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Methane Producing and Oxidizing Microorganisms Display a High Resilience to Drought in a Swedish Hemi-Boreal Mire

White, J. D. LU ; Ahrén, D. LU orcid ; Ström, L. LU ; Kelly, J. LU ; Klemedtsson, L. ; Keane, B. and Parmentier, F. J.W. LU (2023) In Journal of Geophysical Research: Biogeosciences 128(9).
Abstract

An increased frequency of droughts due to anthropogenic climate change can lead to considerable stress for soil microorganisms and their functioning within northern peatlands. A better understanding of the diversity and relative abundance of methane producing and oxidizing taxa, and their functional genes, can help predict the functional potential of peatlands and how the microorganisms respond to disturbances such as drought. To address knowledge gaps in the understanding of how functional genetic diversity shifts under drought conditions, we investigated a hemi boreal mire in Southern Sweden. Environmental parameters, including soil and air temperature, precipitation, and water table depth, as well as methane flux data were collected... (More)

An increased frequency of droughts due to anthropogenic climate change can lead to considerable stress for soil microorganisms and their functioning within northern peatlands. A better understanding of the diversity and relative abundance of methane producing and oxidizing taxa, and their functional genes, can help predict the functional potential of peatlands and how the microorganisms respond to disturbances such as drought. To address knowledge gaps in the understanding of how functional genetic diversity shifts under drought conditions, we investigated a hemi boreal mire in Southern Sweden. Environmental parameters, including soil and air temperature, precipitation, and water table depth, as well as methane flux data were collected during the summer of 2017 under typical growing conditions, and in 2018 during a drought. In addition, the diversity and composition of genes encoding for methane metabolism were determined using the captured metagenomics technique. During drought we observed a substantial increase in air and soil temperature, reduced precipitation, and a lower water table depth. Taxonomic and functional gene composition significantly changed during the drought, while diversity indices, such as alpha and beta diversity, remained similar. These results indicate that methane producing and oxidizing microbial communities, and their functional genes, displayed a resilience to drought with specific genera having the ability to outcompete others under stress. Furthermore, our results show that although methane emissions are substantially reduced during drought, we can expect to see a shift toward more resilient methanogens and methanotrophs under future climate conditions.

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author
; ; ; ; ; and
organization
publishing date
type
Contribution to journal
publication status
published
subject
keywords
captured metagenomics, drought, metagenomics, methane, methanogen, methanotroph
in
Journal of Geophysical Research: Biogeosciences
volume
128
issue
9
article number
e2022JG007362
pages
17 pages
publisher
Wiley
external identifiers
  • scopus:85170025834
ISSN
2169-8953
DOI
10.1029/2022JG007362
language
English
LU publication?
yes
additional info
Funding Information: We would like to thank the staff from the Centre for Genomic Research, Liverpool and Roche Diagnostics Scandinavia for probe hybridization and sequencing. Special thanks go to our colleagues, friends, and family for the valuable discussions, and a special thanks to field assistants Oskar Ström and Thomas Golin for working tirelessly during the 2018 heatwave. This study has been made possible by the Swedish Infrastructure for Ecosystem Science (SITES), at the Skogaryd research catchment station and was funded by the Swedish Research Council for Sustainable Development (FORMAS) under the Grant 2016‐01462. SITES receives funding through the Swedish Research Council under the Grant 2017‐00635. Data handling was enabled by resources in project SNIC 2019/8–365 provided by the Swedish National Infrastructure for Computing (SNIC) at UPPMAX. F‐JWP was supported through additional funding from the Research Council of Norway (project no. 323945). Publisher Copyright: © 2023. The Authors.
id
95da0a8c-3fdd-4aad-94a3-1f0423fa94fc
date added to LUP
2023-10-18 09:35:58
date last changed
2023-10-25 11:41:31
@article{95da0a8c-3fdd-4aad-94a3-1f0423fa94fc,
  abstract     = {{<p>An increased frequency of droughts due to anthropogenic climate change can lead to considerable stress for soil microorganisms and their functioning within northern peatlands. A better understanding of the diversity and relative abundance of methane producing and oxidizing taxa, and their functional genes, can help predict the functional potential of peatlands and how the microorganisms respond to disturbances such as drought. To address knowledge gaps in the understanding of how functional genetic diversity shifts under drought conditions, we investigated a hemi boreal mire in Southern Sweden. Environmental parameters, including soil and air temperature, precipitation, and water table depth, as well as methane flux data were collected during the summer of 2017 under typical growing conditions, and in 2018 during a drought. In addition, the diversity and composition of genes encoding for methane metabolism were determined using the captured metagenomics technique. During drought we observed a substantial increase in air and soil temperature, reduced precipitation, and a lower water table depth. Taxonomic and functional gene composition significantly changed during the drought, while diversity indices, such as alpha and beta diversity, remained similar. These results indicate that methane producing and oxidizing microbial communities, and their functional genes, displayed a resilience to drought with specific genera having the ability to outcompete others under stress. Furthermore, our results show that although methane emissions are substantially reduced during drought, we can expect to see a shift toward more resilient methanogens and methanotrophs under future climate conditions.</p>}},
  author       = {{White, J. D. and Ahrén, D. and Ström, L. and Kelly, J. and Klemedtsson, L. and Keane, B. and Parmentier, F. J.W.}},
  issn         = {{2169-8953}},
  keywords     = {{captured metagenomics; drought; metagenomics; methane; methanogen; methanotroph}},
  language     = {{eng}},
  number       = {{9}},
  publisher    = {{Wiley}},
  series       = {{Journal of Geophysical Research: Biogeosciences}},
  title        = {{Methane Producing and Oxidizing Microorganisms Display a High Resilience to Drought in a Swedish Hemi-Boreal Mire}},
  url          = {{http://dx.doi.org/10.1029/2022JG007362}},
  doi          = {{10.1029/2022JG007362}},
  volume       = {{128}},
  year         = {{2023}},
}