Drought consistently alters the composition of soil fungal and bacterial communities in grasslands from two continents

Ochoa‐Hueso, Raúl; Collins, Scott L.; Delgado‐Baquerizo, Manuel; Hamonts, Kelly; Pockman, William T.; Sinsabaugh, Robert L.; Smith, Melinda D.; Knapp, Alan K.; Power, Sally A.

doi:10.1111/gcb.14113

Cited by 245 publications

(208 citation statements)

References 46 publications

(78 reference statements)

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“…For example, some studies have found interactions of disturbance or trophic relationships (Gill et al, 2018) or soil invertebrates (Johnson, Staley, McLeod, & Hartley, 2011) with drought. Additionally, soil microbial communities may be affected by changes in soil temperature in addition to moisture under rain-out shelters (Cable et al, 2011;Ochoa-Hueso et al, 2018), but we used sterilized soil so this may not be an issue for our potted plants.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Drought‐Net rainfall shelters did not cause nondrought effects on photosynthesis for California central coast plants

et al. 2019

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Rainfall interception shelters are frequently used to study the ecological consequences of drought. One common shelter design employs V‐shaped plastic troughs spaced on a supporting frame to intercept rainfall. Shading, reflection, and infrared radiation may alter the radiative environment under shelters in ways independent of their intended effect on soil moisture. We measured microclimate and several photosynthetic variables for watered, potted plants under rain‐out shelters and in open‐air, unsheltered plots. We tested whether the shelter infrastructure altered aboveground micrometeorology and photosynthesis for watered, potted plants of native Californian species: Elymus glaucus, Eriogonum latifolium, Mimulus aurantiacus, and Morella californica. We quantified the effects on photosynthesis in terms of light harvesting by photosystem II (PSII) and leaf‐level gas exchange on open‐air and shelter plots, the quantum yield of PSII for darkened leaves, dark respiration, and nocturnal stomatal conductance. The rain‐out shelter reduced daily integrated photosynthetically active radiation by 20%. Air temperature, leaf temperature, and leaf‐to‐air vapour pressure difference were not different under shelters compared with controls during the day. Likewise, there were no effects of shelters on net CO2 assimilation, stomatal conductance to water vapour (gs), internal leaf (CO2), or electron transport rate through PSII during the daytime. At night, Tair was 0.6°C higher under shelters, but there were no effects on dark respiration or stomatal conductance. Despite some differences in micrometeorology under rain‐out shelters compared with open‐air plots, there were little or no aboveground nondrought effects of the shelters on leaf‐level photosynthesis for watered, potted plants of these California native plant species.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Drought‐Net rainfall shelters did not cause nondrought effects on photosynthesis for California central coast plants

et al. 2019

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“…, Ochoa‐Hueso et al. ). While observed ecological responses to drought typically include reductions in net primary productivity and species richness, altered carbon cycle processes and in some cases, extensive mortality (Hoover et al.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Differential responses of canopy nutrients to experimental drought along a natural aridity gradient

Luo

Zuo

et al. 2018

Ecology

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The allocation and stoichiometry of plant nutrients in leaves reflect fundamental ecosystem processes, biotic interactions, and environmental drivers such as water availability. Climate change will lead to increases in drought severity and frequency, but how canopy nutrients will respond to drought, and how these responses may vary with community composition along aridity gradients is poorly understood. We experimentally addressed this issue by reducing precipitation amounts by 66% during two consecutive growing seasons at three sites located along a natural aridity gradient. This allowed us to assess drought effects on canopy nitrogen (N) and phosphorus (P) concentrations in arid and semiarid grasslands of northern China. Along the aridity gradient, canopy nutrient concentrations were positively related to aridity, with this pattern was driven primarily by species turnover (i.e., an increase in the relative biomass of N- and P-rich species with increasing aridity). In contrast, drought imposed experimentally increased N but decreased P concentrations in plant canopies. These changes were driven by the combined effects of species turnover and intraspecific variation in leaf nutrient concentrations. In addition, the sensitivity of canopy N and P concentrations to drought varied across the three sites. Canopy nutrient concentrations were less affected by drought at drier than wetter sites, because of the opposing effects of species turnover and intraspecific variation, as well as greater drought tolerance for nutrient-rich species. These contrasting effects of long-term aridity vs. short-term drought on canopy nutrient concentrations, as well as differing sensitivities among sites in the same grassland biome, highlight the challenge of predicting ecosystem responses to future climate change.

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“…; Supporting Information Table S1). Bacterial groups that respond to pulses of DOC (Acidobacteria, Firmicutes, Gammaproteobacteria, Nitrospira, Cleveland et al ., ) did not change with dispersal (Supporting Information Table S2), while groups previously identified as drought tolerant [Actinobacteria and Planctomycetes, (Evans and Wallenstein, ; Evans et al ., ; Bouskill et al ., ; Ochoa‐Hueso et al ., )] showed greater increases under drought when dispersal was present (Supporting Information Fig. S1).…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…We repeated analyses that included rain‐OTUs using the non‐filtered rain taxa to test whether filtering out taxa found in negative controls had an impact on our results. Second, we used results from previous drought studies (Evans and Wallenstein, ; Evans et al ., ; Bouskill et al ., ; Ochoa‐Hueso et al ., ) and identified Actinobacteria and Planctomycetes as groups that consistently have higher abundance under drought. We tested whether these groups showed greater increases under drought when dispersal was present.…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Dispersal alters soil microbial community response to drought

Evans¹,

Bell‐Dereske²,

Dougherty³

et al. 2019

Environmental Microbiology

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Summary Microbial communities will experience novel climates in the future. Dispersal is now recognized as a driver of microbial diversity and function, but our understanding of how dispersal influences responses to novel climates is limited. We experimentally tested how the exclusion of aerially dispersed fungi and bacteria altered the compositional and functional response of soil microbial communities to drought. We manipulated dispersal and drought by collecting aerially deposited microbes after precipitation events and subjecting soil mesocosms to either filter‐sterilized rain (no dispersal) or unfiltered rain (dispersal) and to either drought (25% ambient) or ambient rainfall for 6 months. We characterized community composition by sequencing 16S and ITS rRNA regions and function using community‐level physiological profiles. Treatments without dispersal had lower soil microbial biomass and metabolic diversity but higher bacterial and fungal species richness. Dispersal also altered soil community response to drought; drought had a stronger effect on bacterial (but not fungal) community composition, and induced greater functional loss, when dispersal was present. Surprisingly, neither immigrants nor drought‐tolerant taxa had higher abundance in dispersal treatments. We show experimentally that natural aerial dispersal rate alters soil microbial responses to disturbance. Changes in dispersal rates should be considered when predicting microbial responses to climate change.

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Drought consistently alters the composition of soil fungal and bacterial communities in grasslands from two continents

Cited by 245 publications

References 46 publications

Drought‐Net rainfall shelters did not cause nondrought effects on photosynthesis for California central coast plants

Drought‐Net rainfall shelters did not cause nondrought effects on photosynthesis for California central coast plants

Differential responses of canopy nutrients to experimental drought along a natural aridity gradient

Dispersal alters soil microbial community response to drought

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