Muskoxen homogenise soil microbial communities and affect the abundance of methanogens and methanotrophs

Grazing herbivores may affect soil microbial communities indirectly by impacting soil structure and vegetation composition. In high arctic environments, this impact is poorly elucidated, while having potentially wide-reaching effects on the ecosystem. This study examines how a key arctic herbivore,...

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Published in:Science of The Total Environment
Main Authors: Aggerbeck, Marie Rønne, Nielsen, Tue Kjærgaard, Mosbacher, Jesper Bruun, Schmidt, Niels Martin, Hansen, Lars Hestbjerg
Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
Language:English
Published: 2022
Subjects:
Online Access:https://pure.au.dk/portal/en/publications/3cdf86d0-f1b9-45ff-b057-c4c8debf4109
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.scitotenv.2022.153877
https://pure.au.dk/ws/files/333666310/1_s2.0_S004896972200969X_main.pdf
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S004896972200969X
id ftuniaarhuspubl:oai:pure.atira.dk:publications/3cdf86d0-f1b9-45ff-b057-c4c8debf4109
record_format openpolar
spelling ftuniaarhuspubl:oai:pure.atira.dk:publications/3cdf86d0-f1b9-45ff-b057-c4c8debf4109 2024-02-11T10:00:18+01:00 Muskoxen homogenise soil microbial communities and affect the abundance of methanogens and methanotrophs Aggerbeck, Marie Rønne Nielsen, Tue Kjærgaard Mosbacher, Jesper Bruun Schmidt, Niels Martin Hansen, Lars Hestbjerg 2022 application/pdf https://pure.au.dk/portal/en/publications/3cdf86d0-f1b9-45ff-b057-c4c8debf4109 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.scitotenv.2022.153877 https://pure.au.dk/ws/files/333666310/1_s2.0_S004896972200969X_main.pdf https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S004896972200969X eng eng https://pure.au.dk/portal/en/publications/3cdf86d0-f1b9-45ff-b057-c4c8debf4109 info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess Aggerbeck , M R , Nielsen , T K , Mosbacher , J B , Schmidt , N M & Hansen , L H 2022 , ' Muskoxen homogenise soil microbial communities and affect the abundance of methanogens and methanotrophs ' , Science of the total Environment , vol. 827 , 153877 . https://doi.org/10.1016/j.scitotenv.2022.153877 16S amplicon sequencing Arctic ecology Environmental microbiology Methane emission Microbial diversity Muskox () article 2022 ftuniaarhuspubl https://doi.org/10.1016/j.scitotenv.2022.153877 2024-01-18T00:00:47Z Grazing herbivores may affect soil microbial communities indirectly by impacting soil structure and vegetation composition. In high arctic environments, this impact is poorly elucidated, while having potentially wide-reaching effects on the ecosystem. This study examines how a key arctic herbivore, the muskox Ovibos moschatus, affects the soil microbial community in a high arctic fen. Environmental DNA was extracted from soil samples taken from grazed control plots and from muskox exclosures established 5 years prior. We sequenced amplicons of the 16S rRNA gene to provide insight into the microbial communities. We found that in the grazed control plots, microbial communities exhibited high evenness and displayed highly similar overall diversity. In plots where muskoxen had been excluded, microbial diversity was significantly reduced, and had more uneven intra-sample populations and overall lower ecological richness and evenness. We observed that the composition of microbial communities in grazed soils were significantly affected by the presence of muskoxen, as seen by elevated relative abundances of Bacteroides and Firmicutes, two major phyla found in muskox faeces. Furthermore, an increase in relative abundance of bacteria involved in degradation of recalcitrant carbohydrates and cycling of nitrogen was observed in grazed soil. Ungrazed soils displayed increased abundances of bacteria potentially involved in anaerobic oxidation of methane, whereas some methanogens were more abundant in grazed soils. This corroborates a previous finding that methane emissions are higher in arctic fens under muskox grazing. Our results show that the presence of large herbivores stimulates soil microbial diversity and has a homogenizing influence on the inter-species dynamics in soil microbial communities. The findings of this study, thus, improve our understanding of the effect of herbivore grazing on arctic ecosystems and the derived methane cycling. Article in Journal/Newspaper Arctic muskox ovibos moschatus Aarhus University: Research Arctic Science of The Total Environment 827 153877
institution Open Polar
collection Aarhus University: Research
op_collection_id ftuniaarhuspubl
language English
topic 16S amplicon sequencing
Arctic ecology
Environmental microbiology
Methane emission
Microbial diversity
Muskox ()
spellingShingle 16S amplicon sequencing
Arctic ecology
Environmental microbiology
Methane emission
Microbial diversity
Muskox ()
Aggerbeck, Marie Rønne
Nielsen, Tue Kjærgaard
Mosbacher, Jesper Bruun
Schmidt, Niels Martin
Hansen, Lars Hestbjerg
Muskoxen homogenise soil microbial communities and affect the abundance of methanogens and methanotrophs
topic_facet 16S amplicon sequencing
Arctic ecology
Environmental microbiology
Methane emission
Microbial diversity
Muskox ()
description Grazing herbivores may affect soil microbial communities indirectly by impacting soil structure and vegetation composition. In high arctic environments, this impact is poorly elucidated, while having potentially wide-reaching effects on the ecosystem. This study examines how a key arctic herbivore, the muskox Ovibos moschatus, affects the soil microbial community in a high arctic fen. Environmental DNA was extracted from soil samples taken from grazed control plots and from muskox exclosures established 5 years prior. We sequenced amplicons of the 16S rRNA gene to provide insight into the microbial communities. We found that in the grazed control plots, microbial communities exhibited high evenness and displayed highly similar overall diversity. In plots where muskoxen had been excluded, microbial diversity was significantly reduced, and had more uneven intra-sample populations and overall lower ecological richness and evenness. We observed that the composition of microbial communities in grazed soils were significantly affected by the presence of muskoxen, as seen by elevated relative abundances of Bacteroides and Firmicutes, two major phyla found in muskox faeces. Furthermore, an increase in relative abundance of bacteria involved in degradation of recalcitrant carbohydrates and cycling of nitrogen was observed in grazed soil. Ungrazed soils displayed increased abundances of bacteria potentially involved in anaerobic oxidation of methane, whereas some methanogens were more abundant in grazed soils. This corroborates a previous finding that methane emissions are higher in arctic fens under muskox grazing. Our results show that the presence of large herbivores stimulates soil microbial diversity and has a homogenizing influence on the inter-species dynamics in soil microbial communities. The findings of this study, thus, improve our understanding of the effect of herbivore grazing on arctic ecosystems and the derived methane cycling.
format Article in Journal/Newspaper
author Aggerbeck, Marie Rønne
Nielsen, Tue Kjærgaard
Mosbacher, Jesper Bruun
Schmidt, Niels Martin
Hansen, Lars Hestbjerg
author_facet Aggerbeck, Marie Rønne
Nielsen, Tue Kjærgaard
Mosbacher, Jesper Bruun
Schmidt, Niels Martin
Hansen, Lars Hestbjerg
author_sort Aggerbeck, Marie Rønne
title Muskoxen homogenise soil microbial communities and affect the abundance of methanogens and methanotrophs
title_short Muskoxen homogenise soil microbial communities and affect the abundance of methanogens and methanotrophs
title_full Muskoxen homogenise soil microbial communities and affect the abundance of methanogens and methanotrophs
title_fullStr Muskoxen homogenise soil microbial communities and affect the abundance of methanogens and methanotrophs
title_full_unstemmed Muskoxen homogenise soil microbial communities and affect the abundance of methanogens and methanotrophs
title_sort muskoxen homogenise soil microbial communities and affect the abundance of methanogens and methanotrophs
publishDate 2022
url https://pure.au.dk/portal/en/publications/3cdf86d0-f1b9-45ff-b057-c4c8debf4109
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.scitotenv.2022.153877
https://pure.au.dk/ws/files/333666310/1_s2.0_S004896972200969X_main.pdf
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S004896972200969X
geographic Arctic
geographic_facet Arctic
genre Arctic
muskox
ovibos moschatus
genre_facet Arctic
muskox
ovibos moschatus
op_source Aggerbeck , M R , Nielsen , T K , Mosbacher , J B , Schmidt , N M & Hansen , L H 2022 , ' Muskoxen homogenise soil microbial communities and affect the abundance of methanogens and methanotrophs ' , Science of the total Environment , vol. 827 , 153877 . https://doi.org/10.1016/j.scitotenv.2022.153877
op_relation https://pure.au.dk/portal/en/publications/3cdf86d0-f1b9-45ff-b057-c4c8debf4109
op_rights info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess
op_doi https://doi.org/10.1016/j.scitotenv.2022.153877
container_title Science of The Total Environment
container_volume 827
container_start_page 153877
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