title: Dynamics and functional relevance of ammonia-oxidizing archaea in two agricultural soils.
abstract: Crucial steps in geochemical cycles are in many cases performed by more than one group of microorganisms, but the significance of this functional redundancy with respect to ecosystem functioning is poorly understood. Ammonia-oxidizing archaea (AOA) and their bacterial counterparts (AOB) are a perfect system to address this question: although performing the same transformation step, they belong to well-separated phylogenetic groups. Using pig manure amended with different concentrations of sulfadiazine (SDZ), an antibiotic that is frequently used in veterinary medicine, it was possible to affect AOB and AOA to different degrees. Addition of manure stimulated growth of AOB in both soils and, interestingly, also growth of AOA was considerably stimulated in one of the soils. The antibiotic treatments decreased the manure effect notably on AOB, whereas AOA were affected to a lower extent. Model calculations concerning the respective proportions of AOA and AOB in ammonia oxidation indicate a substantial contribution of AOA in one of the soils that further increased under the influence of SDZ, hence indicating functional redundancy between AOA and AOB.
authors.affiliation: Helmholtz Zentrum München, German Research Center for Environmental Health, Institute for Soil Ecology, Neuherberg, Germany.
authors.forename: Kristina
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Schauss
authors.forename: Andreas
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Focks
authors.forename: Sven
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Leininger
authors.forename: Anja
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Kotzerke
authors.forename: Holger
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Heuer
authors.forename: Sören
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Thiele-Bruhn
authors.forename: Shilpi
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Sharma
authors.forename: Berndt-Michael
authors.initials: BM
authors.lastname: Wilke
authors.forename: Michael
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Matthies
authors.forename: Kornelia
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Smalla
authors.forename: Jean Charles
authors.initials: JC
authors.lastname: Munch
authors.forename: Wulf
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Amelung
authors.forename: Martin
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Kaupenjohann
authors.forename: Michael
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Schloter
authors.forename: Christa
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Schleper
mesh_terms: D000641:Ammonia / Q000378:metabolism*; D000818:Animals; D000890:Anti-Infective Agents / Q000494:pharmacology; D001105:Archaea / Q000254:growth & development* / Q000378:metabolism*; D001419:Bacteria / Q000187:drug effects / Q000254:growth & development / Q000378:metabolism; D008372:Manure / Q000382:microbiology; D010084:Oxidation-Reduction; D012988:Soil Microbiology; D013411:Sulfadiazine / Q000494:pharmacology; D013552:Swine
chemical_list: D000890:Anti-Infective Agents; D008372:Manure; D013411:Sulfadiazine; D000641:Ammonia