Plant succession and rhizosphere microbial communities in a recently deglaciated alpine terrain

Tscherko, Dagmar; Hammesfahr, Ute; Zeltner, Georg H.; Kandeler, Ellen; Böcker, Reinhard

doi:10.1016/j.baae.2005.02.004

Cited by 119 publications

(77 citation statements)

References 28 publications

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“…The analysis of complementarity (carried out by Morisita–Horn β‐diversity measure and a threshold of complementarity >0.4) confirmed the hypothesis of the presence of three main stages of the plant succession: (a) initial (pioneer species) from 30 to 100 m; (b) intermediate ( r ‐selected species) from 110 to 120–150 m; and (c) final (K‐selected species) from 150 to 550. A similar successional differentiation was observed in the Alps by Tscherko, Hammesfahr, Zeltner, Kandeler, and Böcker (2005). Only species at 550 and 600 m show a low level of complementarity (0.28) among all pairs of successive sampling points.…”

Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 80%

“…The combination with the higher growth of plant in the intermediate seral communities and the availability of higher quantity of nutrients, seems to catalyze (Cazzolla Gatti, Hordijk, & Kauffman, 2017) the increase in both plant and microorganism abundance and provides support to the facilitation models of primary succession observed by Tscherko et al. (2005) for the microbial community of a deglaciated alpine terrain.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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The last 50 years of climate‐induced melting of the Maliy Aktru glacier (Altai Mountains, Russia) revealed in a primary ecological succession

Gatti

Dudko

Lim

et al. 2018

Ecology and Evolution

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In this article, we report and discuss the results obtained from a survey of plants, microorganisms (bacteria and fungi), and soil elements along a chronosequence in the first 600 m of the Maliy Aktru glacier's forefront (Altai Mountains, Russia). Many glaciers of the world show effects of climate change. Nonetheless, except for some local reports, the ecological effects of deglaciation have been poorly studied and have not been quantitatively assessed in the Altai Mountains. Here, we studied the ecological changes of plants, fungi, bacteria, and soil elements that take the form of a primary ecological succession and that took place over the deglaciated soil of the Maliy Aktru glacier during the last 50 year. According to our measurements, the glacier lost about 12 m per year during the last 50 years. Plant succession shows clear signs of changes along the incremental distance from the glacier forefront. The analysis of the plant α‐ and β‐diversity confirmed an expected increase of them with increasing distance from the glacier forefront. Moreover, the analysis of β‐diversity confirmed the hypothesis of the presence of three main stages of the plant succession: (a) initial (pioneer species) from 30 to 100 m; (b) intermediate (r‐selected species) from 110 to 120–150 m; and (c) final (K‐selected species) from 150 to 550. Our study also shows that saprotrophic communities of fungi are widely distributed in the glacier retreating area with higher relative abundances of saprotroph ascomycetes at early successional stages. The evolution of a primary succession is also evident for bacteria, soil elements, and CO 2 emission and respiration. The development of biological communities and the variation in geochemical parameters represent an irrefutable proof that climate change is altering soils that have been long covered by ice.

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Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 80%

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

The last 50 years of climate‐induced melting of the Maliy Aktru glacier (Altai Mountains, Russia) revealed in a primary ecological succession

Gatti

Dudko

Lim

et al. 2018

Ecology and Evolution

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“…Consequently, glacier forefields represent chronosequences of different soil development stages offering an ideal system to study the development of functional microbial communities in soil. Initial stages of the glacier chronosequences are characterized by low plant diversity and abundance (Chapin et al, 1994;Tscherko et al, 2005;Hammerli et al, 2007), which increase over time and reach their maxima at sites being ice-free for more than 200 years. Consequently, the amount of available carbon (C) and nitrogen (N) is low during initial ecosystem development.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Abundances and potential activities of nitrogen cycling microbial communities along a chronosequence of a glacier forefield

et al. 2010

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Glacier forefields are ideal ecosystems to study the development of nutrient cycles as well as single turnover processes during soil development. In this study, we examined the ecology of the microbial nitrogen (N) cycle in bulk soil samples from a chronosequence of the Damma glacier, Switzerland. Major processes of the N cycle were reconstructed on the genetic as well as the potential enzyme activity level at sites of the chronosequence that have been ice-free for 10, 50, 70, 120 and 2000 years. In our study, we focused on N fixation, mineralization (chitinolysis and proteolysis), nitrification and denitrification. Our results suggest that mineralization, mainly the decomposition of deposited organic material, was the main driver for N turnover in initial soils, that is, ice-free for 10 years. Transient soils being ice-free for 50 and 70 years were characterized by a high abundance of N fixing microorganisms. In developed soils, ice-free for 120 and 2000 years, significant rates of nitrification and denitrification were measured. Surprisingly, copy numbers of the respective functional genes encoding the corresponding enzymes were already high in the initial phase of soil development. This clearly indicates that the genetic potential is not the driver for certain functional traits in the initial phase of soil formation but rather a well-balanced expression of the respective genes coding for selected functions.

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“…Taken together, the convergent distributions of growth forms and ecosystem properties between circles and forelands in spite of their great differences in scale and age suggest that the rate of foreland primary succession over centuries is influenced by plant dispersal. Dispersal, in turn, may contribute to regulating rates of plant-and microbe-driven ecosystem development such as the accumulation of nutrients and organic matter in soil (Tscherko et al 2005;Johnson and Miyanishi 2008;Walker and Wardle 2014). The results provide an estimate for the rate of succession (Prach et al 1993) controlled by ecosystem development in the absence of dispersal constraints.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 86%

New Multicentury Evidence for Dispersal Limitation during Primary Succession

Makoto

Wilson

2016

The American Naturalist

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Online enhancements: appendix. Dryad data: http://dx.doi.org/10.5061/dryad.85j01.abstract: Primary succession is limited by both ecosystem development and plant dispersal, but the extent to which dispersal constrains succession over the long-term is unknown. We compared primary succession along two co-occurring arctic chronosequences with contrasting spatial scales: sorted circles that span a few meters and may have few dispersal constraints and glacial forelands that span several kilometers and may have greater dispersal constraints. Dispersal constraints slowed primary succession by centuries: plots were dominated by cryptogams after 20 years on circles but after 270 years on forelands; plots supported deciduous plants after 100 years on circles but after 1400 years on forelands. Our study provides centuryscale evidence suggesting that dispersal limitations constrain the rate of primary succession in glacial forelands.

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Plant succession and rhizosphere microbial communities in a recently deglaciated alpine terrain

Cited by 119 publications

References 28 publications

The last 50 years of climate‐induced melting of the Maliy Aktru glacier (Altai Mountains, Russia) revealed in a primary ecological succession

The last 50 years of climate‐induced melting of the Maliy Aktru glacier (Altai Mountains, Russia) revealed in a primary ecological succession

Abundances and potential activities of nitrogen cycling microbial communities along a chronosequence of a glacier forefield

New Multicentury Evidence for Dispersal Limitation during Primary Succession

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