Diversity and succession of autotrophic microbial community in high-elevation soils along deglaciation chronosequence

Global warming has resulted in substantial glacier retreats in high-elevation areas, exposing deglaciated soils to harsh environmental conditions. Autotrophic microbes are pioneering colonizers in the deglaciated soils and provide nutrients to the extreme ecosystem devoid of vegetation. However, aut...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:FEMS microbiology ecology 2016-10, Vol.92 (10), p.1
Main Authors: Liu, Jinbo, Kong, Weidong, Zhang, Guoshuai, Khan, Ajmal, Guo, Guangxia, Zhu, Chunmao, Wei, Xiaojie, Kang, Shichang, Morgan-Kiss, Rachael M.
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Abundance
Altitudes
Autotrophic microorganisms
Autotrophic Processes
Autotrophs
Bacteria
Carbon dioxide
Climate change
Cyanobacteria
Cyanobacteria - genetics
Deglaciation
Distribution
Ecological succession
Ecology
Ecosystem
Elevation
Environmental aspects
Environmental conditions
Genetic Variation
Glaciers
Global warming
Ice Cover - microbiology
Microbial colonies
Microbiology
Microorganisms
Nitrogen
Nitrogen - analysis
Nutrients
Organic carbon
Organic soils
Physiological aspects
Ribulose-bisphosphate carboxylase
Ribulose-Bisphosphate Carboxylase - genetics
Soil
Soil conditions
Soil Microbiology
Soils
Surface-ice melting
Total organic carbon
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Summary:Global warming has resulted in substantial glacier retreats in high-elevation areas, exposing deglaciated soils to harsh environmental conditions. Autotrophic microbes are pioneering colonizers in the deglaciated soils and provide nutrients to the extreme ecosystem devoid of vegetation. However, autotrophic communities remain less studied in deglaciated soils. We explored the diversity and succession of the cbbL gene encoding the large subunit of form I RubisCO, a key CO2-fixing enzyme, using molecular methods in deglaciated soils along a 10-year deglaciation chronosequence on the Tibetan Plateau. Our results demonstrated that the abundance of all types of form I cbbL (IA/B, IC and ID) rapidly increased in young soils (0–2.5 years old) and kept stable in old soils. Soil total organic carbon (TOC) and total nitrogen (TN) gradually increased along the chronosequence and both demonstrated positive correlations with the abundance of bacteria and autotrophs, indicating that soil TOC and TN originated from autotrophs. Form IA/B autotrophs, affiliated with cyanobacteria, exhibited a substantially higher abundance than IC and ID. Cyanobacterial diversity and evenness increased in young soils (
ISSN:1574-6941
0168-6496
1574-6941
DOI:10.1093/femsec/fiw160