Linking Microbial Community Structure to Trait Distributions and Functions Using Salinity as an Environmental Filter

ABSTRACT The structure and function of microbial communities vary along environmental gradients; however, interlinking the two has been challenging. In this study, salinity was used as an environmental filter to study how it could shape trait distributions, community structures, and the resulting fu...

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Autores principales:	Kristin M. Rath, Arpita Maheshwari, Johannes Rousk
Formato:	article
Lenguaje:	EN
Publicado:	American Society for Microbiology 2019
Materias:	community ecology biogeochemistry predictive ecology soil biology soil carbon soil microbiology Microbiology QR1-502
Acceso en línea:	https://doaj.org/article/ef17c18e28234c5a990d6556f97eaf5a
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spelling	oai:doaj.org-article:ef17c18e28234c5a990d6556f97eaf5a2021-11-15T16:22:10ZLinking Microbial Community Structure to Trait Distributions and Functions Using Salinity as an Environmental Filter10.1128/mBio.01607-192150-7511https://doaj.org/article/ef17c18e28234c5a990d6556f97eaf5a2019-08-01T00:00:00Zhttps://journals.asm.org/doi/10.1128/mBio.01607-19https://doaj.org/toc/2150-7511ABSTRACT The structure and function of microbial communities vary along environmental gradients; however, interlinking the two has been challenging. In this study, salinity was used as an environmental filter to study how it could shape trait distributions, community structures, and the resulting functions of soil microbes. The environmental filter was applied by salinizing nonsaline soil (0 to 22 mg NaCl g−1). Our targeted community trait distribution (salt tolerance) was determined with dose-response relationships between bacterial growth and salinity. The bacterial community structure responses were resolved with Illumina 16S rRNA gene amplicon sequencing, and the microbial functions determined were respiration and bacterial and fungal growth. Salt exposure quickly resulted in filtered trait distributions, and stronger filters resulted in larger shifts. The filtered trait distributions correlated well with community composition differences, suggesting that trait distribution shifts were driven at least partly by species turnover. While salt exposure decreased respiration, microbial growth responses appeared to be characterized by competitive interactions. Fungal growth was highest when bacterial growth was inhibited by the highest salinity, and it was lowest when the bacterial growth rate peaked at intermediate salt levels. These findings corroborated a higher potential for fungal salt tolerance than bacterial salt tolerance for communities derived from a nonsaline soil. In conclusion, by using salt as an environmental filter, we could interlink the targeted trait distribution with both the community structure and resulting functions of soil microbes. IMPORTANCE Understanding the role of ecological communities in maintaining multiple ecosystem processes is a central challenge in ecology. Soil microbial communities perform vital ecosystem functions, such as the decomposition of organic matter to provide plant nutrition. However, despite the functional importance of soil microorganisms, attribution of ecosystem function to particular constituents of the microbial community has been impeded by a lack of information linking microbial processes to community composition and structure. Here, we apply a conceptual framework to determine how microbial communities influence ecosystem processes, by applying a “top-down” trait-based approach. By determining the dependence of microbial processes on environmental factors (e.g., the tolerance to salinity), we can define the aggregate response trait distribution of the community, which then can be linked to the community structure and the resulting function performed by the microbial community.Kristin M. RathArpita MaheshwariJohannes RouskAmerican Society for Microbiologyarticlecommunity ecologybiogeochemistrypredictive ecologysoil biologysoil carbonsoil microbiologyMicrobiologyQR1-502ENmBio, Vol 10, Iss 4 (2019)
institution	DOAJ
collection	DOAJ
language	EN
topic	community ecology biogeochemistry predictive ecology soil biology soil carbon soil microbiology Microbiology QR1-502
spellingShingle	community ecology biogeochemistry predictive ecology soil biology soil carbon soil microbiology Microbiology QR1-502 Kristin M. Rath Arpita Maheshwari Johannes Rousk Linking Microbial Community Structure to Trait Distributions and Functions Using Salinity as an Environmental Filter
description	ABSTRACT The structure and function of microbial communities vary along environmental gradients; however, interlinking the two has been challenging. In this study, salinity was used as an environmental filter to study how it could shape trait distributions, community structures, and the resulting functions of soil microbes. The environmental filter was applied by salinizing nonsaline soil (0 to 22 mg NaCl g−1). Our targeted community trait distribution (salt tolerance) was determined with dose-response relationships between bacterial growth and salinity. The bacterial community structure responses were resolved with Illumina 16S rRNA gene amplicon sequencing, and the microbial functions determined were respiration and bacterial and fungal growth. Salt exposure quickly resulted in filtered trait distributions, and stronger filters resulted in larger shifts. The filtered trait distributions correlated well with community composition differences, suggesting that trait distribution shifts were driven at least partly by species turnover. While salt exposure decreased respiration, microbial growth responses appeared to be characterized by competitive interactions. Fungal growth was highest when bacterial growth was inhibited by the highest salinity, and it was lowest when the bacterial growth rate peaked at intermediate salt levels. These findings corroborated a higher potential for fungal salt tolerance than bacterial salt tolerance for communities derived from a nonsaline soil. In conclusion, by using salt as an environmental filter, we could interlink the targeted trait distribution with both the community structure and resulting functions of soil microbes. IMPORTANCE Understanding the role of ecological communities in maintaining multiple ecosystem processes is a central challenge in ecology. Soil microbial communities perform vital ecosystem functions, such as the decomposition of organic matter to provide plant nutrition. However, despite the functional importance of soil microorganisms, attribution of ecosystem function to particular constituents of the microbial community has been impeded by a lack of information linking microbial processes to community composition and structure. Here, we apply a conceptual framework to determine how microbial communities influence ecosystem processes, by applying a “top-down” trait-based approach. By determining the dependence of microbial processes on environmental factors (e.g., the tolerance to salinity), we can define the aggregate response trait distribution of the community, which then can be linked to the community structure and the resulting function performed by the microbial community.
format	article
author	Kristin M. Rath Arpita Maheshwari Johannes Rousk
author_facet	Kristin M. Rath Arpita Maheshwari Johannes Rousk
author_sort	Kristin M. Rath
title	Linking Microbial Community Structure to Trait Distributions and Functions Using Salinity as an Environmental Filter
title_short	Linking Microbial Community Structure to Trait Distributions and Functions Using Salinity as an Environmental Filter
title_full	Linking Microbial Community Structure to Trait Distributions and Functions Using Salinity as an Environmental Filter
title_fullStr	Linking Microbial Community Structure to Trait Distributions and Functions Using Salinity as an Environmental Filter
title_full_unstemmed	Linking Microbial Community Structure to Trait Distributions and Functions Using Salinity as an Environmental Filter
title_sort	linking microbial community structure to trait distributions and functions using salinity as an environmental filter
publisher	American Society for Microbiology
publishDate	2019
url	https://doaj.org/article/ef17c18e28234c5a990d6556f97eaf5a
work_keys_str_mv	AT kristinmrath linkingmicrobialcommunitystructuretotraitdistributionsandfunctionsusingsalinityasanenvironmentalfilter AT arpitamaheshwari linkingmicrobialcommunitystructuretotraitdistributionsandfunctionsusingsalinityasanenvironmentalfilter AT johannesrousk linkingmicrobialcommunitystructuretotraitdistributionsandfunctionsusingsalinityasanenvironmentalfilter
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Linking Microbial Community Structure to Trait Distributions and Functions Using Salinity as an Environmental Filter

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