Microbial Community Changes in 26,500-Year-Old Thawing Permafrost
Northern permafrost soils store more than half of the global soil carbon. Frozen for at least two consecutive years, but often for millennia, permafrost temperatures have increased drastically in the last decades. The resulting thermal erosion leads not only to gradual thaw, resulting in an increase...
Published in: | Frontiers in Microbiology |
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ftuniaarhuspubl:oai:pure.atira.dk:publications/df45baee-5e1c-408e-89d6-0d81b2003b86 2023-05-15T16:28:41+02:00 Microbial Community Changes in 26,500-Year-Old Thawing Permafrost Scheel, Maria Zervas, Athanasios Jacobsen, Carsten S. Christensen, Torben R. 2022-03-24 https://pure.au.dk/portal/da/publications/microbial-community-changes-in-26500yearold-thawing-permafrost(df45baee-5e1c-408e-89d6-0d81b2003b86).html https://doi.org/10.3389/fmicb.2022.787146 eng eng info:eu-repo/semantics/restrictedAccess Scheel , M , Zervas , A , Jacobsen , C S & Christensen , T R 2022 , ' Microbial Community Changes in 26,500-Year-Old Thawing Permafrost ' , Frontiers in Microbiology , vol. 13 , 787146 . https://doi.org/10.3389/fmicb.2022.787146 permafrost erosion abrupt thaw 16S fungi Greenland amplicon sequencing soil microbiome biodiversity ACTIVE LAYER SOIL BACTERIAL DIVERSITY CLIMATE CLASSIFICATION DYNAMICS GRADIENT METHANE SHIFTS article 2022 ftuniaarhuspubl https://doi.org/10.3389/fmicb.2022.787146 2022-05-25T22:51:18Z Northern permafrost soils store more than half of the global soil carbon. Frozen for at least two consecutive years, but often for millennia, permafrost temperatures have increased drastically in the last decades. The resulting thermal erosion leads not only to gradual thaw, resulting in an increase of seasonally thawing soil thickness, but also to abrupt thaw events, such as sudden collapses of the soil surface. These could affect 20% of the permafrost zone and half of its organic carbon, increasing accessibility for deeper rooting vegetation and microbial decomposition into greenhouse gases. Knowledge gaps include the impact of permafrost thaw on the soil microfauna as well as key taxa to change the microbial mineralization of ancient permafrost carbon stocks during erosion. Here, we present the first sequencing study of an abrupt permafrost erosion microbiome in Northeast Greenland, where a thermal erosion gully collapsed in the summer of 2018, leading to the thawing of 26,500-year-old permafrost material. We investigated which soil parameters (pH, soil carbon content, age and moisture, organic and mineral horizons, and permafrost layers) most significantly drove changes of taxonomic diversity and the abundance of soil microorganisms in two consecutive years of intense erosion. Sequencing of the prokaryotic 16S rRNA and fungal ITS2 gene regions at finely scaled depth increments revealed decreasing alpha diversity with depth, soil age, and pH. The most significant drivers of variation were found in the soil age, horizons, and permafrost layer for prokaryotic and fungal beta diversity. Permafrost was mainly dominated by Proteobacteria and Firmicutes, with Polaromonas identified as the most abundant taxon. Thawed permafrost samples indicated increased abundance of several copiotrophic phyla, such as Bacteroidia, suggesting alterations of carbon utilization pathways within eroding permafrost. Article in Journal/Newspaper Greenland permafrost Aarhus University: Research Greenland Frontiers in Microbiology 13 |
institution |
Open Polar |
collection |
Aarhus University: Research |
op_collection_id |
ftuniaarhuspubl |
language |
English |
topic |
permafrost erosion abrupt thaw 16S fungi Greenland amplicon sequencing soil microbiome biodiversity ACTIVE LAYER SOIL BACTERIAL DIVERSITY CLIMATE CLASSIFICATION DYNAMICS GRADIENT METHANE SHIFTS |
spellingShingle |
permafrost erosion abrupt thaw 16S fungi Greenland amplicon sequencing soil microbiome biodiversity ACTIVE LAYER SOIL BACTERIAL DIVERSITY CLIMATE CLASSIFICATION DYNAMICS GRADIENT METHANE SHIFTS Scheel, Maria Zervas, Athanasios Jacobsen, Carsten S. Christensen, Torben R. Microbial Community Changes in 26,500-Year-Old Thawing Permafrost |
topic_facet |
permafrost erosion abrupt thaw 16S fungi Greenland amplicon sequencing soil microbiome biodiversity ACTIVE LAYER SOIL BACTERIAL DIVERSITY CLIMATE CLASSIFICATION DYNAMICS GRADIENT METHANE SHIFTS |
description |
Northern permafrost soils store more than half of the global soil carbon. Frozen for at least two consecutive years, but often for millennia, permafrost temperatures have increased drastically in the last decades. The resulting thermal erosion leads not only to gradual thaw, resulting in an increase of seasonally thawing soil thickness, but also to abrupt thaw events, such as sudden collapses of the soil surface. These could affect 20% of the permafrost zone and half of its organic carbon, increasing accessibility for deeper rooting vegetation and microbial decomposition into greenhouse gases. Knowledge gaps include the impact of permafrost thaw on the soil microfauna as well as key taxa to change the microbial mineralization of ancient permafrost carbon stocks during erosion. Here, we present the first sequencing study of an abrupt permafrost erosion microbiome in Northeast Greenland, where a thermal erosion gully collapsed in the summer of 2018, leading to the thawing of 26,500-year-old permafrost material. We investigated which soil parameters (pH, soil carbon content, age and moisture, organic and mineral horizons, and permafrost layers) most significantly drove changes of taxonomic diversity and the abundance of soil microorganisms in two consecutive years of intense erosion. Sequencing of the prokaryotic 16S rRNA and fungal ITS2 gene regions at finely scaled depth increments revealed decreasing alpha diversity with depth, soil age, and pH. The most significant drivers of variation were found in the soil age, horizons, and permafrost layer for prokaryotic and fungal beta diversity. Permafrost was mainly dominated by Proteobacteria and Firmicutes, with Polaromonas identified as the most abundant taxon. Thawed permafrost samples indicated increased abundance of several copiotrophic phyla, such as Bacteroidia, suggesting alterations of carbon utilization pathways within eroding permafrost. |
format |
Article in Journal/Newspaper |
author |
Scheel, Maria Zervas, Athanasios Jacobsen, Carsten S. Christensen, Torben R. |
author_facet |
Scheel, Maria Zervas, Athanasios Jacobsen, Carsten S. Christensen, Torben R. |
author_sort |
Scheel, Maria |
title |
Microbial Community Changes in 26,500-Year-Old Thawing Permafrost |
title_short |
Microbial Community Changes in 26,500-Year-Old Thawing Permafrost |
title_full |
Microbial Community Changes in 26,500-Year-Old Thawing Permafrost |
title_fullStr |
Microbial Community Changes in 26,500-Year-Old Thawing Permafrost |
title_full_unstemmed |
Microbial Community Changes in 26,500-Year-Old Thawing Permafrost |
title_sort |
microbial community changes in 26,500-year-old thawing permafrost |
publishDate |
2022 |
url |
https://pure.au.dk/portal/da/publications/microbial-community-changes-in-26500yearold-thawing-permafrost(df45baee-5e1c-408e-89d6-0d81b2003b86).html https://doi.org/10.3389/fmicb.2022.787146 |
geographic |
Greenland |
geographic_facet |
Greenland |
genre |
Greenland permafrost |
genre_facet |
Greenland permafrost |
op_source |
Scheel , M , Zervas , A , Jacobsen , C S & Christensen , T R 2022 , ' Microbial Community Changes in 26,500-Year-Old Thawing Permafrost ' , Frontiers in Microbiology , vol. 13 , 787146 . https://doi.org/10.3389/fmicb.2022.787146 |
op_rights |
info:eu-repo/semantics/restrictedAccess |
op_doi |
https://doi.org/10.3389/fmicb.2022.787146 |
container_title |
Frontiers in Microbiology |
container_volume |
13 |
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1766018361481756672 |