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Effects of Forest Management Practices in Temperate Beech Forests on Bacterial and Fungal Communities Involved in Leaf Litter Degradation

  • Environmental Microbiology
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Abstract

Forest management practices (FMPs) significantly influence important ecological processes and services in Central European forests, such as leaf litter decomposition and nutrient cycling. Changes in leaf litter diversity, and thus, its quality as well as microbial community structure and function induced by different FMPs were hypothesized to be the main drivers causing shifts in decomposition rates and nutrient release in managed forests. In a litterbag experiment lasting 473 days, we aimed to investigate the effects of FMPs (even-aged timber management, selective logging and unmanaged) on bacterial and fungal communities involved in leaf litter degradation over time. Our results showed that microbial communities in leaf litter were strongly influenced by both FMPs and sampling date. The results from nonmetric multidimensional scaling (NMDS) ordination revealed distinct patterns of bacterial and fungal successions over time in leaf litter. We demonstrated that FMPs and sampling dates can influence a range of factors, including leaf litter quality, microbial macronutrients, and pH, which significantly correlate with microbial community successions.

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Acknowledgments

Our work was funded, in part, by contributing projects to the DFG Priority Program 1374 on “Infrastructure-Biodiversity-Exploratories” (BU 941/17-1, KR 3587/1-1, KR 3587/3-2, SCHL 446/13-2, HO 1961/4-1, and HO 1961/5-2). We thank the managers of the three exploratories, Swen Renner, Sonja Gockel, Kerstin Wiesner, and Martin Gorke, for their work in maintaining the plot and project infrastructure; Simone Pfeiffer and Christiane Fischer for providing support through the central office; Michael Owonibi for managing the central database; and Markus Fischer, Eduard Linsenmair, Dominik Hessenmöller, Jens Nieschulze, Daniel Prati, Ingo Schöning, Ernst-Detlef Schulze, Wolfgang W. Weisser, and the late Elisabeth Kalko for their role in setting up the Biodiversity Exploratories project. We thank Jessica L. M. Gutknecht (UMN-Twin Cities) for discussion. 

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    Authors and Affiliations

    1. Department of Soil Ecology, UFZ-Helmholtz Centre for Environmental Research, Theodor-Lieser-Str. 4, D-06120, Halle (Saale), Germany

      Witoon Purahong, Danuta Kapturska, Katalee Jariyavidyanont, Jennifer Kaunzner, Kantida Juncheed, Tanaporn Uengwetwanit, Renate Rudloff, Elke Schulz, Dirk Krüger & François Buscot

    2. Chair for Soil Science, Technical University of Munich, Ingolstädter Landstr. 1, 85758, Oberschleissheim, Germany

      Witoon Purahong

    3. International Institute (IHI) Zittau, Dresden University of Technology (TU Dresden), Markt 23, 02763, Zittau, Germany

      Danuta Kapturska, Marek J. Pecyna & Martin Hofrichter

    4. Helmholtz Zentrum München, Research Unit for Environmental Genomics, Ingolstädter Landstr. 1, 85758, Oberschleissheim, Germany

      Michael Schloter

    5. German Centre for Integrative Biodiversity Research (iDiv), Halle-Jena-Leipzig, Deutscher Platz 5e, 04103, Leipzig, Germany

      François Buscot

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    1. Witoon Purahong
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    Correspondence to Witoon Purahong or François Buscot.

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    Witoon Purahong, Danuta Kapturska, Marek J. Pecyna and Dirk Krüger contributed equally to this work.

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    Purahong, W., Kapturska, D., Pecyna, M.J. et al. Effects of Forest Management Practices in Temperate Beech Forests on Bacterial and Fungal Communities Involved in Leaf Litter Degradation. Microb Ecol 69, 905–913 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00248-015-0585-8

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