Soil bacterial community and functional shifts in response to altered snow pack in moist acidic tundra of Northern Alaska
Soil microbial communities play a central role in the cycling of carbon (C) in Arctic tundra ecosystems, which contain a large portion of the global C pool. Climate change predictions for Arctic regions include increased temperature and precipitation (i.e. more snow), resulting in increased winter s...
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2016
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dataone:doi:10.18739/A2P55DH4M 2024-06-03T18:46:33+00:00 Soil bacterial community and functional shifts in response to altered snow pack in moist acidic tundra of Northern Alaska Michael Ricketts Arctic moist acidic tussock tundra at Toolik Field Station north of the Brook's Range in Alaska, U.S. ENVELOPE(-149.5967,-149.5967,68.6242,68.6242) BEGINDATE: 2012-08-01T00:00:00Z ENDDATE: 2012-08-01T00:00:00Z 2016-06-15T00:00:00Z https://doi.org/10.18739/A2P55DH4M unknown Arctic Data Center Dataset 2016 dataone:urn:node:ARCTIC https://doi.org/10.18739/A2P55DH4M 2024-06-03T18:16:24Z Soil microbial communities play a central role in the cycling of carbon (C) in Arctic tundra ecosystems, which contain a large portion of the global C pool. Climate change predictions for Arctic regions include increased temperature and precipitation (i.e. more snow), resulting in increased winter soil insulation, increased soil temperature and moisture, and shifting plant community composition. We utilized an 18-year snowfence study site designed to examine the effects of increased winter precipitation on Arctic tundra soil bacterial communities within the context of expected ecosystem response to climate change. Soil was collected from three pre-established treatment zones representing varying degrees of snow accumulation (DEEP, INT, LOW), soil physical properties (temperature, moisture, active layer thaw depth) were measured, and samples were analysed for C concentration, nitrogen (N) concentration, and pH. Soil microbial community DNA was extracted and the 16S rRNA gene was sequenced to reveal phylogenetic community differences between samples and determine how soil bacterial communities might respond (structurally and functionally) to changes in winter precipitation and soil chemistry. We analysed relative abundance changes of the six most abundant phyla (ranging from 82-96% of total detected phyla per sample) and found four (Acidobacteria, Actinobacteria, Verrucomicrobia, and Chloroflexi) responded to deepened snow. All six phyla correlated with at least one of the soil chemical properties (%C, %N, C:N, pH), however a single predictor was not identified suggesting that each bacterial phylum responds differently to soil characteristics. Overall bacterial community structure (beta diversity) was found to be associated with snow accumulation treatment and all soil chemical properties. Bacterial functional potential was inferred using ancestral state reconstruction to approximate functional gene abundance, revealing a decreased abundance of genes required for soil organic matter (SOM) decomposition in the organic horizon of the deep snow accumulation zones. These results suggest that predicted climate change scenarios may result in altered soil bacterial community structure and function, and indicate either a reduction in decomposition potential, or alleviated temperature limitations on extracellular enzymatic efficiency, or both. The fate of stored C in Arctic soils ultimately depends on the balance between these mechanisms. Dataset Arctic Climate change Tundra Alaska Arctic Data Center (via DataONE) Arctic ENVELOPE(-149.5967,-149.5967,68.6242,68.6242) |
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Open Polar |
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Arctic Data Center (via DataONE) |
op_collection_id |
dataone:urn:node:ARCTIC |
language |
unknown |
description |
Soil microbial communities play a central role in the cycling of carbon (C) in Arctic tundra ecosystems, which contain a large portion of the global C pool. Climate change predictions for Arctic regions include increased temperature and precipitation (i.e. more snow), resulting in increased winter soil insulation, increased soil temperature and moisture, and shifting plant community composition. We utilized an 18-year snowfence study site designed to examine the effects of increased winter precipitation on Arctic tundra soil bacterial communities within the context of expected ecosystem response to climate change. Soil was collected from three pre-established treatment zones representing varying degrees of snow accumulation (DEEP, INT, LOW), soil physical properties (temperature, moisture, active layer thaw depth) were measured, and samples were analysed for C concentration, nitrogen (N) concentration, and pH. Soil microbial community DNA was extracted and the 16S rRNA gene was sequenced to reveal phylogenetic community differences between samples and determine how soil bacterial communities might respond (structurally and functionally) to changes in winter precipitation and soil chemistry. We analysed relative abundance changes of the six most abundant phyla (ranging from 82-96% of total detected phyla per sample) and found four (Acidobacteria, Actinobacteria, Verrucomicrobia, and Chloroflexi) responded to deepened snow. All six phyla correlated with at least one of the soil chemical properties (%C, %N, C:N, pH), however a single predictor was not identified suggesting that each bacterial phylum responds differently to soil characteristics. Overall bacterial community structure (beta diversity) was found to be associated with snow accumulation treatment and all soil chemical properties. Bacterial functional potential was inferred using ancestral state reconstruction to approximate functional gene abundance, revealing a decreased abundance of genes required for soil organic matter (SOM) decomposition in the organic horizon of the deep snow accumulation zones. These results suggest that predicted climate change scenarios may result in altered soil bacterial community structure and function, and indicate either a reduction in decomposition potential, or alleviated temperature limitations on extracellular enzymatic efficiency, or both. The fate of stored C in Arctic soils ultimately depends on the balance between these mechanisms. |
format |
Dataset |
author |
Michael Ricketts |
spellingShingle |
Michael Ricketts Soil bacterial community and functional shifts in response to altered snow pack in moist acidic tundra of Northern Alaska |
author_facet |
Michael Ricketts |
author_sort |
Michael Ricketts |
title |
Soil bacterial community and functional shifts in response to altered snow pack in moist acidic tundra of Northern Alaska |
title_short |
Soil bacterial community and functional shifts in response to altered snow pack in moist acidic tundra of Northern Alaska |
title_full |
Soil bacterial community and functional shifts in response to altered snow pack in moist acidic tundra of Northern Alaska |
title_fullStr |
Soil bacterial community and functional shifts in response to altered snow pack in moist acidic tundra of Northern Alaska |
title_full_unstemmed |
Soil bacterial community and functional shifts in response to altered snow pack in moist acidic tundra of Northern Alaska |
title_sort |
soil bacterial community and functional shifts in response to altered snow pack in moist acidic tundra of northern alaska |
publisher |
Arctic Data Center |
publishDate |
2016 |
url |
https://doi.org/10.18739/A2P55DH4M |
op_coverage |
Arctic moist acidic tussock tundra at Toolik Field Station north of the Brook's Range in Alaska, U.S. ENVELOPE(-149.5967,-149.5967,68.6242,68.6242) BEGINDATE: 2012-08-01T00:00:00Z ENDDATE: 2012-08-01T00:00:00Z |
long_lat |
ENVELOPE(-149.5967,-149.5967,68.6242,68.6242) |
geographic |
Arctic |
geographic_facet |
Arctic |
genre |
Arctic Climate change Tundra Alaska |
genre_facet |
Arctic Climate change Tundra Alaska |
op_doi |
https://doi.org/10.18739/A2P55DH4M |
_version_ |
1800867711386910720 |