Download or read book Dynamics of Microbial Community Structure and Function in a Tallgrass Prairie Ecosystem written by Allison Michelle Veach and published by . This book was released on 2015 with total page pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Due to agricultural practices and urbanization, tallgrass prairie ecosystems have become threatened as

Download or read book Carbon and Nitrogen Dynamics and Microbial Community Structure of a Tall Grass Prairie Soil Subjected to Simulated Global Warming and Clipping written by Asfaw Belay Tedla and published by . This book was released on 2004 with total page 130 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Download or read book Microbial Community Dynamics in Tallgrass Prairie Soil Affected by Native Grazer Feces Bison Bison written by Karley Chantos and published by . This book was released on 2017 with total page 72 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Tallgrass prairies have been reduced in area by over 90% and are therefore one of the most threatened ecosystems in the world. Efforts to restore these native lands from agriculture are ongoing throughout the North American Midwest. Changes in the microbial community and ecosystem properties that follow conversion of agriculture to restored tallgrass prairies are poorly understood. In this work we sought to characterize how nutrient influx and microbial communities from reintroduced native grazer feces affected the microbial community of prairie soil during restoration. Nachusa Grasslands, located in Franklin Grove, IL, USA, is a successful long-term effort of restoring agricultural land to a mosaic of tallgrass prairies. More than 30 bison (species Bison bison) were reintroduced into 500 acres of enclosed prairie in November 2014 to reinstate integral grazing regimes to the landscape. Newly-reintroduced bison had access to restored prairies that were re-planted at nine different time-points over the previous 16 years, as well as remnant prairies that were never used for agriculture. Manipulative field experiments were used to explore the direct interactions between bison dung and prairie soil that differed in restoration age, with bulk soil from both bison-exposed and bison-free treatments sampled biweekly from spring to fall 2015. In addition, we sampled soil below and along a transect away from transplanted fecal patties during a three-week period to examine the direct impact of dung on soil geochemistry and microbial diversity. The mass quantification carbon and nitrogen and 16S rDNA amplicon sequencing were used to quantify nutrient influx and changes in microbial communities upon fecal introduction. Initial community analyses in 2015 suggested that feces inputs drove an increase in easily cultivable, acidophilic Acidobacteria Groups 1 and 3 in old and remnant prairies, but decreased these groups in a newly-planted prairie. Conversely, primarily uncultured, neutrophilic Acidobacteria Groups 6 and 16 show the opposite trend, suggesting that pH and nutrient concentration may have drastically different effects on different-aged prairies. Surprisingly, repeated experiments in 2016 found soils that appeared to have converged on a seemingly novel, homogenized microbial community structure. Further analyses of soil geochemistry and the reconstruction of microbial metabolism will determine if bison-mediated increases in nitrogen and carbon are directly responsible for these community shifts or whether bison transport, either through feces or physical disruption, is seeding a new prairie microbiota. Continuing studies at Nachusa Grasslands will establish whether changes in geological, ecological and microbial structure due to fecal deposits are temporary or have long-term impacts on both the prairie soil and higher trophic levels. Ecosystem restoration is a critical component of managing sustainable biogeochemical cycles in the Anthropocene, and characterizing the microbial contributions, in concert with plants, animals, insects, and fungi, will be critical to improving success rates for future restoration efforts.

Download or read book Responses to Long term Fertilization and Burning written by Michael A. Carson and published by . This book was released on 2013 with total page pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Anthropogenic activities impact ecosystems in numerous direct and indirect ways, affecting the cycling of carbon (C) and nitrogen (N) on local, regional and global scales. North America tallgrass prairie is an ecosystem profoundly altered by anthropogenic activities, with most native prairie converted to alternate land uses or heavily impacted by other environmental changes. While aboveground responses to anthropogenic drivers have received much attention, the responses of belowground biota, ecological processes, and nutrient allocation to land management and environmental change are poorly documented, especially over long timeframes. This research builds upon a long-term experiment (the Belowground Plot Experiment) initiated in 1986 at Konza Prairie Biological Station (Manhattan, KS). I utilized a subset of treatments to address the effects of annual burning vs. fire suppression and/or chronic N additions on soil C and N dynamics and microbial communities in tallgrass prairie. I measured a suite of soil variables related to C and N cycling during the 2012 growing season, including total soil C and N, microbial biomass C and N, in situ net N mineralization, potential N mineralization, in situ CO2 efflux, and potentially mineralizable soil C.I also assessed changes in microbial community composition using microbial phospholipid fatty acids (PLFA) profiles. Annual burning significantly (p[less then or equal to]0.05) increased the soil C:N ratio and in situ CO2 efflux, while decreasing potential ammonification and nitrification rates. Annual burning also increased total PLFA mass and relative abundance of fungi. Chronic N addition (100 kg N ha−1 year−1) significantly reduced the soil C:N ratio, while increasing total soil N and potential nitrification and ammonification rates. Chronic N addition reduced potential C mineralization, microbial biomass C and N, and altered microbial community composition by increasing abundance of bacterial PLFAs and reducing fungal PLFAs. Sampling date also significantly affected many variables. These results indicate that different fire regimes and chronic N enrichment over decades affects soil C and N pools and transformations, as well as microbial biomass and composition. In total, this study highlights the importance of long-term ecological research and identifies likely changes in tallgrass prairie nutrient dynamics and soil microbial communities under increased N and frequent burning.

Download or read book Grassland Soil Microbial Community Composition and Distribution Response to Grazing by Bison Bison written by Jaide Allenbrand and published by . This book was released on 2020 with total page pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In Great Plains prairie ecosystems, bison were historically a keystone species, and still exert significant influence on the composition of aboveground communities through their grazing activity. Given that soil microorganisms also support essential grassland ecosystem services, there is a need for greater understanding of how bison grazing activity affects soil microbial communities. Although the mechanisms controlling soil microbial community assembly at different spatial scales are known to be the same as for all larger organisms - environmental filtering, drift, dispersal, and mutation - the context in which each mechanism becomes important is not well understood. I predicted that bison would weaken the soil microbial community distance-dissimilarity relationship, one of the most common spatial patterns, making microbial communities more similar across space. More specifically, I predicted this pattern would be a result of bison physically distributing microbial cells or altering the environment to increase competitive dominance of certain taxa, and that bison dung would be a main contributor to these mechanisms. To address these predictions, I carried out an observational project evaluating regional soil microbial composition and distribution and an experimental project investigating dispersal mechanisms. For the observational project, surface soils were collected from bison grazed and ungrazed areas at nine grassland sites across the Great Plains for analysis of microbial community composition (as bacterial and archaeal 16S rRNA gene sequence libraries), along with information on soil chemistry and plant community cover. The experimental project involved manipulating the openness of the soil microbial community to passive dispersal or the addition of bison dung to simulate active dispersal, in combination with the presence or absence of bison and spring burning at a focal tallgrass prairie site (Konza Prairie Biological Station). To assess soil microbial dispersal rates under these contrasting conditions, change in soil microbial community composition was measured over time. Results indicate that bison grazing does weaken the soil microbial distance-dissimilarity relationship when evaluated at a regional level, but at a local site level the strength and direction of this relationship relative to ungrazed areas is mediated by plant community structure and soil factors. Still, variation in the strength of the grazing effect on distance-dissimilarity relationships could be driven by both relative ease of microbial dispersal and environmental filtering at the small-scale sample level. Experimental results show that passive dispersal occurred throughout the duration of the project, but dispersal limitation of microbial taxa does not vary with grazing or fire management. Furthermore, bison dung can directly disperse microbes and influence community assembly over time. Overall, both projects support the importance of bison grazing in structuring and mediating soil microbial community dynamics across Great Plains grasslands, and provide impetus for future research and conservation of soil microbial communities, especially in relation to belowground ecosystem services.

Download or read book Carbon and Nitrogen Dynamics and Microbial Ecology in Tallgrass Prairie written by Fernando Oscar Garcia and published by . This book was released on 1992 with total page 388 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Download or read book Understanding Terrestrial Microbial Communities written by Christon J. Hurst and published by Springer. This book was released on 2019-03-27 with total page 405 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book presents a summary of terrestrial microbial processes, which are a key factor in supporting healthy life on our planet. The authors explain how microorganisms maintain the soil ecosystem through recycling carbon and nitrogen and then provide insights into how soil microbiology processes integrate into ecosystem science, helping to achieve successful bioremediation as well as safe and effective operation of landfills, and enabling the design of composting processes that reduce the amount of waste that is placed in landfills. The book also explores the effect of human land use, including restoration on soil microbial communities and the response of wetland microbial communities to anthropogenic pollutants. Lastly it discusses the role of fungi in causing damaging, and often lethal, infectious diseases in plants and animals.

Download or read book New Dimensions in Agroecology written by Anil Shrestha and published by CRC Press. This book was released on 2004-11-11 with total page 553 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Reduce the environmentally negative aspects of industrial agriculture with an ecologically sound philosophy! New Dimensions in Agroecology explores the latest developments in the emerging science of agroecology, focusing on how these new concepts and cutting-edge tools will help minimize the impact of agriculture on the environment and fos

Download or read book The Role of Dispersal and Transmission in Structuring Microbial Communities written by Peter Deines and published by Frontiers Media SA. This book was released on 2022-11-22 with total page 152 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Download or read book Mining of Microbial Wealth and MetaGenomics written by Vipin Chandra Kalia and published by Springer. This book was released on 2017-10-30 with total page 462 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The existence of living organisms in diverse ecosystems has been the focus of interest to human beings, primarily to obtain insights into the diversity and dynamics of the communities. This book discusses how the advent of novel molecular biology techniques, the latest being the next-generation sequencing technologies, helps to elucidate the identity of novel organisms, including those that are rare. The book highlights the fact that oceans, marine environments, rivers, mountains and the gut are ecosystems with great potential for obtaining bioactive molecules, which can be used in areas such as agriculture, food, medicine, water supplies and bioremediation. It then describes the latest research in metagenomics, a field that allows elucidation of the maximum biodiversity within an ecosystem, without the need to actually grow and culture the organisms. Further, it describes how human-associated microbes are directly responsible for our health and overall wellbeing.“/p>

Download or read book Savannas Barrens and Rock Outcrop Plant Communities of North America written by Roger C. Anderson and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 1999-07-28 with total page 432 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A coherent, readable summary of the technical information available on savannas, barrens and rock outcrop plant communities.

Download or read book Big Ecology written by David C. Coleman and published by Univ of California Press. This book was released on 2010 with total page 248 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "A fascinating historical narrative about the unfolding sequence of large ecosystem research programs over the past 40 years. As a player on this stage, Coleman conveys the intimate personalities and politics while still offering insightful and objective evaluations. Interwoven throughout the story is a remarkably detailed textbook of ecosystem science from then until today."--Paul G. Risser, University of Oklahoma

Download or read book Plant Diversity and Biomass Dynamics under Environmental Variation written by Arshad Ali and published by Frontiers Media SA. This book was released on 2023-04-25 with total page 133 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Download or read book Environmental and Microbial Relationships written by Irina S. Druzhinina and published by Springer. This book was released on 2016-03-18 with total page 301 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This volume provides insights into current research on fungal populations, communities and their interactions with other organisms. It focuses on fungal responses to the physical environment; interactions with bacteria, other fungi, invertebrates and plants; the role of fungi in ecosystem processes such as decomposition and nutrient cycling; and aspects of biogeography and conservation. Since the publication of the second edition of Volume IV in 2007, the massive use of “omics” methods has revolutionized our understanding of fungal lifestyles. Highlighting these advances, the third edition has been completely updated and revised. Several chapters deal with various applications of genomics and transcriptomics in biological pest control, as well as interactions with other living systems. This is an invaluable source of information both for scientists who wish to update their knowledge of current advances and for graduate students interested in obtaining a comprehensive introduction to this field of research.

Download or read book Microbial Community Structure and Ecosystem Function in a Changing World written by Melissa Ann Cregger and published by . This book was released on 2012 with total page 134 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Understanding the effects climate change will have on the structure and function of global ecosystems is a pressing ecological and social issue. Global change driven changes in atmospheric warming and precipitation régimes have begun to alter the distribution of plants and animals in, as well as the function of, ecosystems. Using two large-scale climate change manipulations, I assessed the effect of changing precipitation and temperature regimes on soil microbial community structure and function. Soil microbial communities regulate decomposition and nutrient cycling rates in ecosystems, thus understanding their response to climatic changes will enable scientists to better predict carbon feedbacks to the atmosphere as well as functional shifts within ecosystems. My first two chapters took advantage of a large-scale precipitation manipulation in a semi-arid woodland. My first chapter aimed to understand how changing precipitation amounts altered the structure and abundance of soil bacteria and fungi; while my second chapter measured how changing precipitation altered soil nitrogen cycling. Overall, I found that soil microbial community composition and function were responsive to changes in precipitation, but these responses were contingent upon seasonal variability in precipitation and the aboveground plant community. My final experiment examined how changing temperature altered soil microbial community structure and function in two temperate forests. Using a large scale warming experiment at two locations, I examined how changes in temperature altered microbial composition, abundance, potential enzyme activity, and decomposition. I found that the effects of warming were contingent upon location; microbial community composition responded to alterations in soil temperature and soil moisture at the warmer site, but not at the cooler site. Unexpectedly, the change in microbial community composition did not result in changes in the rate of decomposition. I conclude that the soil is relatively buffered from atmospheric warming thus changes in microbial community structure and function may take longer than a few years to develop. Taken together, my research demonstrates that understanding the effects of climate change on microbial community structure and function is complex and contingent upon the background abiotic and biotic variability within an ecosystem.

Download or read book Grassland Soil Microbial Responses to Long term Management of N Availability written by Christine Michelle Carson and published by . This book was released on 2017 with total page pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Anthropogenic actions have significantly increased biological nitrogen (N) availability on a global scale. In tallgrass prairies, this phenomenon is exacerbated by land management changes, such as fire suppression. Historically, tallgrass prairie fire removed N through volatilization, but fire suppression has contributed to increased soil N availability as well as woody encroachment. Because soil microbes respond to N availability and plant growth, these changes may alter microbial composition and important microbially-mediated functions. Grassland management affects the soil environment on multiple time scales including short (fertilization or fire event), seasonal (growing vs. non-growing season), and long-term (decadal plant turnover and nutrient accumulation), therefore my goal was to understand community variability at different time scales affecting the population and community dynamics of soil microbes. I predicted soil microbes would be sensitive to environmental changes at all time scales, seasonal variation would reflect increased plant rhizodeposit-supported populations during summer and decomposers during winter, and long-term fire suppression and chronic fertilization would drive soil microbial community turnover associated with accumulation of plant litter and N. To address these predictions, soils were collected from the Belowground Plot Experiment (BGPE) at Konza Prairie Biological Station: a 30-y factorial field manipulation of N fertilization and burning. Surface soils (0-15 cm) were sampled monthly between Nov 2014 - Dec 2015, including one week post-fire (April) and post-fertilization (June). Genomic DNA was extracted from each sample for qPCR and PCR for Illumina MiSeq library sequencing of the prokaryotic 16S rRNA gene and fungal ITS, to estimate population and community dynamics of soil microbes. Soil environmental characteristics and plant communities were measured in July 2015 to evaluate correlations between plant and microbial communities, and environmental variability. Soil microbial responses to short-term fire/fertilization events were minimal, while microbial population sizes fluctuate seasonally and synchronously, and microbial community composition varied more with management history than at shorter time scales. Bacterial populations increased 10x during growing-season plant rhizodeposition, while fungal populations were less dynamic, but decreased in fall, possibly reflecting a shift to subsistence on soil organic matter. In contrast, microbial community composition was seasonally stable, but distinct between long-term management treatments, which may indicate accumulation of niche-defining plant or soil properties over decades. Prokaryotic communities responded to altered N availability via both fertilization and loss due to fire, with the highest abundance of "copiotrophic" (r-selected) taxa in unburned, fertilized soils. Fungal communities responded to N fertilization with higher abundance of arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi, pathogens, and saprotrophs, possibly due to changes in nutrient stoichiometry and litter availability in fertilized plots. However, fungal response to fire was largely independent of N availability, and plant community differences were correlated with fungal, but not bacterial, community composition, highlighting the likely nutritional codependence of fungi and plants, and fungal competitive advantages for plant litter substrates. The timing of changes in soil microbial communities is critical for plant nutrition and nutrient cycling in prairies, and this novel dataset on the temporal resolution of microbial responses to environmental variability contributes to the broader understanding of ecosystem responses to global change.

Download or read book Microbial Community Structure and Function in Wetland Ecosystems written by Diana Najla Flanagan and published by . This book was released on 2009 with total page 134 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: