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Remarkable Recovery and Colonization Behaviour of Methane Oxidizing Bacteria in Soil After Disturbance Is Controlled by Methane Source Only

  • Environmental Microbiology
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Abstract

Little is understood about the relationship between microbial assemblage history, the composition and function of specific functional guilds and the ecosystem functions they provide. To learn more about this relationship we used methane oxidizing bacteria (MOB) as model organisms and performed soil microcosm experiments comprised of identical soil substrates, hosting distinct overall microbial diversities (i.e., full, reduced and zero total microbial and MOB diversities). After inoculation with undisturbed soil, the recovery of MOB activity, MOB diversity and total bacterial diversity were followed over 3 months by methane oxidation potential measurements and analyses targeting pmoA and 16S rRNA genes. Measurement of methane oxidation potential demonstrated different recovery rates across the different treatments. Despite different starting microbial diversities, the recovery and succession of the MOB communities followed a similar pattern across the different treatment microcosms. In this study we found that edaphic parameters were the dominant factor shaping microbial communities over time and that the starting microbial community played only a minor role in shaping MOB microbial community

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Acknowledgements

We thank Zoltán Kerényi for assistance with microcosms. Research at AIT was supported by the ESF EuroDiversity programme METHECO (No. FP018, local funding agency: FWF, Austria, project number I40-B06). YP received a travel grant from the Marine Biogeochemistry Program of CSIRO Marine and Atmospheric Research.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Bioresources Unit, AIT, Austrian Institute of Technology GmbH, Tulln, Austria

    Yao Pan, Angela Sessitsch & Levente Bodrossy

  2. CSIRO Marine and Atmospheric Research and Wealth from Oceans Flagship, GPO Box 1538, Hobart, Tasmania, 7001, Australia

    Guy C. J. Abell & Levente Bodrossy

  3. Microbial Ecology Department, Netherlands Institute of Ecology (NIOO-KNAW), Wageningen, The Netherlands

    Paul L. E. Bodelier & Marion Meima-Franke

Authors
  1. Yao Pan
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  2. Guy C. J. Abell
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  3. Paul L. E. Bodelier
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  4. Marion Meima-Franke
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  5. Angela Sessitsch
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  6. Levente Bodrossy
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Correspondence to Levente Bodrossy.

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Pan, Y., Abell, G.C.J., Bodelier, P.L.E. et al. Remarkable Recovery and Colonization Behaviour of Methane Oxidizing Bacteria in Soil After Disturbance Is Controlled by Methane Source Only. Microb Ecol 68, 259–270 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00248-014-0402-9

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