the structures and the status of processes,the microbial community diversity,variety and distribution in five wastewater treatment pro cesses were studied by a culture-independent genetic fingerprinting technique single-strand conformation poly-morphism(SSCP).The five processes included denitrifying and phosphate-removal system(diminished N),Chinese traditional medicine wastewater treatment system(P),beer wastewater treatment system(W),fermentative biohydrogen-producing system(H),and sulfate-reduction system(S).The results indicated that the microbial community profiles in the wastewater bioreactors with the uniform status were very similar.The diversity of microbial populations was correlated with the complexity of organic contaminants in wastewater.Chinese traditional medicine wastewater contained more complex organic components;hence,the population diversity was higher than that of simple nutrient bioreactors fed with molasses wastewater.Compared with the strain bands in a simulated community,the relative proportion of some functional microbial populations in bioreactors was not dom-inant.Fermentative biohydrogen producer Ethanoligenens harbinense in the better condition bioreactor had only a 5% band density,and the Desulfovibrio sp.in the sulfate-reducing bioreactor had less than 1.5%band density.The SSCP profiles could identify the difference in microbial community structures in wastewater treatment processes,monitor some of the functional microbes in these processes,and consequently provide useful guidance for improving their efficiency.

Carbon nanomaterial addition changes soil nematode community in a tall fescue mesocosm

Carbon nanomaterials have been widely used in industry and inevitably enter the environment.However,there is little information about their influence on the abundance and diversity of soil nematode community.We evaluated the impact of three kinds of carbon nanomaterials(graphene,graphene oxide,and carbon nanotubes)on the abundance and diversity of soil nematodes after growing tall fescue for 130 d using a laboratory pot experiment.A total of 29 genera of nematodes were identified in all the treatments.Carbon nanomaterials significantly increased the abundance of total nematodes and plant parasites.The presence of graphene and graphene oxide increased the numbers of bacterivores,and graphene benefited fungivores.The total nematode abundance was1.9-2.9 times greater in the carbon nanomaterial treatments than in the control with no carbon nanomaterial addition.However,graphene oxide and carbon nanotubes decreased the values of nematode community parameters,e.g.,diversity,species richness,and structure index.Compared with the control,the addition of graphene resulted in a community with a higher plant-parasitic index(i.e.,the maturity index of the plant-parasitic nematodes).Overall,our findings highlight that the addition of carbon nanomaterials has a negative influence on the composition and diversity of the nematode community,simplifying the community structure.

Effect of copper tolerant Elsholtzia splendens on bacterial community associated with Commelina communis on a copper mine spoil

Facilitation, or positive plant–plant interaction, has received increasing concern from ecologists over the last two decades. Facilitation may occur through direct mitigation of severe environments or indirect mediation by a third participant from the same or different trophic levels. The copper(Cu) tolerant species Elsholtzia splendens facilitates the establishment and growth of co-occurring Commelina communis through indirect enrichment of microbial activity. However, whether and how E. splendens impacts the microbial community that is associated with C. communis is less known. We characterized the soil bacterial community in the rhizosphere of C. communis in the absence and presence of E.splendens using PCR-DGGE(polymerase chain reaction-denaturing gradient gel electrophoresis) and sequencing. The result showed that the richness of the bacterial community increased, but diversity and evenness remained similar, in the presence of E. splendens.Chloroflexi, Acidobacteria and Proteobacteria were the most dominant bacteria. The relative abundance of dominant and minor bacterial groups showed distinctly different responses to E. splendens. Principal component analysis and redundancy analysis indicated that variation of the bacterial community was determined by multiple factors and might be driven by the tested soil parameters collectively, or alternatively changed through plant root exudates or other microorganisms. Our results enhance the understanding of how the bacterial community associated with a beneficiary plant responds to a benefactor plant and suggests that the changes of bacterial community composition may have far-reaching influence on plant–soil feedback and the aboveground plant community in the long run.

Lignocellulosic fraction-induced niche differentiation within dissimilatory iron reducing bacterial groups in a paddy soil

Responses of soil DIRB to lignocellulosic fractions during a 6-week microcosm incubation were investigated.Anaeromyxobacter,Bacillus,and Clostridium maintained their domi-nance throughout the incubation.Distinct DIRB groups proliferated under specific lignocellulosic fraction amendments.Limits of insufficient ferric iron on the proliferation varied by DIRB group.Dissimilatory iron reducing bacteria(DIRB)are phylogenetically and physi-ologically diverse in paddy soils,where iron reduction closely couples with the oxidation of rice straw-derived carbon in the straw returning scenarios.However,few studies have addressed the niche differentiation within DIRB groups during the degradation of lignocellulosic fractions of rice straw.This study conducted a 6-week microcosm incubation experiment to reveal the distinct responses of DIRB groups under specific lignocellulosic fraction amendments with and without ferrihydrite(Fh)addition in a flooded paddy Ultisol.Results showed that the total absolute abundance of the 19 detected DIRB groups did not vary significantly during the incubation.Anaeromyxobacter,Bacillus,and Clostridium were the dominant DIRB groups for all lignocellulosic treatments whereas Thermincola was dominant but only under xylan amendment with Fh addition.DIRB-nodes in the co-occurrence networks of bacterial community mainly belonged to Anaeromyxobacter and Bacillus.Clostridium and Thermincola,Alkaliphilus and Anaeromyxobacter,and Alicyclobacillus,Desulfobulbus,and Desulfosporosinus were specifically proliferated under xylan,cellulose,and lignin amendments,respectively.Whether the proliferation was limited by insufficient ferric iron varied by bacterial group.These findings suggested the lignocellulosic fraction-induced niche differentiation within DIRB groups,which advanced our understanding of the ecology of DIRB in paddy soils under straw returning.