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Bacterial Community Composition and Diversity Respond to Nutrient Amendment but Not Warming in a Maritime Antarctic Soil

  • Soil Microbiology
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Abstract

A resumption of climate warming in maritime Antarctica, arising from continued greenhouse gas emissions to the atmosphere, is predicted to lead to further expansions of plant populations across the region, with consequent increases in nutrient inputs to soils. Here, we test the main and interactive effects of warming, applied with open top chambers (OTCs), and nutrient amendment with tryptic soy broth (TSB), an artificial growth substrate, on bacterial community composition and diversity using Illumina sequencing of 16S rRNA genes in soil from a field experiment in the southern maritime Antarctic. Substantial effects of TSB application on bacterial communities were identified after 49 months, including reduced diversity, altered phylogenetic community assembly processes, increased Proteobacteria-to-Acidobacteria ratios and significant divergence in community composition, notably increases in the relative abundances of the gram-positive genera Arthrobacter, Paeniglutamicibacter and Planococcus. Contrary to previous observations from other maritime Antarctic field warming experiments, we recorded no effects of warming with OTCs, or interactive effects of OTCs and TSB application, on bacterial community composition or diversity. Based on these findings, we conclude that further warming of the maritime Antarctic is unlikely to influence soil bacterial community composition or diversity directly, but that increased nutrient inputs arising from enhanced plant growth across the region may affect the composition of soil bacterial communities, with possible effects on ecosystem productivity.

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Acknowledgements

Logistical support was provided by the British Antarctic Survey’s Operations Unit, with Air Unit pilots Alan Meredith, Steve King, Doug Pearson and Ian Potten providing access to Mars Oasis. Adam Clark, Dickie Hall, Sharon Duggan and Paul Dennis provided valuable support. Two anonymous reviewers provided helpful comments. All are gratefully acknowledged.

Funding

This research was funded by the British Antarctic Survey’s Long-Term Monitoring and Survey programme, the NERC Antarctic Funding Initiative (grant number NE/D00893X/1) and a National Research Foundation of Korea Grant from the Korean Government (grant number 2018R1C1B6007755).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. NERC British Antarctic Survey, Madingley Road, Cambridge, CB3 0ET, UK

    Kevin K. Newsham

  2. Korea Polar Research Institute, Incheon, 21990, Republic of Korea

    Binu M. Tripathi

  3. Department of Life Science, College of Natural Sciences, Kyonggi University, Suwon, Gyeonggi-do, 16227, Republic of Korea

    Ke Dong

  4. Department of Environmental Health Sciences, Seoul National University, 1 Gwanak-ro, Gwanak-gu, Seoul, 08826, Republic of Korea

    Naomichi Yamamoto

  5. Institute of Soil Science, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Nanjing, China

    Jonathan M. Adams

  6. Scotland’s Rural College, Peter Wilson Building, West Mains Road, Edinburgh, EH9 3JG, UK

    David W. Hopkins

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  1. Kevin K. Newsham
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  3. Ke Dong
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Correspondence to Kevin K. Newsham.

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Newsham, K.K., Tripathi, B.M., Dong, K. et al. Bacterial Community Composition and Diversity Respond to Nutrient Amendment but Not Warming in a Maritime Antarctic Soil. Microb Ecol 78, 974–984 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00248-019-01373-z

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