Journal Article

Biogeography of Ammonia-Oxidizing Bacterial Communities in Soil

Fierer, Noah, Horner-Devine, M. Claire, Carney, Karen M., Megonigal, J. Patrick

2009

Overview

Although ammonia-oxidizing bacteria (AOB) are likely to play a key role in the soil nitrogen cycle, we have only a limited understanding of how the diversity and composition of soil AOB communities change across ecosystem types. We examined 23 soils collected from across North America and used sequence-based analyses to compare the AOB communities in each of the distinct soils. Using 97% 16S rRNA sequence similarity groups, we identified only 24 unique AOB phylotypes across all of the soils sampled. The majority of the sequences collected were in the Nitrosospira lineages (representing 80% of all the sequences collected), and AOB belonging to Nitrosospira cluster 3 were particularly common in our clone libraries and ubiquitous across the soil types. Community composition was highly variable across the collected soils, and similar ecosystem types did not always harbor similar AOB communities. We did not find any significant correlations between AOB community composition and measures of N availability. From the suite of environmental variables measured, we found the strongest correlation between temperature and AOB community composition; soils exposed to similar mean annual temperatures tended to have similar AOB communities. This finding is consistent with previous studies and suggests that temperature selects for specific AOB lineages. Given that distinct AOB taxa are likely to have unique functional attributes, the biogeographical patterns exhibited by soil AOB may be directly relevant to understanding soil nitrogen dynamics under changing environmental conditions.

• Publisher: New York : Springer-Verlag,Springer Science + Business Media, Inc,Springer-Verlag,Springer,Springer Nature B.V
• Subject: Acid soils / Ammonia / Ammonia - metabolism / Ammonia-oxidizing bacteria / analysis / Bacteria / biogeochemical cycles / Biogeography / Biological and medical sciences / Biomedical and Life Sciences / classification / Communities / Community composition / community structure / Composition / Ecology / Ecosystem / ecosystems / Environmental changes / Environmental conditions / environmental factors / Forest soils / Fundamental and applied biological sciences. Psychology / genetics / Geoecology/Natural Processes / Life Sciences / metabolism / Microbial Ecology / Microbiology / Nature Conservation / Nitrogen / Nitrogen - metabolism / Nitrogen cycle / Nitrosomonadaceae / Nitrosomonadaceae - classification / Nitrosomonadaceae - genetics / Nitrosomonadaceae - metabolism / Nitrosospira / North America / nucleotide sequences / Oxidation / Oxidation-Reduction / Phylogenetics / Phylogeny / ribosomal RNA / RNA, Bacterial / RNA, Bacterial - genetics / RNA, Ribosomal, 16S / RNA, Ribosomal, 16S - genetics / rRNA 16S / Soil / Soil - analysis / Soil bacteria / Soil composition / Soil dynamics / Soil ecology / Soil Microbiology / Soil microorganisms / Soil samples / soil sampling / Soil science / Soil temperature / Soil types / Soils / temperature / Water Quality/Water Pollution