COS 11-7
The distribution and diversity of N2O-reducing microbial communities in forest soils along a temperature gradient

Monday, August 11, 2014: 3:40 PM
Regency Blrm F, Hyatt Regency Hotel
Bo Wu, State Key Laboratory of Agricultural Microbiology, Huazhong Agricultural University, Wuhan, China
Feifei Liu, Institute for Environmental Genomics, University of Oklahoma, Norman, OK
Lina Shen, Institute for Environmental Genomics, University of Oklahoma, Norman, OK
Ye Deng, Research Center for Eco-Environmental Sciences, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, China
Liyou Wu, Institute for Environmental Genomics, University of Oklahoma, Norman, OK
Michael D. Weiser, Department of Biology, University of Oklahoma, Norman, OK
Michael Kaspari, Department of Biology, University of Oklahoma, Norman, OK
Brian J. Enquist, Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, University of Arizona, Tucson, AZ
Robert B. Waide, Biology, University of New Mexico, Albuquerque, NM
James H. Brown, Department of Biology, University of New Mexico, Albuquerque, NM
Shouwen Chen, State Key Laboratory of Agricultural Microbiology, Huazhong Agricultural University, Wuhan, China
Jizhong Zhou, Institute for Environmental Genomics and Department of Microbiology and Plant Biology, University of Oklahoma, Norman, OK
Zhili He, Institute for Environmental Genomics and Department of Microbiology and Plant Biology, University of Oklahoma, Norman, OK
Background/Question/Methods

Nitrous oxide (N2O) is emitted by bacteria in soils and oceans as a major greenhouse gas. It also regulates stratospheric ozone in Earth's atmosphere. Microorganisms harboring the nosZ gene encoding N2O reductase can reduce N2O to N2, thus removing N2O from the atmosphere. However, little is known about the distribution, diversity, composition and structure of nosZ communities and their contributions to the global N2O balance. Here we analyzed N2O-reducing soil microbial communities using Illumina MiSeq sequencing of nosZ amplicons. We collected 21 samples with a nested design from six forests: five long-term ecological research (LTER) sites, including Niwot, Harvard Forest, Coweeta, HJ Andrews, and Luquillo, and Barro Colorado Island, Panama. The six forests are found along a temperature/latitude gradient (with annual mean temperature from -4 to 27oC) in North America.

Results/Conclusions

A total of 2,372,939 high quality sequences were generated using a cutoff of nucleic acid sequence identity of 95%. They were clustered into 3,976 operational taxonomic units (OTUs) across all six sites (Niwot: 1,443; Harvard Forest: 1,704; HJ Andrews: 1,233; Coweeta: 1,747; Luquillo: 1,052; Barro Colorado Island: 988). Permutational multivariate analysis of variance (PERMANOVA) and detrended correspondence analysis (DCA) showed that the composition and structure of N2O-reducing communities varied significantly (p < 0.01) across six forests. Latitude, total soil carbon and nitrogen, soil pH, precipitation, and plant richness were the major factors shaping the N2O-reducing community structure. No significant correlations were found between nosZ richness and temperature. This study provides new insights into our understanding of the distribution and diversity of N2O-reducing microbial communities in forest soils.

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