Abstract
Microbes catalyze all major geochemical cycles on earth. However, the role of microbial traits and community composition in biogeochemical cycles is still poorly understood mainly due to the inability to assess the community members that are actually performing biogeochemical conversions in complex environmental samples. Here we applied a polyphasic approach to assess the role of microbial community composition in modulating methane emission from a riparian floodplain. We show that the dynamics and intensity of methane consumption in riparian wetlands coincide with relative abundance and activity of specific subgroups of methane-oxidizing bacteria (MOB), which can be considered as a minor component of the microbial community in this ecosystem. Microarray-based community composition analyses demonstrated linear relationships of MOB diversity parameters and in vitro methane consumption. Incubations using intact cores in combination with stable isotope labeling of lipids and proteins corroborated the correlative evidence from in vitro incubations demonstrating γ-proteobacterial MOB subgroups to be responsible for methane oxidation. The results obtained within the riparian flooding gradient collectively demonstrate that niche partitioning of MOB within a community comprised of a very limited amount of active species modulates methane consumption and emission from this wetland. The implications of the results obtained for biodiversity–ecosystem functioning are discussed with special reference to the role of spatial and temporal heterogeneity and functional redundancy.
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Acknowledgements
We thank Foundation ‘De Ark’ for permitting us to take samples at ‘Ewijkse Waard.’ This study was a part of the ESF — Eurodiversity program (ERAS-CT-2003-98049, sixth EU framework program) and was financially supported by grants from the Netherlands Organization for Scientific Research (NWO; grant no. 855.01.108). This publication is publication no. 5451 of the Netherlands Institute of Ecology.
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Bodelier, P., Meima-Franke, M., Hordijk, C. et al. Microbial minorities modulate methane consumption through niche partitioning. ISME J 7, 2214–2228 (2013). https://doi.org/10.1038/ismej.2013.99
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