The burning of biocrusts facilitates the emergence of a bare soil community of poorly-connected chemoheterotrophic Bacteria with depressed ecosystem services
- Author:
- Aanderud Z.T., Bahr J., Robinson D.M., Belnap J., Campbell T.P., Gill R.A., McMillian B. & St. Clair S.
- Year:
- 2019
- Journal:
- Frontiers in Ecology and Evolution
- Pages:
- 7: 467 [14 p.]
- Url:
- https://doi.org/10.3389/fevo.2019.00467
Wildfires destabilize biocrust, requiring decades for most biological constituents to
regenerate, but bacteria may recover quickly and mitigate the detrimental consequences
of burnt soils. To evaluate the short-term recovery of biocrust bacteria, we tracked
shifts in bacterial community form and function in Cyanobacteria/lichen-dominated
(shrub interspaces) and Cyanobacteria/moss-dominated (beneath Artemisia tridentata)
biocrusts 1 week, 2 months, and 1 year following a large-scale burn manipulations in
a cold desert (Utah, USA). We found no evidence of the burned bacterial community
recovering to a burgeoning biocrust. The foundational biocrust phyla, Cyanobacteria,
dominated by Microcoleus viginatus (Microcoleaceae), disappeared from burned soils
creating communities void of photosynthetic taxa. One year after the fire, the burned
biocrust constituents had eroded away and the bare soils supported the formation
of a convergent community of chemoheterotrophic copiotrophs regardless of location.
The emergent community was dominated by a previously rare Planococcus species
(family Planococcaceae, Firmicutes) and taxa in the Cellulomonadaceae (Actinobacteria),
and Oxalobacteraceae (Betaproteobacteria). Previously burnt soils maintained similar
levels of bacterial biomass, alpha diversity, and richness as unburned biocrusts,
but supported diffuse, poorly-interconnected communities with 75% fewer species
interactions. Nitrogen fixation declined at least 3.5-fold in the burnt soils but ammonium
concentrations continued to rise through the year, suggesting that the exhaustion of
organic C released from the fire, and not N, may diminish the longevity of the emergent
community. Our results demonstrate that biocrust bacteria may recover rapidly after
burning, albeit along a different community trajectory, as rare bacteria become dominant,
species interconnectedness diminishes, and ecosystem services fail to rebound.
Keywords: biological soil crust, Bromus tectorum, disturbance, Great Basin Desert, rare biosphere, network
co-occurrence model.
- Id:
- 32740
- Submitter:
- zdenek
- Post_time:
- Thursday, 10 September 2020 19:09