Bioscience Division, Los Alamos National Laboratory , Los Alamos, New Mexico, USA.
Earth and Environmental Sciences Division, Los Alamos National Laboratory , Los Alamos, New Mexico, USA.
mSystems. 2023 Jun 29;8(3):e0122022. doi: 10.1128/msystems.01220-22. Epub 2023 May 3.
Biotic factors that influence the temporal stability of microbial community functioning are an emerging research focus for the control of natural and engineered systems. The discovery of common features within community ensembles that differ in functional stability over time is a starting point to explore biotic factors. We serially propagated a suite of soil microbial communities through five generations of 28-day microcosm incubations to examine microbial community compositional and functional stability during plant litter decomposition. Using dissolved organic carbon (DOC) abundance as a target function, we hypothesized that microbial diversity, compositional stability, and associated changes in interactions would explain the stability of the ecosystem function between generations. Communities with initially high DOC abundance tended to converge towards a "low DOC" phenotype within two generations, but across all microcosms, functional stability between generations was highly variable. By splitting communities into two cohorts based on their relative DOC functional stability, we found that compositional shifts, diversity, and interaction network complexity were associated with the stability of DOC abundance between generations. Further, our results showed that legacy effects were important in determining compositional and functional outcomes, and we identified taxa associated with high DOC abundance. In the context of litter decomposition, achieving functionally stable communities is required to utilize soil microbiomes to increase DOC abundance and long-term terrestrial DOC sequestration as one solution to reduce atmospheric carbon dioxide concentrations. Identifying factors that stabilize function for a community of interest may improve the success of microbiome engineering applications. IMPORTANCE Microbial community functioning can be highly dynamic over time. Identifying and understanding biotic factors that control functional stability is of significant interest for natural and engineered communities alike. Using plant litter-decomposing communities as a model system, this study examined the stability of ecosystem function over time following repeated community transfers. By identifying microbial community features that are associated with stable ecosystem functions, microbial communities can be manipulated in ways that promote the consistency and reliability of the desired function, improving outcomes and increasing the utility of microorganisms.
影响微生物群落功能时间稳定性的生物因素是控制自然和工程系统的一个新兴研究重点。发现功能稳定性随时间变化而不同的群落组合中的共同特征是探索生物因素的起点。我们通过五轮为期 28 天的微宇宙培养来连续繁殖一系列土壤微生物群落，以研究植物凋落物分解过程中微生物群落组成和功能的稳定性。我们使用溶解性有机碳 (DOC) 丰度作为目标函数，假设微生物多样性、组成稳定性以及相关的相互作用变化将解释代际间生态系统功能的稳定性。最初具有高 DOC 丰度的群落往往在两代内趋同于“低 DOC”表型，但在所有微宇宙中，代际间功能稳定性高度可变。通过根据相对 DOC 功能稳定性将群落分为两个队列，我们发现组成变化、多样性和相互作用网络复杂性与代际间 DOC 丰度的稳定性有关。此外，我们的结果表明，遗留效应对于确定组成和功能结果很重要，并且我们确定了与高 DOC 丰度相关的分类群。在凋落物分解的背景下，为了利用土壤微生物组来增加 DOC 丰度和长期陆地 DOC 封存，从而作为减少大气二氧化碳浓度的一种解决方案，需要实现功能稳定的群落。确定稳定群落功能的因素可能会提高微生物组工程应用的成功率。重要性微生物群落功能可能会随时间高度动态变化。确定和理解控制功能稳定性的生物因素对自然和工程群落都具有重要意义。本研究使用植物凋落物分解群落作为模型系统，在重复群落转移后，研究了生态系统功能随时间的稳定性。通过确定与稳定生态系统功能相关的微生物群落特征，可以以促进所需功能的一致性和可靠性的方式操纵微生物群落，从而改善结果并增加微生物的实用性。
