TY - JOUR
T1 - Soil depth matters
T2 - shift in composition and inter-kingdom co-occurrence patterns of microorganisms in forest soils
AU - Mundra, Sunil
AU - Kjønaas, O. Janne
AU - Morgado, Luis N.
AU - Krabberød, Anders Kristian
AU - Ransedokken, Yngvild
AU - Kauserud, Havard
N1 - Funding Information:
The work was funded by the Research Council of Norway [Grant numbers 255307 and 240859]. Thanks are due to Helge Meissner and Jan Svetlik for assistance in the field, Monica Fongen, Jan- Erik Jacobsen, and Helge Meissner for soil sample pre-treatment and chemical analyses, and Stephanie Eisner for calculating metrological data. We acknowledge Tobias Guldberg Froslev for providing us varying size (7-9 bp) Multiplex Identification DNAtags sequences and Line Nybakken for ergosterol analysis.
Publisher Copyright:
© 2021 The Author(s). Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of FEMS.
PY - 2021/3/1
Y1 - 2021/3/1
N2 - Soil depth represents a strong physiochemical gradient that greatly affects soil-dwelling microorganisms. Fungal communities are typically structured by soil depth, but how other microorganisms are structured is less known. Here, we tested whether depth-dependent variation in soil chemistry affects the distribution and co-occurrence patterns of soil microbial communities. This was investigated by DNA metabarcoding in conjunction with network analyses of bacteria, fungi, as well as other micro-eukaryotes, sampled in four different soil depths in Norwegian birch forests. Strong compositional turnover in microbial assemblages with soil depth was detected for all organismal groups. Significantly greater microbial diversity and fungal biomass appeared in the nutrient-rich organic layer, with sharp decrease towards the less nutrient-rich mineral zones. The proportions of copiotrophic bacteria, Arthropoda and Apicomplexa were markedly higher in the organic layer, while patterns were opposite for oligotrophic bacteria, Cercozoa, Ascomycota and ectomycorrhizal fungi. Network analyses indicated more intensive inter-kingdom co-occurrence patterns in the upper mineral layer (0-5 cm) compared to the above organic and the lower mineral soil, signifying substantial influence of soil depth on biotic interactions. This study supports the view that different microbial groups are adapted to different forest soil strata, with varying level of interactions along the depth gradient.
AB - Soil depth represents a strong physiochemical gradient that greatly affects soil-dwelling microorganisms. Fungal communities are typically structured by soil depth, but how other microorganisms are structured is less known. Here, we tested whether depth-dependent variation in soil chemistry affects the distribution and co-occurrence patterns of soil microbial communities. This was investigated by DNA metabarcoding in conjunction with network analyses of bacteria, fungi, as well as other micro-eukaryotes, sampled in four different soil depths in Norwegian birch forests. Strong compositional turnover in microbial assemblages with soil depth was detected for all organismal groups. Significantly greater microbial diversity and fungal biomass appeared in the nutrient-rich organic layer, with sharp decrease towards the less nutrient-rich mineral zones. The proportions of copiotrophic bacteria, Arthropoda and Apicomplexa were markedly higher in the organic layer, while patterns were opposite for oligotrophic bacteria, Cercozoa, Ascomycota and ectomycorrhizal fungi. Network analyses indicated more intensive inter-kingdom co-occurrence patterns in the upper mineral layer (0-5 cm) compared to the above organic and the lower mineral soil, signifying substantial influence of soil depth on biotic interactions. This study supports the view that different microbial groups are adapted to different forest soil strata, with varying level of interactions along the depth gradient.
KW - Betula pubescens
KW - boreal birch forest
KW - co-occurrences patterns
KW - metabarcoding
KW - microbial communities
KW - microbial interactions
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U2 - 10.1093/femsec/fiab022
DO - 10.1093/femsec/fiab022
M3 - Article
C2 - 33547899
AN - SCOPUS:85102908334
SN - 0168-6496
VL - 97
JO - FEMS Microbiology Ecology
JF - FEMS Microbiology Ecology
IS - 3
M1 - fiab022
ER -