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Relationship Between Peat Type and Microbial Ecology in Sphagnum-Containing Peatlands of the Adirondack Mountains, NY, USA

  • Soil Microbiology
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Abstract

Peatland microbial community composition varies with respect to a range of biological and physicochemical variables. While the extent of peat degradation (humification) has been linked to microbial community composition along vertical stratification gradients within peatland sites, across-site variations have been relatively unexplored. In this study, we compared microbial communities across ten pristine Sphagnum-containing peatlands in the Adirondack Mountains, NY, which represented three different peat types—humic fen peat, humic bog peat, and fibric bog peat. Using 16S amplicon sequencing and network correlation analysis, we demonstrate that microbial community composition is primarily linked to peat type, and that distinct taxa networks distinguish microbial communities in each type. Shotgun metagenomic sequencing of the active water table region (mesotelm) from two Sphagnum-dominated bogs—one with fibric peat and one with humic peat—revealed differences in primary carbon degradation pathways, with the fibric peat being dominated by carbohydrate metabolism and hydrogenotrophic methanogenesis, and the humic peat being dominated by aliphatic carbon metabolism and aceticlastic methanogenesis. Our results suggest that peat humification is a major factor driving microbial community dynamics across peatland ecosystems.

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Data Availability

Metagenomic sequencing and assembly files are stored in a public KBase narrative: https://narrative.kbase.us/narrative/57002.

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Acknowledgments

The authors would like to thank Joe Yavitt and Steve Zinder for helpful conversations regarding data interpretation and Don St. James for his help with the sampling efforts.

Funding

This work was funded by a Kieckhefer Adirondack Fellowship grant awarded to ARSJ through the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences at Cornell University.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Cornell University, Ithaca, NY, 14853, USA

    Andrew R. St. James, Janni Lin & Ruth E. Richardson

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  1. Andrew R. St. James
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  2. Janni Lin
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  3. Ruth E. Richardson
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Contributions

ARSJ and RER conceived of the study. ARSJ collected samples. JL processed samples for sequencing. ARSJ performed the bioinformatics and data analysis with assistance from JL. ARSJ wrote the manuscript with input from JL. ARSJ and RER edited the manuscript.

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Correspondence to Andrew R. St. James.

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St. James, A.R., Lin, J. & Richardson, R.E. Relationship Between Peat Type and Microbial Ecology in Sphagnum-Containing Peatlands of the Adirondack Mountains, NY, USA. Microb Ecol 82, 429–441 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00248-020-01651-1

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