Does
microbial community composition and function parallel environmental gradients which
structure landscape-level patterns of plant community composition and
biogeochemical processes? Because soil microbial communities are in part
structured by the biochemical composition of plant detritus and in part by
environmental conditions, we reasoned that landscape-level patterns of
microbial community composition and function should follow the spatial
distribution of floristically and functionally distinct forest ecosystems. We
tested this idea by studying replicate stands (n = 3) in three forest ecosystems that differ in plant community
composition, litter biochemistry, organic matter decomposition, as well as soil
C and N cycling. The forest ecosystems we studied have a broad geographic
distribution in the Upper Great Lakes region,
and replicate stands in each ecosystem type occurred across a 5000 km2
area. We quantified the composition of
fungal and bacterial communities using a range of molecular techniques (PLFA, DGGE,
T-RFLP, quantitative PCR) and assayed their metabolic
capabilities using extracellular enzyme assays (i.e., cellobiohydrolase and
phenol oxidase) coupled with the quantitative
amplification of functional genes. The relative abundance of soil fungi within
the microbial community, as well as fungal community composition and lignolytic activity, paralleled spatial patterns of plant
litter biochemistry among ecosystems, especially differences in leaf litter
lignin concentration. Our observations collectively support the idea that plant
and microbial communities co-occur across the landscape, wherein compositionally
and functionally distinct microbial communities occurred within floristically
and biogeochemically distinct forest ecosystems. Moreover, our results indicate that
composition and function are linked in soil microbial communities, and this
relationship in part controls the biogeochemical cycling of C and N across landscapes.