Microbes follow Humboldt: temperature drives plant and soil microbial diversity patterns from the Amazon to the Andes
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Nottingham, Andrew T.; Fierer, Noah; Turner, Benjamin L; Whitaker, Jeanette; Ostle, Nicholas J.; McNamara, Niall P; Bardgett, Richard D; Leff, Jonathan W.; Salinas, Norma; Silman, Miles R; Kruuk, Loeske; Meir, Patrick
Description
More than 200 years ago, Alexander von Humboldt reported that tropical plant species richness decreased with increasing elevation and decreasing temperature. Surprisingly, coordinated patterns in plant, bacterial, and fungal diversity on tropical mountains have not yet been observed, despite the central role of soil microorganisms in terrestrial biogeochemistry and ecology. We studied an Andean transect traversing 3.5 km in elevation to test whether the species diversity and composition of...[Show more]
dc.contributor.author | Nottingham, Andrew T. | |
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dc.contributor.author | Fierer, Noah | |
dc.contributor.author | Turner, Benjamin L | |
dc.contributor.author | Whitaker, Jeanette | |
dc.contributor.author | Ostle, Nicholas J. | |
dc.contributor.author | McNamara, Niall P | |
dc.contributor.author | Bardgett, Richard D | |
dc.contributor.author | Leff, Jonathan W. | |
dc.contributor.author | Salinas, Norma | |
dc.contributor.author | Silman, Miles R | |
dc.contributor.author | Kruuk, Loeske | |
dc.contributor.author | Meir, Patrick | |
dc.date.accessioned | 2019-07-30T01:45:51Z | |
dc.date.available | 2019-07-30T01:45:51Z | |
dc.identifier.issn | 0012-9658 | |
dc.identifier.uri | http://hdl.handle.net/1885/164802 | |
dc.description.abstract | More than 200 years ago, Alexander von Humboldt reported that tropical plant species richness decreased with increasing elevation and decreasing temperature. Surprisingly, coordinated patterns in plant, bacterial, and fungal diversity on tropical mountains have not yet been observed, despite the central role of soil microorganisms in terrestrial biogeochemistry and ecology. We studied an Andean transect traversing 3.5 km in elevation to test whether the species diversity and composition of tropical forest plants, soil bacteria, and fungi follow similar biogeographical patterns with shared environmental drivers. We found coordinated changes with elevation in all three groups: species richness declined as elevation increased, and the compositional dissimilarity among communities increased with increased separation in elevation, although changes in plant diversity were larger than in bacteria and fungi. Temperature was the dominant driver of these diversity gradients, with weak influences of edaphic properties, including soil pH. The gradients in microbial diversity were strongly correlated with the activities of enzymes involved in organic matter cycling, and were accompanied by a transition in microbial traits towards slower-growing, oligotrophic taxa at higher elevations. We provide the first evidence of coordinated temperature-driven patterns in the diversity and distribution of three major biotic groups in tropical ecosystems: soil bacteria, fungi, and plants. These findings suggest that interrelated and fundamental patterns of plant and microbial communities with shared environmental drivers occur across landscape scales. These patterns are revealed where soil pH is relatively constant, and have implications for tropical forest communities under future climate change. | |
dc.description.sponsorship | This study was led with support from the UK Natural Environment Research Council (NERC), NE/G018278/1 and NE/N006852/1 to P. Meir and also by an Australian Research Council (ARC) grant DP170104091 to P. Meir, and a European Union Marie-Curie Fellowship FP7-2012-329360 to A. T. Nottingham; L. E. B. Kruuk was supported by ARC grant FT1110100453. M. R. Silman was supported by NSF DEB-1754647 and EAR-1338694. | |
dc.format.mimetype | application/pdf | |
dc.language.iso | en_AU | |
dc.publisher | Ecological Society of America | |
dc.rights | © 2018 The Authors Ecology published by Wiley Periodicals, Inc. on behalf of Ecological Society of America | |
dc.rights.uri | http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ | |
dc.source | Ecology | |
dc.title | Microbes follow Humboldt: temperature drives plant and soil microbial diversity patterns from the Amazon to the Andes | |
dc.type | Journal article | |
local.description.notes | Imported from ARIES | |
local.identifier.citationvolume | 99 | |
dc.date.issued | 2018 | |
local.identifier.absfor | 060201 - Behavioural Ecology | |
local.identifier.ariespublication | u4485658xPUB2607 | |
local.publisher.url | https://www.esa.org/ | |
local.type.status | Published Version | |
local.contributor.affiliation | Nottingham, Andrew T., University of Edinburgh | |
local.contributor.affiliation | Fierer, Noah, University of Colorado | |
local.contributor.affiliation | Turner, Benjamin L , Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute | |
local.contributor.affiliation | Whitaker, Jeanette, Lancaster Environment Centre | |
local.contributor.affiliation | Ostle, Nicholas J., Lancaster Environment Centre | |
local.contributor.affiliation | McNamara, Niall P, Lancaster Environment Centre | |
local.contributor.affiliation | Bardgett, Richard D , The University of Manchester | |
local.contributor.affiliation | Leff, Jonathan W., University of Colorado | |
local.contributor.affiliation | Salinas, Norma, Pontificia Universidad | |
local.contributor.affiliation | Silman, Miles R , Wake Forest University | |
local.contributor.affiliation | Kruuk, Loeske, College of Science, ANU | |
local.contributor.affiliation | Meir, Patrick, College of Science, ANU | |
dc.relation | http://purl.org/au-research/grants/arc/DP170104091 | |
local.bibliographicCitation.issue | 11 | |
local.bibliographicCitation.startpage | 2455 | |
local.bibliographicCitation.lastpage | 2466 | |
local.identifier.doi | 10.1002/ecy.2482 | |
local.identifier.absseo | 970106 - Expanding Knowledge in the Biological Sciences | |
dc.date.updated | 2019-03-31T07:23:28Z | |
local.identifier.scopusID | 2-s2.0-85055489863 | |
dcterms.accessRights | Open Access | |
dc.provenance | This is an open access article under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits use, distribution and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. | |
dc.rights.license | Creative Commons Attribution License | |
Collections | ANU Research Publications |
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