Interplay between the soil microbiome and tree species richness as well as tree species identity in subtropical forests of China
Microbial Ecology and Applied Microbiology
Final Report Abstract
Our work resulted in a fruitful collaboration with the Chinese colleagues of the group of Liang Dong Guo as demonstrated by joint publications. The complementarity with this group was high as it focuses on analysing microbes associated to tree roots, while we focuse on soils. In general, our results from the CSPs and the main experimental plots demonstrated that the subtropical forests under investigation are remarkably rich in microbial communities both in soils and dead wood and that these communities responded to forest age, plant identity, plant diversity levels and neighbouring tree species. In the main experiment, final interpretation and publishing of the results have been delayed. However, the investigations have been made during initial stages of the experiment and we expect the microbial community composition in the main experimental sites to change as the plants will grow. In particular, the enhanced production of litter may buffer the diversity and neigborhood effects we detected. This justifies a future continual monitoring of these temporal changes in microbial community composition to unravel the ecological and functional significance of the plant-microbe interactions in the context of the functioning of the highly diverse subtropical forest ecosystems.
Publications
- (2012). Relationships Between Soil Microorganisms, Plant Communities, and Soil Characteristics in Chinese Subtropical Forests. Ecosystems 15 (4):624-636
Wu YT, Gutknecht J, Nadrowski K, Geißler C, Kühn P, Scholten T, Both S, Erfmeier A, Böhnke M, Bruelheide H, Wubet T, Buscot F
(See online at https://doi.org/10.1007/s10021-012-9533-3) - (2013). Forest age and plant species composition determines the soil fungal community structure in a Chinese subtropical forest. PLoS ONE
Wu YT, Wubet T, Trogisch S, Both S, Scholten T, Bruelheide H, Buscot F
(See online at https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0066829) - (2013). Host plant genus-level diversity is the best predictor of ectomycorrhizal fungal diversity in a Chinese subtropical forest. Molecular Ecology 22 (12): 3403-3414
Gao C, Shi NN, Liu YX, Peay KG, Zheng Y, Ding Q, Mi XC, Ma KP, Wubet T, Buscot F, Guo LD
(See online at https://doi.org/10.1111/mec.12297) - (2015). Community assembly of ectomycorrhizal fungi along a subtropical secondary forest succession New Phytologist 205 (2):771-785
Gao C, Zhang Y, Shi NN, Zheng Y, Chen L, Wubet T, Bruelheide H, Both S, Buscot F, Ding Q, Erfmeier A, Kühn P, Nadrowski K, Scholten T, Guo LD
(See online at https://doi.org/10.1111/nph.13068) - (2016). Tree species, tree genotypes and tree genotypic diversity levels affect microbe-mediated soil ecosystem functions in a subtropical forest. Scientific Reports 6: 36672
Purahong W, Durka W, Fischer M, Dommert S, Schops R, Buscot F, Wubet T
(See online at https://doi.org/10.1038/srep36672) - (2017). Characterization of Unexplored Deadwood Mycobiome in Highly Diverse Subtropical Forests Using Culture-independent Molecular Technique. Front Microbiol 8:574
Purahong W, Pietsch KA, Lentendu G, Schops R, Bruelheide H, Wirth C, Buscot F, Wubet T
(See online at https://doi.org/10.3389/fmicb.2017.00574) - (2017). Preservation of nucleic acids by freeze-drying for next generation sequencing analyses of soil microbial communities. Journal of Plant Ecology 10 (1): 81-90
Weißbecker C, Buscot F, Wubet T
(See online at https://doi.org/10.1093/jpe/rtw042)
