Microbial functional diversity covaries with permafrost thaw‐induced environmental heterogeneity in tundra soil |
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| Authors: | Mengting M Yuan Jin Zhang Kai Xue Liyou Wu Ye Deng Jie Deng Lauren Hale Xishu Zhou Zhili He Yunfeng Yang Joy D Van Nostrand Edward A G Schuur Konstantinos T Konstantinidis Christopher R Penton James R Cole James M Tiedje Yiqi Luo Jizhong Zhou |
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| Affiliation: | 1. Institute for Environmental Genomics, University of Oklahoma, Norman, OK, USA;2. Department of Microbiology and Plant Biology, University of Oklahoma, Norman, OK, USA;3. University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, China;4. Research Center for Eco‐Environmental Sciences, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, China;5. School of Ecological and Environmental Sciences, East China Normal University, Shanghai, China;6. School of Minerals Processing and Bioengineering, Central South University, Changsha, China;7. School of Environment, Tsinghua University, Beijing, China;8. Center for Ecosystem Sciences and Society, Department of Biological Sciences, Northern Arizona University, Flagstaff, AZ, USA;9. School of Civil and Environmental Engineering, School of Biological Sciences, Georgia Institute of Technology, Atlanta, GA, USA;10. College of Integrative Sciences and Arts, Arizona State University, Mesa, AZ, USA;11. Center for Microbial Ecology, Michigan State University, East Lansing, MI, USA;12. School of Civil Engineering and Environmental Sciences, University of Oklahoma, Norman, OK, USA;13. Earth and Environmental Sciences, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, Berkeley, CA, USA |
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| Abstract: | Permafrost soil in high latitude tundra is one of the largest terrestrial carbon (C) stocks and is highly sensitive to climate warming. Understanding microbial responses to warming‐induced environmental changes is critical to evaluating their influences on soil biogeochemical cycles. In this study, a functional gene array (i.e., geochip 4.2) was used to analyze the functional capacities of soil microbial communities collected from a naturally degrading permafrost region in Central Alaska. Varied thaw history was reported to be the main driver of soil and plant differences across a gradient of minimally, moderately, and extensively thawed sites. Compared with the minimally thawed site, the number of detected functional gene probes across the 15–65 cm depth profile at the moderately and extensively thawed sites decreased by 25% and 5%, while the community functional gene β‐diversity increased by 34% and 45%, respectively, revealing decreased functional gene richness but increased community heterogeneity along the thaw progression. Particularly, the moderately thawed site contained microbial communities with the highest abundances of many genes involved in prokaryotic C degradation, ammonification, and nitrification processes, but lower abundances of fungal C decomposition and anaerobic‐related genes. Significant correlations were observed between functional gene abundance and vascular plant primary productivity, suggesting that plant growth and species composition could be co‐evolving traits together with microbial community composition. Altogether, this study reveals the complex responses of microbial functional potentials to thaw‐related soil and plant changes and provides information on potential microbially mediated biogeochemical cycles in tundra ecosystems. |
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| Keywords: | functional gene array
geochip
permafrost thaw soil microbial functional diversity tussock tundra |
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