Microbes as engines of ecosystem function: when does community structure enhance predictions of ecosystem processes?
Microorganisms are vital in mediating the earth’s biogeochemical cycles; yet, despite our rapidly increasing ability to explore complex environmental microbial communities, the relationship between microbial community structure and ecosystem processes remains poorly understood. Here, we address a fu...
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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Frontiers Media S.A.
2016-02-01
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| Series: | Frontiers in Microbiology |
| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | http://journal.frontiersin.org/Journal/10.3389/fmicb.2016.00214/full |
| _version_ | 1818512397568049152 |
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| author | Emily B. Graham Emily B. Graham Joseph E. Knelman Joseph E. Knelman Andreas eSchindlbacher Steven eSiciliano Marc eBreulmann Anthony eYannarell J. Michael eBeman Guy eAbell Laurent ePhilippot James eProsser Arnaud eFoulquier Jorge Curiel eYuste Helen C. eGlanville Davey eJones Roey eAngel Janne eSalminen Ryan J Newton Helmut eBürgmann Lachlan J. Ingram Ute eHamer Henri MP Siljanen Krista ePeltoniemi Karin ePotthast Lluís eBañeras Martin eHartmann Samiran eBanerjee Ri-Qing eYu Geraldine eNogaro Andreas eRichter Marianne eKoranda Sarah eCastle Marta eGoberna Bongkeun eSong Amitava eChatterjee Olga Cristina Nunes Ana Rita Lopes Yiping eCao Aurore eKaisermann Sara eHallin Michael S Strickland Jordi eGarcia-Pausas Josep eBarba Hojeong eKang Kazuo eIsobe Sokratis ePapaspyrou Roberta ePastorelli Alessandra eLagomarsino Eva eLindström Nathan eBasiliko Diana Reid Nemergut Diana Reid Nemergut |
| author_facet | Emily B. Graham Emily B. Graham Joseph E. Knelman Joseph E. Knelman Andreas eSchindlbacher Steven eSiciliano Marc eBreulmann Anthony eYannarell J. Michael eBeman Guy eAbell Laurent ePhilippot James eProsser Arnaud eFoulquier Jorge Curiel eYuste Helen C. eGlanville Davey eJones Roey eAngel Janne eSalminen Ryan J Newton Helmut eBürgmann Lachlan J. Ingram Ute eHamer Henri MP Siljanen Krista ePeltoniemi Karin ePotthast Lluís eBañeras Martin eHartmann Samiran eBanerjee Ri-Qing eYu Geraldine eNogaro Andreas eRichter Marianne eKoranda Sarah eCastle Marta eGoberna Bongkeun eSong Amitava eChatterjee Olga Cristina Nunes Ana Rita Lopes Yiping eCao Aurore eKaisermann Sara eHallin Michael S Strickland Jordi eGarcia-Pausas Josep eBarba Hojeong eKang Kazuo eIsobe Sokratis ePapaspyrou Roberta ePastorelli Alessandra eLagomarsino Eva eLindström Nathan eBasiliko Diana Reid Nemergut Diana Reid Nemergut |
| author_sort | Emily B. Graham |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | Microorganisms are vital in mediating the earth’s biogeochemical cycles; yet, despite our rapidly increasing ability to explore complex environmental microbial communities, the relationship between microbial community structure and ecosystem processes remains poorly understood. Here, we address a fundamental and unanswered question in microbial ecology: ‘When do we need to understand microbial community structure to accurately predict function?’ We present a statistical analysis investigating the value of environmental data and microbial community structure independently and in combination for explaining rates of carbon and nitrogen cycling processes within 82 global datasets. Environmental variables were the strongest predictors of process rates but left 44% of variation unexplained on average, suggesting the potential for microbial data to increase model accuracy. Although only 29% of our datasets were significantly improved by adding information on microbial community structure, we observed improvement in models of processes mediated by narrow phylogenetic guilds via functional gene data, and conversely, improvement in models of facultative microbial processes via community diversity metrics. Our results also suggest that microbial diversity can strengthen predictions of respiration rates beyond microbial biomass parameters, as 53% of models were improved by incorporating both sets of predictors compared to 35% by microbial biomass alone. Our analysis represents the first comprehensive analysis of research examining links between microbial community structure and ecosystem function. Taken together, our results indicate that a greater understanding of microbial communities informed by ecological principles may enhance our ability to predict ecosystem process rates relative to assessments based on environmental variables and microbial physiology. |
| first_indexed | 2024-12-10T23:46:16Z |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj.art-8ccc1905281545e19b1994be059ab4d1 |
| institution | Directory Open Access Journal |
| issn | 1664-302X |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-12-10T23:46:16Z |
| publishDate | 2016-02-01 |
| publisher | Frontiers Media S.A. |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Frontiers in Microbiology |
| spelling | doaj.art-8ccc1905281545e19b1994be059ab4d12022-12-22T01:28:55ZengFrontiers Media S.A.Frontiers in Microbiology1664-302X2016-02-01710.3389/fmicb.2016.00214181167Microbes as engines of ecosystem function: when does community structure enhance predictions of ecosystem processes?Emily B. Graham0Emily B. Graham1Joseph E. Knelman2Joseph E. Knelman3Andreas eSchindlbacher4Steven eSiciliano5Marc eBreulmann6Anthony eYannarell7J. Michael eBeman8Guy eAbell9Laurent ePhilippot10James eProsser11Arnaud eFoulquier12Jorge Curiel eYuste13Helen C. eGlanville14Davey eJones15Roey eAngel16Janne eSalminen17Ryan J Newton18Helmut eBürgmann19Lachlan J. Ingram20Ute eHamer21Henri MP Siljanen22Krista ePeltoniemi23Karin ePotthast24Lluís eBañeras25Martin eHartmann26Samiran eBanerjee27Ri-Qing eYu28Geraldine eNogaro29Andreas eRichter30Marianne eKoranda31Sarah eCastle32Marta eGoberna33Bongkeun eSong34Amitava eChatterjee35Olga Cristina Nunes36Ana Rita Lopes37Yiping eCao38Aurore eKaisermann39Sara eHallin40Michael S Strickland41Jordi eGarcia-Pausas42Josep eBarba43Hojeong eKang44Kazuo eIsobe45Sokratis ePapaspyrou46Roberta ePastorelli47Alessandra eLagomarsino48Eva eLindström49Nathan eBasiliko50Diana Reid Nemergut51Diana Reid Nemergut52University of ColoradoPacific Northwest National LaboratoryUniversity of ColoradoUS Department of EnergyBFWUniv. of SaskatchewanUBZUniv. of Illinois at Urbana-ChampaignUniv. of California - MercedFlinders Univ.INRAUniv. of AberdeenUR MALYCSICBangor Univ.Bangor Univ.Univ. of ViennaHäme Univ. of Applied Sci.Univ. of Wisconsin-MilwaukeeEawag: Swiss Federal Inst. of Aquatic Sci. & TechnologyThe Univ. of SydneyUniv. of MünsterUniv. of Eastern FinlandNat. Resources Inst. Finland (Luke)Technische Univ.Univ. of GironaAgroscopeCSIRO Agriculture FlagshipUniv. of Texas at TylerLNHEUniv. of ViennaUniv. of ViennaUniv. of MontanaCIDE-CSICVirginia Institute of Marine ScienceNorth Dakota State Univ.Univ. of PortoUniv. of PortoSouthern California Coastal Water Res. Project AuthorityINRA BordeauxSwedish Univ. of Agricultural Sci.Virginia Polytechnic Inst. & State Univ.Centre Tecnològic Forestal de CatalunyaCREAFYonsei Univ.The Univ. of TokyoUniv. of CadizRes. Centre for Agrobiology & PedologyRes. Centre for Agrobiology & PedologyUppsala Univ.Laurentian Univ.University of ColoradoDuke UniversityMicroorganisms are vital in mediating the earth’s biogeochemical cycles; yet, despite our rapidly increasing ability to explore complex environmental microbial communities, the relationship between microbial community structure and ecosystem processes remains poorly understood. Here, we address a fundamental and unanswered question in microbial ecology: ‘When do we need to understand microbial community structure to accurately predict function?’ We present a statistical analysis investigating the value of environmental data and microbial community structure independently and in combination for explaining rates of carbon and nitrogen cycling processes within 82 global datasets. Environmental variables were the strongest predictors of process rates but left 44% of variation unexplained on average, suggesting the potential for microbial data to increase model accuracy. Although only 29% of our datasets were significantly improved by adding information on microbial community structure, we observed improvement in models of processes mediated by narrow phylogenetic guilds via functional gene data, and conversely, improvement in models of facultative microbial processes via community diversity metrics. Our results also suggest that microbial diversity can strengthen predictions of respiration rates beyond microbial biomass parameters, as 53% of models were improved by incorporating both sets of predictors compared to 35% by microbial biomass alone. Our analysis represents the first comprehensive analysis of research examining links between microbial community structure and ecosystem function. Taken together, our results indicate that a greater understanding of microbial communities informed by ecological principles may enhance our ability to predict ecosystem process rates relative to assessments based on environmental variables and microbial physiology.http://journal.frontiersin.org/Journal/10.3389/fmicb.2016.00214/fullCarbon CycleDenitrificationNitrificationNitrogen CycleRespirationmicrobial ecology |
| spellingShingle | Emily B. Graham Emily B. Graham Joseph E. Knelman Joseph E. Knelman Andreas eSchindlbacher Steven eSiciliano Marc eBreulmann Anthony eYannarell J. Michael eBeman Guy eAbell Laurent ePhilippot James eProsser Arnaud eFoulquier Jorge Curiel eYuste Helen C. eGlanville Davey eJones Roey eAngel Janne eSalminen Ryan J Newton Helmut eBürgmann Lachlan J. Ingram Ute eHamer Henri MP Siljanen Krista ePeltoniemi Karin ePotthast Lluís eBañeras Martin eHartmann Samiran eBanerjee Ri-Qing eYu Geraldine eNogaro Andreas eRichter Marianne eKoranda Sarah eCastle Marta eGoberna Bongkeun eSong Amitava eChatterjee Olga Cristina Nunes Ana Rita Lopes Yiping eCao Aurore eKaisermann Sara eHallin Michael S Strickland Jordi eGarcia-Pausas Josep eBarba Hojeong eKang Kazuo eIsobe Sokratis ePapaspyrou Roberta ePastorelli Alessandra eLagomarsino Eva eLindström Nathan eBasiliko Diana Reid Nemergut Diana Reid Nemergut Microbes as engines of ecosystem function: when does community structure enhance predictions of ecosystem processes? Frontiers in Microbiology Carbon Cycle Denitrification Nitrification Nitrogen Cycle Respiration microbial ecology |
| title | Microbes as engines of ecosystem function: when does community structure enhance predictions of ecosystem processes? |
| title_full | Microbes as engines of ecosystem function: when does community structure enhance predictions of ecosystem processes? |
| title_fullStr | Microbes as engines of ecosystem function: when does community structure enhance predictions of ecosystem processes? |
| title_full_unstemmed | Microbes as engines of ecosystem function: when does community structure enhance predictions of ecosystem processes? |
| title_short | Microbes as engines of ecosystem function: when does community structure enhance predictions of ecosystem processes? |
| title_sort | microbes as engines of ecosystem function when does community structure enhance predictions of ecosystem processes |
| topic | Carbon Cycle Denitrification Nitrification Nitrogen Cycle Respiration microbial ecology |
| url | http://journal.frontiersin.org/Journal/10.3389/fmicb.2016.00214/full |
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