Time after Time: Temporal Variation in the Effects of Grass and Forb Species on Soil Bacterial and Fungal Communities.

ABSTRACT: Microorganisms are found everywhere and have critical roles in most ecosystems, but compared to plants and animals, little is known about their temporal dynamics. Here, we investigated the temporal stability of bacterial and fungal communities in the soil and how their temporal variation varies between grasses and forb species. We established 30 outdoor mesocosms consisting of six plant monocultures and followed microbial communities for an entire year in these soils. We demonstrate that bacterial communities vary greatly over time and that turnover plays an important role in shaping microbial communities. We further show that bacterial communities rapidly shift from one state to another and that this is related to changes in the relative contribution of certain taxa rather than to extinct

SUBMITTER: Hannula SE 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC6918080 | biostudies-literature | 2019 Dec

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature