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ARS Home » Pacific West Area » Parlier, California » San Joaquin Valley Agricultural Sciences Center » Water Management Research » Research » Publications at this Location » Publication #360460
Research Project: Develop Water Management Strategies to Sustain Water Productivity and Protect Water Quality in Irrigated Agriculture

Location: Water Management Research

Title: Microbial functional traits are sensitive indicators of mild disturbance by lamb grazing

Author
item MA, XINGYU - Tsinghua University
item ZHANG, QIUTING - Tsinghua University
item ZHENG, MENGMEI - Henan University
item GAO, YING - Chinese Academy Of Forestry
item YUAN, TONG - Henan University
item Hale, Lauren
item VAN NOSTRAND, JOY - University Of Oklahoma
item ZHOU, JIZHONG - University Of Oklahoma
item WAN, SHIQIANG - Hebei University
item YANG, YUNFENG - Tsinghua University

Submitted to: Journal of the International Society for Microbial Ecology
Publication Type: Peer Reviewed Journal
Publication Acceptance Date: 1/14/2019
Publication Date: 1/30/2019
Citation: Ma, X., Zhang, Q., Zheng, M., Gao, Y., Yuan, T., Hale, L.E., Van Nostrand, J.D., Zhou, J., Wan, S., Yang, Y. 2019. Microbial functional traits are sensitive indicators of mild disturbance by lamb grazing. Journal of the International Society for Microbial Ecology. 13:1370-1373. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41396-019-0354-7.
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41396-019-0354-7

Interpretive Summary: Soil microbial community responses to significant environmental disturbances have been well documented. However, less is clear regarding community shifts in response to mild anthropogenic disturbances, which are more prevalent globally. We simulated light-intensity lamb grazing and found it to show no significant effects on vegetation and soil variables as well as microbial community taxonomic composition. However, microbial functional genes and functional groups (e.g. soil nitrifiers) were significantly shifted in response to mild grazing. This highlights the utility of functional gene markers to detect slight environmental responses and provides insights into potential shifts in ecosystem functions even after mild disturbances.

Technical Abstract: Mild disturbances are prevalent in the environment, which may not be easily notable but could have considerable ecological consequences over prolonged periods. To evaluate this, a field study was designed to examine the effects of very light-intensity lamb grazing on grassland soil microbiomes with different soil backgrounds. No significant change (P>0.05) was observed in any vegetation and soil variables. Nonetheless, hundreds of microbial functional gene families, but not bacterial taxonomy, were significantly (P<0.05) shifted. The relative abundances of both taxonomic markers and functional genes related to nitrifying bacteria were also changed. The observation highlighted herein, showing a high level of sensitivity with respect to functional traits (functionally categorized taxa or genes) in differentiating mild environmental disturbance, suggests that the key level at which to address microbial responses may not be “species” (by means of rRNA taxonomy), but rather at the functional gene level.