Global biogeography of microbial nitrogen-cycling traits in soil
Abstract
Microorganisms drive much of the Earth’s nitrogen (N) cycle, but we still lack a global overview of the abundance and composition of the microorganisms carrying out soil N processes. To address this gap, we characterized the biogeography of microbial N traits, defined as eight N-cycling pathways, using publically available soil metagenomes. The relative frequency of N pathways varied consistently across soils, such that the frequencies of the individual N pathways were positively correlated across the soil samples. Habitat type, soil carbon, and soil N largely explained the total N pathway frequency in a sample. In contrast, we could not identify major drivers of the taxonomic composition of the N functional groups. Further, the dominant genera encoding a pathway were generally similar among habitat types. The soil samples also revealed an unexpectedly high frequency of bacteria carrying the pathways required for dissimilatory nitrate reduction to ammonium, a little-studied N process in soil. Finally, phylogenetic analysis showed that some microbial groups seem to be N-cycling specialists or generalists. For instance, taxa within the Deltaproteobacteria encoded all eight N pathways, whereas those within the Cyanobacteria primarily encoded three pathways. Overall, this trait-based approach provides a baseline for investigating the relationship between microbial diversitymore »
- Authors:
-
[2];
- Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, University of California, Irvine, CA 92697,
- Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, University of California, Irvine, CA 92697,, Department of Earth System Science, University of California, Irvine, CA 92697
- Publication Date:
- Sponsoring Org.:
- USDOE
- OSTI Identifier:
- 1264782
- Grant/Contract Number:
- PS02-09ER0-25
- Resource Type:
- Published Article
- Journal Name:
- Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America
- Additional Journal Information:
- Journal Name: Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America Journal Volume: 113 Journal Issue: 29; Journal ID: ISSN 0027-8424
- Publisher:
- Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
Citation Formats
Nelson, Michaeline B., Martiny, Adam C., and Martiny, Jennifer B. H. Global biogeography of microbial nitrogen-cycling traits in soil. United States: N. p., 2016.
Web. doi:10.1073/pnas.1601070113.
Nelson, Michaeline B., Martiny, Adam C., & Martiny, Jennifer B. H. Global biogeography of microbial nitrogen-cycling traits in soil. United States. https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1601070113
Nelson, Michaeline B., Martiny, Adam C., and Martiny, Jennifer B. H. Mon .
"Global biogeography of microbial nitrogen-cycling traits in soil". United States. https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1601070113.
@article{osti_1264782,
title = {Global biogeography of microbial nitrogen-cycling traits in soil},
author = {Nelson, Michaeline B. and Martiny, Adam C. and Martiny, Jennifer B. H.},
abstractNote = {Microorganisms drive much of the Earth’s nitrogen (N) cycle, but we still lack a global overview of the abundance and composition of the microorganisms carrying out soil N processes. To address this gap, we characterized the biogeography of microbial N traits, defined as eight N-cycling pathways, using publically available soil metagenomes. The relative frequency of N pathways varied consistently across soils, such that the frequencies of the individual N pathways were positively correlated across the soil samples. Habitat type, soil carbon, and soil N largely explained the total N pathway frequency in a sample. In contrast, we could not identify major drivers of the taxonomic composition of the N functional groups. Further, the dominant genera encoding a pathway were generally similar among habitat types. The soil samples also revealed an unexpectedly high frequency of bacteria carrying the pathways required for dissimilatory nitrate reduction to ammonium, a little-studied N process in soil. Finally, phylogenetic analysis showed that some microbial groups seem to be N-cycling specialists or generalists. For instance, taxa within the Deltaproteobacteria encoded all eight N pathways, whereas those within the Cyanobacteria primarily encoded three pathways. Overall, this trait-based approach provides a baseline for investigating the relationship between microbial diversity and N cycling across global soils.},
doi = {10.1073/pnas.1601070113},
journal = {Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America},
number = 29,
volume = 113,
place = {United States},
year = {Mon Jul 18 00:00:00 EDT 2016},
month = {Mon Jul 18 00:00:00 EDT 2016}
}
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