Ornithogenic soils of the Cape Bird adelie penguin rookeries, Antarctica

Heine, J. C.; Speir, T. W.

doi:10.1007/bf00263626

Cited by 50 publications

(22 citation statements)

References 15 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Order By: Relevance

“…The increased phylogenetic v www.esajournals.org structuring detected in bacterial communities associated with vulture guano deposition may arise from habitat selection for those individuals that have the ability to utilize uric acid and its byproducts as a nitrogen source. Uric acid is a major component of guano-enriched, ornithogenic soil (Speir and Cowling 1984), which can remain in arid soils (like the soils studied here) for extended periods (Ramsay and Stannard 1986). Relatively high numbers of culturable uric acid degrading bacteria are known to occur in ornithogenic soils (Pietr 1986), including members of genus Psychrobacter, which has been isolated from ornithogenic soil (Bowman et al 1996) as well as penguin guano (Zdanowski et al 2005).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 91%

Diversity and structure of soil bacterial communities associated with vultures in an African savanna

Ganz¹,

Karaöz²,

Getz³

et al. 2012

Ecosphere

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Abstract. Bird guano has been shown to alter the structure and function of ecological communities.Here we characterize the effects of vulture guano on the phylogenetic structure, taxa richness, and abundance in soil bacterial communities within an African savanna. By altering soil chemistry and nutrient status, vulture guano appears to play a role in influencing the structure of soil bacterial communities. DNA was extracted from soil collected under twenty trees: five African white-backed vulture (Gyps africanus, WBV) nesting sites, five lappet-faced vulture (Torgos tracheliotos, LFV) nesting sites and ten control sites where no sign of vulture activity was detected. Using a high-density phylogenetic microarray (PhyloChip G2), we identified 1,803 bacterial Operational Taxonomic Units (OTUs) in the twenty samples. Analysis of beta-diversity using the Unifrac distance metric demonstrated that WBV nesting sites were phylogenetically distinct from both control trees and LFV nesting sites. We detected a higher degree of phylogenetic clustering in soil bacterial communities associated with both WBV and LFV nesting sites compared to control sites, suggesting that the deposition of guano increases the strength of habitat filtering in these communities. Canonical correspondence analysis revealed that variation in OTU intensity (a measure of relative abundance) could be related to variations in pH, electrical conductivity and total nitrogen content. WBV sites explained 10% to 22% of the variation in OTU intensity. The elevated total nitrogen and lower pH characteristic of soils associated with vultures may favor Proteobacteria and suppress Firmicutes, particularly Clostridia and Bacilli. Acidic aggregations of vulture guano may be unlikely to support longterm survival of spore-forming Firmicute pathogens and thus may limit the role that vultures play as potential disease vectors.

show abstract

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 91%

Diversity and structure of soil bacterial communities associated with vultures in an African savanna

Ganz¹,

Karaöz²,

Getz³

et al. 2012

Ecosphere

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…Relatively few of the fish, food, or clinical reference strains utilized these compounds as sources of carbon and energy, but all could convert uric acid to allantoin in complex media. Psychrobacter-like strains are apparently much less common in abandoned bird colonies, making up less than 1% of the total bacterial population (19), possibly because of depletion of uric acid that has occurred in these sites (27).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Novel Psychrobacter Species from Antarctic Ornithogenic Soils

Bowman

Cavanagh

Austin

et al. 1996

International Journal of Systematic Bacteriology

184

130

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Gram-negative, coccoid, oxidase-positive, nonmotile bacteria which are psychrotolerant and halotolerant have been isolated from a wide range of habitats, including seawater, the gills and skin of fish, poultry, irradiated foods, and various human clinical samples (9-11, 23). These organisms were originally referred to as Moraxella-like or were included in the genus "Achrurnubacter" or the genus Acinetobacter (9). Some strains of this group have been misclassified as gram-positive bacteria because of their tendency to strongly retain aniline dyes in their cell walls (11). Many of these strains were shown to be genetically related through the use of a special transformation assay (10). Subsequently, the species Psychrubacter irnmubizis was described by Juni and Heym (11) to accommodate the psychrotolerant strains. Rossau et al. (21), using rRNA-DNA hybridization analysis, showed that P. irnrnubilis was related to the genera Moraxella and Acinetobacter in rRNA superfamily 11. The phenotypic studies of Shaw and Latty (23) revealed considerable variation in carbon substrate utilization among psychrobacters isolated from fish and poultry; however, Moss et al. (14) showed that the cellular fatty acids of a diverse set of Psychrobacter strains were quite similar. MuraxeZla phenylpymvica grows at 4°C and tolerates NaCl concentrations up to 9%, traits that are typical of P. immobilis but rather atypical for other Moraxella species (11). Furthermore, M. phenylpymvica is relatively distantly related to other Muraxella species on the basis of 16s ribosomal DNA (rDNA) sequence analysis data (4), and rRNA-DNA hybridization data (21) have indicated that M. phenylpymvica is more closely related to P. immobilis than to other Moraxella species.In this study the biodiversity of Psychrubacter isolates obtained from Antarctic ornithogenic soils was established by using a polyphasic approach which included phenotypic, genotypic, chemotaxonomic, and phylogenetic analyses. These analyses led to the description of two new species, Psychrobacter urativorans and Psychrobacter fngidicola, while M. phenylpyruvica was transferred into the genus Psychrubacter as Psychrobacter phenylpymvicus comb. nov. MATERIALS AND METHODSSamples and isolation. Samples of ornithogenic soil were collected from various locations in an active Adklie penguin (Pygoscelis adelzae) colony during the austral 1991-1992 summer. The penguin colony sampled is located on Magnetic Island off the coast of the Vestfold Hills ice-free zone in eastern Antarctica (68"S, 78"E). Soil samples were suspended in 0.1% (wthol) peptone, spread plated onto tryptone-soya peptone agar (5 g of tryptone per liter, 2.5 g of soya peptone per liter, 2.5 g of NaCl per liter, 15 g of agar per liter) and incubated at 10 and 20°C.Phenotypic tests. For inoculation of biochemical and growth test media, Psychrobucter strains (Table 1) were grown on tryptone-soya peptone agar containing 1.5% (wt/vol) NaCl, unless otherwise stated. M. phenylpymvica was grown on brain heart infusion agar (Oxoid, Ltd., B...

show abstract

“…The phylogenetic affiliations of several phylotypes grouping within the Firmicutes suggest similar abilities to withstand high salinities and utilize uric acid under anaerobic conditions, which together with the ability of Firmicutes to form endospores to withstand environmental stress, would explain their ability to inhabit ornithogenic soils (Aislabie et al 2009). The dominance of Actinobacteria and Xanthomonas in previously colonized soils may be the result of a shift in bacterial community structure in response to changing environmental conditions that accompany guano decomposition (Speir and Ross 1984;Zdanowski et al 2004Zdanowski et al , 2005 and leaching of ammonium stocks from soils (Aislabie et al 2009). …”

Section: Coastal and Ornithogenic Soilsmentioning

confidence: 99%