skip to main content
OSTI.GOV title logo U.S. Department of Energy
Office of Scientific and Technical Information

Title: Experimental warming alters the community composition, diversity, and N 2 fixation activity of peat moss ( Sphagnum fallax ) microbiomes

Journal Article · · Global Change Biology
DOI:https://doi.org/10.1111/gcb.14715· OSTI ID:1560689
ORCiD logo [1];  [2]; ORCiD logo [3];  [4];  [3];  [5];  [6];  [6]; ORCiD logo [7]
  1. Bredesen Center for Interdisciplinary Research and Graduate Education University of Tennessee Knoxville Tennessee, Biosciences Division Oak Ridge National Laboratory Oak Ridge Tennessee
  2. School of Biology Georgia Institute of Technology Atlanta Georgia
  3. School of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences Georgia Institute of Technology Atlanta Georgia
  4. Biosciences Division Oak Ridge National Laboratory Oak Ridge Tennessee
  5. School of Biology Georgia Institute of Technology Atlanta Georgia, School of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences Georgia Institute of Technology Atlanta Georgia
  6. Environmental Sciences Division Oak Ridge National Laboratory Oak Ridge Tennessee, Climate Change Science Institute, Oak Ridge National Laboratory Oak Ridge Tennessee
  7. Biosciences Division Oak Ridge National Laboratory Oak Ridge Tennessee, Climate Change Science Institute, Oak Ridge National Laboratory Oak Ridge Tennessee

SphagnumSphagnum are known to harbor diverse microbial communities that mediate C and nitrogen (N) cycling in peatlands, the effects of climate change on Sphagnum microbiome composition and functioning are largely unknown. We investigated the impacts of experimental whole-ecosystem warming on the Sphagnum moss microbiome, focusing on N2 fixing microorganisms (diazotrophs). To characterize the microbiome response to warming, we performed next-generation sequencing of small subunit (SSU) rRNA and nitrogenase (niƒH) gene amplicons and quantified rates of N2 fixation activity in Sphagnum fallax2 fixation rates, decreased with warming (p < 0.05). Following warming, diazotrophs shifted from a mixed community of Nostocales (Cyanobacteria) and Rhizobiales (Alphaproteobacteria) to predominance of Nostocales. Microbiome community composition differed between years, with some diazotroph populations persisting while others declined in relative abundance in warmed plots in the second year. Our results demonstrate that warming substantially alters the community composition, diversity, and N2 fixation activity of peat moss microbiomes, which may ultimately impact host fitness, ecosystem productivity, and C storage potential in peatlands.

Research Organization:
Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL), Oak Ridge, TN (United States)
Sponsoring Organization:
USDOE Office of Science (SC), Biological and Environmental Research (BER)
Grant/Contract Number:
AC05-00OR22725; SC0007144; SC0012088
OSTI ID:
1560689
Alternate ID(s):
OSTI ID: 1559747; OSTI ID: 1560690
Journal Information:
Global Change Biology, Journal Name: Global Change Biology Vol. 25 Journal Issue: 9; ISSN 1354-1013
Publisher:
WileyCopyright Statement
Country of Publication:
United Kingdom
Language:
English
Citation Metrics:
Cited by: 68 works
Citation information provided by
Web of Science

References (88)

Sensitivity of soil respiration and microbial communities to altered snowfall journal February 2013
Seasonal variation in nifH abundance and expression of cyanobacterial communities associated with boreal feather mosses journal February 2016
Growth-Limiting Nutrients in Sphagnum-Dominated Bogs Subject to Low and High Atmospheric Nitrogen Supply journal March 1992
Climate change drives a shift in peatland ecosystem plant community: Implications for ecosystem function and stability journal June 2014
The ecological significance of organochemical compounds in Sphagnum journal June 1997
Attaining whole-ecosystem warming using air and deep-soil heating methods with an elevated CO 2 atmosphere journal January 2017
Methanotrophic symbionts provide carbon for photosynthesis in peat bogs journal August 2005
Irradiance and temperature effects on photosynthesis of tussock tundra Sphagnum mosses from the foothills of the Philip Smith Mountains, Alaska journal January 1989
Greengenes, a Chimera-Checked 16S rRNA Gene Database and Workbench Compatible with ARB journal July 2006
Long-term effects of climate change on vegetation and carbon dynamics in peat bogs journal January 2008
Stability of peatland carbon to rising temperatures journal December 2016
The interactive effects of temperature and light on biological nitrogen fixation in boreal forests journal February 2012
Northern Peatlands: Role in the Carbon Cycle and Probable Responses to Climatic Warming journal May 1991
Global prevalence of methane oxidation by symbiotic bacteria in peat-moss ecosystems journal August 2010
Biochar-stimulated plant performance is strongly linked to microbial diversity and metabolic potential in the rhizosphere journal October 2016
Meeting Report: The Terabase Metagenomics Workshop and the Vision of an Earth Microbiome Project journal January 2010
Peatlands in the Earth’s 21st century climate system journal December 2011
Pseudoreplication and the Design of Ecological Field Experiments journal February 1984
The contribution of species richness and composition to bacterial services journal August 2005
Nitrogen fertilization affects bacteria utilizing plant-derived carbon in the rhizosphere of beech seedlings journal April 2016
Deciphering the Rhizosphere Microbiome for Disease-Suppressive Bacteria journal May 2011
Ecophysiology of gelatinous Nostoc colonies: unprecedented slow growth and survival in resource-poor and harsh environments journal July 2014
Oxygen relations of nitrogen fixation in cyanobacteria. journal January 1992
Peatlands and the carbon cycle: from local processes to global implications – a synthesis journal January 2008
Drought Stress Results in a Compartment-Specific Restructuring of the Rice Root-Associated Microbiomes journal July 2017
Contrasting δ15N Values of Atmospheric Deposition and Sphagnum Peat Bogs: N Fixation as a Possible Cause journal May 2016
Nitrogen fixation in Sphagnum mosses is affected by moss species and water table level journal December 2014
Naive Bayesian Classifier for Rapid Assignment of rRNA Sequences into the New Bacterial Taxonomy journal June 2007
Insights into functional bacterial diversity and its effects on Alpine bog ecosystem functioning journal June 2013
Above- and belowground linkages in Sphagnum peatland: climate warming affects plant-microbial interactions journal December 2012
Loss in microbial diversity affects nitrogen cycling in soil journal March 2013
RCP 8.5—A scenario of comparatively high greenhouse gas emissions journal August 2011
Improvement in the RFLP procedure for studying the diversity of nifH genes in communities of nitrogen fixers in soil journal January 2001
Reconstructing the Microbial Diversity and Function of Pre-Agricultural Tallgrass Prairie Soils in the United States journal October 2013
Methanotrophy induces nitrogen fixation during peatland development journal December 2013
Resistance, resilience, and redundancy in microbial communities journal August 2008
Soil temperature, nitrogen mineralization, and carbon source–sink relationships in boreal forests journal May 1992
Endophytic bacteria of Sphagnum mosses as promising objects of agricultural microbiology journal May 2013
Initial effects of experimental warming on carbon exchange rates, plant growth and microbial dynamics of a lichen-rich dwarf shrub tundra in Siberia journal April 2008
Long-term carbon sequestration in North American peatlands journal December 2012
Intraspecific genotypic richness and relatedness predict the invasibility of microbial communities journal February 2011
The Sphagnum microbiome: new insights from an ancient plant lineage journal February 2016
Biological nitrogen fixation by alternative nitrogenases in boreal cyanolichens: importance of molybdenum availability and implications for current biological nitrogen fixation estimates journal September 2016
Detection, Isolation, and Characterization of Acidophilic Methanotrophs from Sphagnum Mosses journal July 2011
The Sphagnum microbiome supports bog ecosystem functioning under extreme conditions journal September 2014
The resilience and functional role of moss in boreal and arctic ecosystems: Tansley review journal August 2012
A unifying framework for dinitrogen fixation in the terrestrial biosphere journal June 2008
The role of Sphagnum mosses in the methane cycling of a boreal mire journal August 2010
Molybdenum-Based Diazotrophy in a Sphagnum Peatland in Northern Minnesota journal June 2017
Patterns of boreal permafrost peatland vegetation across environmental gradients sensitive to climate warming journal October 1999
Ecosystem warming extends vegetation activity but heightens vulnerability to cold temperatures journal August 2018
Salinity altered root distribution and increased diversity of bacterial communities in the rhizosphere soil of Jerusalem artichoke journal February 2016
Soil biodiversity and soil community composition determine ecosystem multifunctionality journal March 2014
The interactive effects of temperature and moisture on nitrogen fixation in two temperate-arctic mosses journal February 2017
Transfer of fixed-N from N2-fixing cyanobacteria associated with the moss Sphagnum riparium results in enhanced growth of the moss journal May 2012
Temperature Dependency of Photosynthesis of <i>Sphagnum</i> spp. Distributed in the Warm-Temperate and the Cool-Temperate Mires of Japan journal January 2011
Drought delays development of the sorghum root microbiome and enriches for monoderm bacteria journal April 2018
Across-Habitat Comparison of Diazotroph Activity in the Subarctic journal November 2014
Climate Change Impacts on Plant Pathogens and Plant Diseases journal January 2014
Sphagnum mosses harbour highly specific bacterial diversity during their whole lifecycle journal November 2011
Impact of Warming on Greenhouse Gas Production and Microbial Diversity in Anoxic Peat From a Sphagnum-Dominated Bog (Grand Rapids, Minnesota, United States) journal April 2019
Swift recovery of Sphagnum nutrient concentrations after excess supply journal May 2008
Warming and drying suppress microbial activity and carbon cycling in boreal forest soils journal December 2008
Introducing mothur: Open-Source, Platform-Independent, Community-Supported Software for Describing and Comparing Microbial Communities journal October 2009
QIIME allows analysis of high-throughput community sequencing data journal April 2010
Is the northern high-latitude land-based CO 2 sink weakening? : THE HIGH-LATITUDE CO journal August 2011
PEAR: a fast and accurate Illumina Paired-End reAd mergeR journal October 2013
Bryophyte-cyanobacteria associations as regulators of the northern latitude carbon balance in response to global change journal March 2013
Biological nitrogen fixation in peatlands: Comparison between acetylene reduction assay and 15N2 assimilation methods journal April 2019
Evidence for the functional significance of diazotroph community structure in soil journal September 2008
RESPONSES OF N-LIMITED ECOSYSTEMS TO INCREASED CO 2 : A BALANCED-NUTRITION, COUPLED-ELEMENT-CYCLES MODEL journal May 1997
Phenoloxidase and peroxidase activities in Sphagnum-dominated peatland in a warming climate journal March 2012
Evolutionary ecology of plant-microbe interactions: soil microbial structure alters selection on plant traits journal June 2011
Possible contribution of alternative nitrogenases to nitrogen fixation by asymbiotic N2-fixing bacteria in soils journal February 2014
N2-fixation by methanotrophs sustains carbon and nitrogen accumulation in pristine peatlands journal August 2014
Bryophytes attenuate anthropogenic nitrogen inputs in boreal forests: BRYOPHYTES ATTENUATE NITROGEN DEPOSITION journal March 2011
Responses of vegetation and soil microbial communities to warming and simulated herbivory in a subarctic heath journal July 2009
FastTree: Computing Large Minimum Evolution Trees with Profiles instead of a Distance Matrix journal April 2009
Increased seawater temperature increases the abundance and alters the structure of natural Vibrio populations associated with the coral Pocillopora damicornis journal May 2015
Investigations of the structure and function of bacterial communities associated with Sphagnum mosses journal November 2007
Ultra-high-throughput microbial community analysis on the Illumina HiSeq and MiSeq platforms journal March 2012
Molybdenum and vanadium nitrogenases of Azotobacter chroococcum. Low temperature favours N2 reduction by vanadium nitrogenase journal December 1988
Responses of phenology and biomass production of boreal fens to climate warming under different water‐table level regimes journal November 2017
Nitrogen and Nature journal March 2002
A comprehensive aligned nifH gene database: a multipurpose tool for studies of nitrogen-fixing bacteria journal January 2014
Regulation of Nitrogen Removal and Retention in Sphagnum bogs and Other Peatlands journal March 1988
Drought and host selection influence bacterial community dynamics in the grass root microbiome journal July 2017
The unseen majority: soil microbes as drivers of plant diversity and productivity in terrestrial ecosystems journal March 2008