Temporal variation overshadows the response of leaf litter microbial communities to simulated global change.

ABSTRACT: Bacteria and fungi drive the decomposition of dead plant biomass (litter), an important step in the terrestrial carbon cycle. Here we investigate the sensitivity of litter microbial communities to simulated global change (drought and nitrogen addition) in a California annual grassland. Using 16S and 28S rDNA amplicon pyrosequencing, we quantify the response of the bacterial and fungal communities to the treatments and compare these results to background, temporal (seasonal and interannual) variability of the communities. We found that the drought and nitrogen treatments both had significant effects on microbial community composition, explaining 2-6% of total compositional variation. However, microbial composition was even more strongly influenced by seasonal and annual variation (explainin

SUBMITTER: Matulich KL 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4611511 | biostudies-literature | 2015 Nov

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature