Abstract
Biodiversity is claimed to be essential for ecosystem functioning, but is threatened by anthropogenic disturbances. Prokaryotes have been assumed to be functionally redundant and virtually inextinguishable. However, recent work indicates that microbes may well be sensitive to environmental disturbance. Focusing on methane-oxidizing bacteria as model organisms, we simulated disturbance-induced mortality by mixing native with sterilized paddy soil in two ratios, 1:4 and 1:40, representing moderate and severe die-offs. Disturbed microcosms were compared with an untreated control. Recovery of activity and populations was followed over 4 months by methane uptake measurements, pmoA-qPCR, pmoA-based terminal restriction fragment length polymorphism and a pmoA-based diagnostic microarray. Diversity and evenness of methanotrophs decreased in disturbed microcosms, but functioning was not compromised. We consistently observed distinctive temporal shifts between type I and type II methanotrophs, and a rapid population growth leading to even higher cell numbers comparing disturbed microcosms with the control. Overcompensating mortality suggested that population size in the control was limited by competition with other bacteria. Overall, methanotrophs showed a remarkable ability to compensate for die-offs.
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Acknowledgements
We thank Leventhe Bodrossy (Seibersdorf/Austria) for introducing us to the pmoA microarray and for discussion on microarray analysis. Alexandra Hahn and Bellinda Schneider provided excellent technical assistance. This study was financially supported by the International Max Planck Research School for Environmental, Cellular and Molecular Microbiology by a grant to AH, and by the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft by a grant to PF. This is a contribution of METHECO to the ESF-coordinated EUROCORES-program EuroDIVERSITY.
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Ho, A., Lüke, C. & Frenzel, P. Recovery of methanotrophs from disturbance: population dynamics, evenness and functioning. ISME J 5, 750–758 (2011). https://doi.org/10.1038/ismej.2010.163
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/ismej.2010.163
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