Bacteria increase arid-land soil surface temperature through the production of sunscreens

Couradeau, Estelle; Karaoz, Ulas; Lim, Hsiao Chien; Nunes da Rocha, Ulisses; Northen, Trent; Brodie, Eoin; Garcia-Pichel, Ferran

doi:10.1038/ncomms10373

Title: Bacteria increase arid-land soil surface temperature through the production of sunscreens

Journal Article · Wed Jan 20 00:00:00 EST 2016 · Nature Communications

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1038/ncomms10373· OSTI ID:1255544

Couradeau, Estelle ^[1]; Karaoz, Ulas ^[2]; Lim, Hsiao Chien ^[2]; Nunes da Rocha, Ulisses ^[2]; Northen, Trent ^[2]; Brodie, Eoin ^[3]; Garcia-Pichel, Ferran ^[4]

Arizona State Univ., Tempe, AZ (United States)
Lawrence Berkeley National Lab. (LBNL), Berkeley, CA (United States)
Lawrence Berkeley National Lab. (LBNL), Berkeley, CA (United States); Univ. of California, Berkeley, CA (United States)
Arizona State Univ., Tempe, AZ (United States); Lawrence Berkeley National Lab. (LBNL), Berkeley, CA (United States)

Soil surface temperature, an important driver of terrestrial biogeochemical processes, depends strongly on soil albedo, which can be significantly modified by factors such as plant cover. In sparsely vegetated lands, the soil surface can be colonized by photosynthetic microbes that build biocrust communities. Here we use concurrent physical, biochemical and microbiological analyses to show that mature biocrusts can increase surface soil temperature by as much as 10 °C through the accumulation of large quantities of a secondary metabolite, the microbial sunscreen scytonemin, produced by a group of late-successional cyanobacteria. Scytonemin accumulation decreases soil albedo significantly. Such localized warming has apparent and immediate consequences for the soil microbiome, inducing the replacement of thermosensitive bacterial species with more thermotolerant forms. These results reveal that not only vegetation but also microorganisms are a factor in modifying terrestrial albedo, potentially impacting biosphere feedbacks on past and future climate, and call for a direct assessment of such effects at larger scales.

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Research Organization:: Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (LBNL), Berkeley, CA (United States)

Sponsoring Organization:: USDOE Office of Science (SC), Biological and Environmental Research (BER)

Grant/Contract Number:: AC02- 05CH11231; AC02-05CH11231

OSTI ID:: 1255544

Alternate ID(s):: OSTI ID: 1379041

Journal Information:: Nature Communications, Vol. 7; ISSN 2041-1723

Publisher:: Nature Publishing GroupCopyright Statement

Country of Publication:: United States

Language:: English

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Cited by: 126 works

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