Microbes on decomposing litter in streams: entering on the leaf or colonizing in the water?

ABSTRACT: When leaves fall in rivers, microbial decomposition commences within hours. Microbial assemblages comprising hundreds of species of fungi and bacteria can vary with stream conditions, leaf litter species, and decomposition stage. In terrestrial ecosystems, fungi and bacteria that enter soils with dead leaves often play prominent roles in decomposition, but their role in aquatic decomposition is less known. Here, we test whether fungi and bacteria that enter streams on senesced leaves are growing during decomposition and compare their abundances and growth to bacteria and fungi that colonize leaves in the water. We employ quantitative stable isotope probing to identify growing microbes across four leaf litter species and two decomposition times. We find that most of the growing fungal speci

SUBMITTER: Hayer M 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC8857200 | biostudies-literature | 2022 Mar

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature