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Experimental Climate Change Modifies Degradative Succession in Boreal Peatland Fungal Communities

  • Fungal Microbiology
  • Published:
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Abstract

Peatlands play an important role in global climate change through sequestration of atmospheric CO2. Climate-driven changes in the structure of fungal communities in boreal peatlands that favor saprotrophic fungi can substantially impact carbon dynamics and nutrient cycling in these crucial ecosystems. In a mesocosm study using a full factorial design, 100 intact peat monoliths, complete with living Sphagnum and above-ground vascular vegetation, were subjected to three climate change variables (increased temperature, reduced water table, and elevated CO2 concentrations). Peat litterbags were placed in mesocosms, and fungal communities in litterbags were monitored over 12 months to assess the impacts of climate change variables on peat-inhabiting fungi. Changes in fungal richness, diversity, and community composition were assessed using Illumina MiSeq sequencing of ribosomal DNA (rDNA). While general fungal richness reduced under warming conditions, Ascomycota exhibited higher diversity under increased temperature treatments over the course of the experiment. Both increased temperature and lowered water table position drove shifts in fungal community composition with a strong positive effect on endophytic and mycorrhizal fungi (including one operational taxonomic unit (OTU) tentatively identified as Barrenia panicia) and different groups of saprotrophs identified as Mortierella, Galerina, and Mycena. These shifts were observed during a predicted degradative succession in the decomposer community as different carbon substrates became available. Since fungi play a central role in peatland communities, increased abundances of saprotrophic fungi under warming conditions, at the expense of reduced fungal richness overall, may increase decomposition rates under future climate scenarios and could potentially aggravate the impacts of climate change.

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Abbreviations

BLAST:

Basic Local Alignment Search Tool

LSU:

Large subunit

NGS:

Next generation sequencing

OTU:

Operational taxonomic unit

PCR:

Polymerase chain reaction

rDNA:

Ribosomal DNA

PCA:

Principal component analysis

ANOVA:

Analysis of variance

ALDEx:

ANOVA-like differential expression procedure

MiRKAT:

Microbiome Regression-based Kernel Association Test

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Acknowledgments

The authors thank two anonymous reviewers for their thoughtful and constructive comments on previous versions of this manuscript. We also thank Dr. Charmaine Dean, Dean of the Faculty of Science, University of Western Ontario, for her financial assistance to use Biotron and the financial support provided by the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada (NSERC) Discovery Grant program awarded to Dr. Zoë Lindo and Dr. Brian Branfireun. We are grateful to Dr. Greg Gloor (Western University, Biochemistry) for bioinformatics and statistical assistance to and David Carter (Roberts Research Institute) for conducting Illumina sequencing. We thank the volunteers and work study students for their help in the lab. Discussion with Dr. Hugh Henry, Dr. Marc-Andre Lachance, Nimalka Weerasuriya, and Dr. Catherine Dieleman are appreciated.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Biology, The University of Western Ontario, London, Ontario, N6A 5B7, Canada

    Asma Asemaninejad, R. Greg Thorn & Zoë Lindo

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  1. Asma Asemaninejad
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  2. R. Greg Thorn
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  3. Zoë Lindo
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Correspondence to Zoë Lindo.

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Supplementary Fig. 1

Changes in the relative frequencies of Ascomycota a and other fungal community b at higher taxonomic levels (classes) observed at different time points of the experiment. (PDF 130 kb)

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Asemaninejad, A., Thorn, R.G. & Lindo, Z. Experimental Climate Change Modifies Degradative Succession in Boreal Peatland Fungal Communities. Microb Ecol 73, 521–531 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00248-016-0875-9

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