Recurrence and Frequency of Disturbance have Cumulative Effect on Methanotrophic Activity, Abundance, and Community Structure.

ABSTRACT: Alternate prolonged drought and heavy rainfall is predicted to intensify with global warming. Desiccation-rewetting events alter the soil quality and nutrient concentrations which drive microbial-mediated processes, including methane oxidation, a key biogeochemical process catalyzed by methanotrophic bacteria. Although aerobic methanotrophs showed remarkable resilience to a suite of physical disturbances induced as a single event, their resilience to recurring disturbances is less known. Here, using a rice field soil in a microcosm study, we determined whether recurrence and frequency of desiccation-rewetting impose an accumulating effect on the methanotrophic activity. The response of key aerobic methanotroph subgroups (type Ia, Ib, and II) were monitored using qPCR assays, and was suppor

SUBMITTER: Ho A 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4700171 | biostudies-literature | 2015

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature