TY - JOUR

T1 - Resistance and Recovery of Methane-Oxidizing Communities Depends on Stress Regime and History; A Microcosm Study

AU - van Kruistum, Henri

AU - Bodelier, Paul L E

AU - Ho Kah Wye, Adrian

AU - Meima-Franke, Marion

AU - Veraart, Annelies J.

N1 - Funding information: We thank Hyo-Jung Lee and Mattias de Hollander for help with sequencing-data analyses. This is publication no. 6557 of the Netherlands Institute of Ecology. Experimental data are available from the Dryad Digital Repository: doi: 10.5061/dryad.n5fm685. Sequencing data are deposited to EBI under accession number PRJEB24893. Funding. The work of AV and PB was funded by grant 823.001.008 of the Netherlands Organization for Scientific Research (NWO).

PY - 2018/7

Y1 - 2018/7

N2 - Although soil microbes are responsible for important ecosystem functions, and soils are under increasing environmental pressure, little is known about their resistance and resilience to multiple stressors. Here, we test resistance and recovery of soil methane-oxidizing communities to two different, repeated, perturbations: soil drying, ammonium addition and their combination. In replicated soil microcosms we measured methane oxidation before and after perturbations, while monitoring microbial abundance and community composition using quantitative PCR assays for the bacterial 16S rRNA and pmoA gene, and sequencing of the bacterial 16S rRNA gene. Although microbial community composition changed after soil drying, methane oxidation rates recovered, even after four desiccation events. Moreover, microcosms subjected to soil drying recovered significantly better from ammonium addition compared to microcosms not subjected to soil drying. Our results show the flexibility of microbial communities, even if abundances of dominant populations drop, ecosystem functions can recover. In addition, a history of stress may induce changes in community composition and functioning, which may in turn affect its future tolerance to different stressors.

AB - Although soil microbes are responsible for important ecosystem functions, and soils are under increasing environmental pressure, little is known about their resistance and resilience to multiple stressors. Here, we test resistance and recovery of soil methane-oxidizing communities to two different, repeated, perturbations: soil drying, ammonium addition and their combination. In replicated soil microcosms we measured methane oxidation before and after perturbations, while monitoring microbial abundance and community composition using quantitative PCR assays for the bacterial 16S rRNA and pmoA gene, and sequencing of the bacterial 16S rRNA gene. Although microbial community composition changed after soil drying, methane oxidation rates recovered, even after four desiccation events. Moreover, microcosms subjected to soil drying recovered significantly better from ammonium addition compared to microcosms not subjected to soil drying. Our results show the flexibility of microbial communities, even if abundances of dominant populations drop, ecosystem functions can recover. In addition, a history of stress may induce changes in community composition and functioning, which may in turn affect its future tolerance to different stressors.

KW - ammonium toxicity

KW - ecosystem functioning

KW - methane oxidation

KW - methanotrophy

KW - resilience

KW - soil drying

KW - soil microbiome

UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85056324058&partnerID=8YFLogxK

U2 - 10.3389/fmicb.2018.01714

DO - 10.3389/fmicb.2018.01714

M3 - Article

VL - 9

JO - Frontiers in microbiology

JF - Frontiers in microbiology

SN - 1664-302X

M1 - 1714

ER -