Abiotic environmental variables strongly affect the outcomes of species interactions. For example, mutualistic interactions between species are often stronger when resources are limited. The effect might be indirect: water stress on plants can lead to carbon stress, which could alter carbon-mediated plant mutualisms. In mutualistic ant-plant symbioses, plants host ant colonies that defend them against herbivores. Here we show that the partners' investments in a widespread ant-plant symbiosis increase with water stress across 26 sites along a Mesoamerican precipitation gradient. At lower precipitation levels, Cordia alliodora trees invest more carbon in Azteca ants via phloem-feeding scale insects that provide the ants with sugars, and the ants provide better defense of the carbon-producing leaves. Under water stress, the trees have smaller carbon pools. A model of the carbon trade-offs for the mutualistic partners shows that the observed strategies can arise from the carbon costs of rare but extreme events of herbivory in the rainy season. Thus, water limitation, together with the risk of herbivory, increases the strength of a carbon-based mutualism. Pringle.etal.PlosBiologyRaw data files and ReadMe file. Copyright: CC0 1.0 Universal (CC0 1.0) Public Domain Dedication

This study investigated how microbial community structure and diversity varied with depth and topography in ice wedge polygons of wet tundra of the Arctic Coastal Plain in northern Alaska and what soil variables explain these patterns. We observed strong changes in community structure and diversity with depth, and more subtle changes between areas of high and low topography, with the largest differences apparent near the soil surface. These patterns are most strongly correlated with redox gradients (measured using the ratio of reduced Fe to total Fe in acid extracts as a proxy): conditions grew more reducing with depth and were most oxidized in shallow regions of polygon rims. Organic matter and pH also changed with depth and topography but were less effective predictors of the microbial community structure and relative abundance of specific taxa. Of all other measured variables, lactic acid concentration was the best, in combination with redox, for describing the microbial community. We conclude that redox conditions are the dominant force in shaping microbial communities in this landscape. Oxygen and other electron acceptors allowed for the greatest diversity of microbes: at depth the community was reduced to a simpler core of anaerobes, dominated by fermenters (Bacteroidetes and Firmicutes).

A metagenomic analysis was performed on a soil profile from a wet tundra site in northern Alaska. The goal was to link existing biogeochemical knowledge of the system with the organisms and genes responsible for the relevant metabolic pathways. We specifically investigated how the importance of iron (Fe) oxides and humic substances (HS) as terminal electron acceptors in this ecosystem is expressed genetically, and how respiratory and fermentative processes varied with soil depth into the active layer and into the upper permafrost. Overall, the metagenomes reflected a microbial community enriched in a diverse range of anaerobic pathways, with a preponderance of known Fe reducing species at all depths in the profile. The abundance of sequences associated with anaerobic metabolic processes generally increased with depth, while aerobic cytochrome c oxidases decreased. Methanogenesis genes and methanogen genomes followed the pattern of CH4 fluxes : they increased steeply with depth into the active layer, but declined somewhat over the transition zone between the lower active layer and the upper permafrost. The latter was relatively enriched in fermentative and anaerobic respiratory pathways. A survey of decaheme cytochromes (MtrA, MtrC and their homologs) revealed that this is a promising approach to identifying potential reducers of Fe(III) or HS, and indicated a possible role for Acidobacteria as Fe reducers in these soils. Methanogens appear to coexist in the same layers, though in lower abundance, with Fe reducing bacteria and other potential competitors, including acetogens. These observations provide a rich set of hypotheses for further targeted study.

This study explores biological chlorine cycling in coastal Arctic wet tundra soils. While many previous chlorine-cycling studies have focused on contaminated environments, it is now recognized that chlorine can cycle naturally between inorganic and organic forms in soils. However, these pathways have not previously been described for an Arctic ecosystem. We measured soil organic and inorganic Cl pools, characterized soils and plant tissues with chlorine K-edge X-ray absorption near-edge spectroscopy (Cl-XANES), measured dechlorination rates in laboratory incubations, and analyzed metagenomes and 16S rRNA genes along a chronosequence of revegetated drained lake basins. Concentrations of soil organic chlorinated compounds (Cl-org) were correlated with organic matter content, with a steeper slope in older soils. The concentration and chemical diversity of Cl-org increased with soil development, with Cl-org in younger soils more closely resembling that of vegetation, and older soils having more complex and variable Cl-XANES signatures. Plant Cl-org concentrations were higher than previously published values, and can account for the rapid accumulation of Cl-org in soils. The high rates of Cl-org input from plants also implies that soil Cl-org pools turn over many times during soil development. Metagenomic analyses revealed putative genes for synthesis (haloperoxidases, halogenases) and breakdown (reductive dehalogenases, halo-acid dehalogenases) of Cl-org, originating from diverse microbial genomes. Many genome sequences with close similarity to known organohalide respirers (e.g. Dehalococcoides) were identified, and laboratory incubations demonstrated microbial organohalide respiration in vitro. This study provides multiple lines of evidence for a complex and dynamic chlorine cycle in an Arctic tundra ecosystem.

Biodiversity affects many ecosystem functions and services, including carbon cycling and retention. While it is known that the efficiency of carbon capture and biomass production by ecological communities increases with species diversity, the role of vertebrate animals in the carbon cycle remains undocumented. Here, we use an extensive dataset collected in a high-diversity Amazonian system to parse out the relationship between animal and plant species richness, feeding interactions, tree biomass and carbon concentrations in soil. Mammal and tree species richness is positively related to tree biomass and carbon concentration in soil-and the relationship is mediated by organic remains produced by vertebrate feeding events. Our research advances knowledge of the links between biodiversity and carbon cycling and storage, supporting the view that whole community complexity-including vertebrate richness and trophic interactions-drives ecosystem function in tropical systems. Securing animal and plant diversity while protecting landscape integrity will contribute to soil nutrient content and carbon retention in the biosphere.

Abiotic environmental variables strongly affect the outcomes of species interactions. For example, mutualistic interactions between species are often stronger when resources are limited. The effect might be indirect: water stress on plants can lead to carbon stress, which could alter carbon-mediated plant mutualisms. In mutualistic ant-plant symbioses, plants host ant colonies that defend them against herbivores. Here we show that the partners' investments in a widespread ant-plant symbiosis increase with water stress across 26 sites along a Mesoamerican precipitation gradient. At lower precipitation levels, Cordia alliodora trees invest more carbon in Azteca ants via phloem-feeding scale insects that provide the ants with sugars, and the ants provide better defense of the carbon-producing leaves. Under water stress, the trees have smaller carbon pools. A model of the carbon trade-offs for the mutualistic partners shows that the observed strategies can arise from the carbon costs of rare but extreme events of herbivory in the rainy season. Thus, water limitation, together with the risk of herbivory, increases the strength of a carbon-based mutualism.

Bolbometopon muricatum are ecologically unique mega-consumers in coral reef ecosystems. They primarily divide their dietary intake between living scleractinian corals and coral rock, a substrate richly colonized by non-coral biota. Here we examine how the chemical, structural, and energetic content of these two main classes of forage material may influence B. muricatum feeding behavior and selectivity. We then also examine nutrient content, pH, and alkalinity of the carbonate-rich feces of B. muricatum as a step toward understanding how B. muricatum defecation could affect reef nutrient dynamics and localized seawater chemistry. Our results suggest that by most measures, coral rock constitutes a richer food source than living corals, exhibiting higher levels of eight biologically relevant elements, and containing approximately three times greater caloric value than living corals. Additionally, the two forage types also presented distinct mineralogy, with the coral rock resembling a Mg-enriched carbonate phase in contrast to the primarily aragonitic live corals. Despite the fact that individual B. muricatum excrete tons of macerated coral annually, the low measured concentrations of N and P in feces suggest that this excretion may have relatively minor effects of reef macronutrient budgets. We also observed negligible local-scale impacts of B. muricatum feces on seawater pH and alkalinity. The approaches applied here integrate perspectives from marine biogeochemistry, materials science, and ecology. Collectively, these results provide preliminary insight into how reef chemistry could shape foraging of this dominant and vulnerable coral reef consumer and how it, in turn, might affect the chemistry of these reefs.

Despite growing interest in utilizing microbial-based methods for improving crop growth, much work still remains in elucidating how beneficial plant-microbe associations are established, and what role soil amendments play in shaping these interactions. Here, we describe a set of experiments that test the effect of a commercially available soil amendment, VESTA, on the soil and strawberry (Fragaria x ananassa Monterey) root bacterial microbiome. The bacterial communities of the soil, rhizosphere, and root from amendment-treated and untreated fields were profiled at four time points across the strawberry growing season using 16S rRNA gene amplicon sequencing on the Illumina MiSeq platform. In all sample types, bacterial community composition and relative abundance were significantly altered with amendment application. Importantly, time point effects on composition are more pronounced in the root and rhizosphere, suggesting an interaction between plant development and treatment effect. Surprisingly, there was slight overlap between the taxa within the amendment and those enriched in plant and soil following treatment, suggesting that VESTA may act to rewire existing networks of organisms through an, as of yet, uncharacterized mechanism. These findings demonstrate that a commercial microbial soil amendment can impact the bacterial community structure of both roots and the surrounding environment.