Fungal and Bacterial Communities Exhibit Consistent Responses to Reversal of Soil Acidification and Phosphorus Limitation over Time

Abstract

Chronic acid deposition affects many temperate hardwood forests of the northeastern United States, reduces soil pH and phosphorus (P) availability, and can alter the structure and function of soil microbial communities. The strategies that microorganisms possess for survival in acidic, low P soil come at a carbon (C) cost. Thus, how microbial communities respond to soil acidification in forests may be influenced by plant phenological stage as C allocation belowground varies; however, this remains largely unexplored. In this study, we examined microbial communities in an ecosystem level manipulative experiment where pH and/or P availability were elevated in three separate forests in Northeastern Ohio. Tag-encoded pyrosequencing was used to examine bacterial and fungal community structure at five time points across one year corresponding to plant phenological stages. We found significant effects of pH treatment and time on fungal and bacterial communities in soil. However, we found no interaction between pH treatment and time of sampling for fungal communities and only a weak interaction between pH elevation and time for bacterial communities, suggesting that microbial community responses to soil pH are largely independent of plant phenological stage. In addition, fungal communities were structured largely by site, suggesting that fungi were responding to differences between the forests, such as plant community differences.

Local Network Properties of Soil and Rhizosphere Microbial Communities in Potato Plantations Treated with a Biological Product Are Important Predictors of Crop Yield

“…2A and C , where, despite the large differences between locations, T1 and T2 samples clustered in all the three locations, away from their respective T0, especially in the case of bacterial populations. Similar observations have been reported in maize ( 34 ), rice ( 35 ), and potato cultivars ( 13 ), and in forest soils ( 36 ).…”

The function of root mat fungal communities: Changes in response to pH and phosphorus addition

“…Fungal communities in our study showed consistent and expected responses to changes in soil pH. Previous studies have found that soil pH can have large effects on soil fungal communities (Erland & Söderström, 1990;Kjøller & Clemmensen, 2009;Lehto, 1994;Rineau & Garbaye, 2009;Wallander et al, 1997), and our earlier work within this study system also revealed significant changes in both AM and general fungal communities with pH in roots collected from mineral soil (Carrino-Kyker et al, 2016;Kluber et al, 2012) and in bulk soil (Carrino-Kyker et al, 2020). Soil phosphorus availability, however, had no significant effect on either AM or general fungal communities on root mats, also in agreement with our previous work on bulk soil and roots (Carrino-Kyker et al, ,2016 (Carrino-Kyker et al, 2016;Deforest et al, 2012).…”

“…In soils with a pH below 5.0, aluminum is mobilized and chemically binds to inorganic P (P i ), thus reducing its availability (Goldberg et al., 1996; Thomas & Hargrove, 1984). These changes in soil chemistry are accompanied by changes to the structure and function of belowground microbial communities, including mycorrhizal fungi (Carrino‐Kyker et al., 2016, 2020; DeForest et al., 2012; Kluber et al., 2012).…”

Soil Microbial Composition and Structure Allow Assessment of Biological Product Effectiveness and Crop Yield Prediction

“…The significant differences between microbial community compositions before and after planting can be clearly seen at Figures 2A and 2C, where, despite the large differences between locations, T1 and T2 samples clustered in all the three locations, away from their respective T0, especially in the case of bacterial populations. Similar observations have been reported in maize (34), rice (35) and potato cultivars (13), and in forest soils (36).…”