Biogeochemical drivers of microbial community convergence across actively retreating glaciers
Abstract
The ecological processes that influence biogeographical patterns of microorganisms are actively debated. To investigate how such patterns emerge during ecosystem succession, we examined the biogeochemical drivers of bacterial community assembly in soils over two environmentally distinct, recently deglaciated chronosequences separated by a distance of more than 1300 km. Our results show that despite different geographic, climatic, and soil chemical and physical characteristics at the two sites, soil bacterial community structure and decomposer function converged during plant succession. In a comparative analysis, we found that microbial communities in early succession soils were compositionally distinct from a diverse group of mature forest soils, but that the differences between successional soils and mature soils decreased from early to late stages of succession. Overall differences in bacterial community composition between sites were explained by soil pH. However, within-site successional patterns – leading to community convergence across sites at the latest stage of succession – were explained by alternate factors such as soil organic carbon and soil organic matter chemistry, which were correlated to bacterial community structure across both glacial and mature forest soils.
Department
Soil Biogeochemistry and Microbial Ecology
Publication Date
7-19-2016
Journal Title
Soil Biology and Biochemistry
Publisher
Elsevier
Digital Object Identifier (DOI)
Document Type
Article
Recommended Citation
Sarah C. Castle, Diana R. Nemergut, A. Stuart Grandy, Jonathan W. Leff, Emily B. Graham, Eran Hood, Steven K. Schmidt, Kyle Wickings, Cory C. Cleveland, Biogeochemical drivers of microbial community convergence across actively retreating glaciers, Soil Biology and Biochemistry, Volume 101, 2016, Pages 74-84, ISSN 0038-0717, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.soilbio.2016.07.010.
Rights
© 2016 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.