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Influence of Ozone on Litter Quality and Its Subsequent Effects on the Initial Structure of Colonizing Microbial Communities

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Abstract

Ozone is considered as the main factor in air pollution related to a decline of forest in North America and Europe. In the present study, the effect of changed litter quality, due to ozone stress to trees, on the microbial communities colonizing the subsequent litter was investigated. Litter bag technique using beech and spruce litter from ozone-stressed and control trees, was combined with 16S and 18S rRNA-based fingerprinting methods and cloning to characterize phylogenetic diversity. Litter bags were incubated for 2 and 8 weeks in a beech–spruce mixed forest. Differences between the structure of microbial communities colonizing control and ozone-exposed litter were evident by fingerprints of 16S and 18S rRNA RT-PCR products. RT-PCR products, from litter degraded for 8 weeks, were cloned to identify the bacterial and fungal groups. Clones similar to members of Actinobacteria dominated the bacterial libraries, whereas effects of changed litter quality were mainly observed for the Proteobacteria. Fungal libraries were dominated by clones similar to Ascomycota members. Reduced proportion of clones similar to Basidiomycota and Zygomycota in library from ozone-stressed spruce trees and Chytridiomycota from ozone-stressed beech trees was observed when compared to their control counterparts. As hypothesized, changed litter quality due to elevated O3 did influence the structure of litter-colonizing microbial communities. However, these differences were not as pronounced as those between the two plant species.

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Acknowledgment

The study was supported by a research grant from Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG), Bonn, Germany (SFB 607).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Institute of Soil Ecology, GSF-National Research Center for Environment and Health, P.O. Box 1129, 85764, Neuherberg, Germany

    Manish Kumar Aneja, Shilpi Sharma, Jean Charles Munch & Michael Schloter

  2. Department of Ecology, Life Science Center, Weihenstephan, Technical University of Munich, Munich, Germany

    Frank Fleischmann

  3. Institute of Biochemical Plant Pathology, GSF-National Research Center for Environment and Health, P.O. Box 1129, 85764, Neuherberg, Germany

    Susanne Stich, Werner Heller & Günther Bahnweg

Authors
  1. Manish Kumar Aneja
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  2. Shilpi Sharma
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  3. Frank Fleischmann
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  4. Susanne Stich
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  5. Werner Heller
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  6. Günther Bahnweg
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  7. Jean Charles Munch
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  8. Michael Schloter
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Correspondence to Shilpi Sharma.

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Aneja, M.K., Sharma, S., Fleischmann, F. et al. Influence of Ozone on Litter Quality and Its Subsequent Effects on the Initial Structure of Colonizing Microbial Communities. Microb Ecol 54, 151–160 (2007). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00248-006-9183-0

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00248-006-9183-0

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