title: Integrated metagenomics and network analysis of soil microbial community of the forest timberline.
abstract: The forest timberline responds quickly and markedly to climate changes, rendering it a ready indicator. Climate warming has caused an upshift of the timberline worldwide. However, the impact on belowground ecosystem and biogeochemical cycles remain elusive. To understand soil microbial ecology of the timberline, we analyzed microbial communities via 16s rRNA Illumina sequencing, a microarray-based tool named GeoChip 4.0 and a random matrix theory-based association network approach. We selected 24 sampling sites at two vegetation belts forming the timberline of Shennongjia Mountain in Hubei Province of China, a region with extraordinarily rich biodiversity. We found that temperature, among all of measured environmental parameters, showed the most significant and extensive linkages with microbial biomass, microbial diversity and composition at both taxonomic and functional gene levels, and microbial association network. Therefore, temperature was the best predictor for microbial community variations in the timberline. Furthermore, abundances of nitrogen cycle and phosphorus cycle genes were concomitant with NH4(+)-N, NO3(-)-N and total phosphorus, offering tangible clues to the underlying mechanisms of soil biogeochemical cycles. As the first glimpse at both taxonomic and functional compositions of soil microbial community of the timberline, our findings have major implications for predicting consequences of future timberline upshift.
authors.affiliation: 1] Institute of Forestry Ecology, Environment and Protection, and the Key Laboratory of Forest Ecology and Environment of State Forestry Administration, the Chinese Academy of Forestry, Beijing 100091, China [2] State Key Joint Laboratory of Environment Simulation and Pollution Control, School of Environment, Tsinghua University, Beijing 100084, China.
authors.forename: Junjun
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Ding
authors.affiliation: Institute of Forestry Ecology, Environment and Protection, and the Key Laboratory of Forest Ecology and Environment of State Forestry Administration, the Chinese Academy of Forestry, Beijing 100091, China.
authors.forename: Yuguang
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Zhang
authors.affiliation: 1] CAS Key Laboratory of Environmental Biotechnology, Research Center for Eco-Environmental Sciences, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100085, China [2] Institute for Environmental Genomics and Department of Botany and Microbiology, University of Oklahoma, Norman, OK 73019, USA.
authors.forename: Ye
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Deng
authors.affiliation: 1] Institute of Forestry Ecology, Environment and Protection, and the Key Laboratory of Forest Ecology and Environment of State Forestry Administration, the Chinese Academy of Forestry, Beijing 100091, China [2] School of Minerals Processing and Bioengineering, Central South University, Changsha 410083, China.
authors.forename: Jing
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Cong
authors.affiliation: Institute of Forestry Ecology, Environment and Protection, and the Key Laboratory of Forest Ecology and Environment of State Forestry Administration, the Chinese Academy of Forestry, Beijing 100091, China.
authors.forename: Hui
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Lu
authors.affiliation: State Key Joint Laboratory of Environment Simulation and Pollution Control, School of Environment, Tsinghua University, Beijing 100084, China.
authors.forename: Xin
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Sun
authors.affiliation: Institute for Environmental Genomics and Department of Botany and Microbiology, University of Oklahoma, Norman, OK 73019, USA.
authors.forename: Caiyun
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Yang
authors.affiliation: Institute for Environmental Genomics and Department of Botany and Microbiology, University of Oklahoma, Norman, OK 73019, USA.
authors.forename: Tong
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Yuan
authors.affiliation: Institute for Environmental Genomics and Department of Botany and Microbiology, University of Oklahoma, Norman, OK 73019, USA.
authors.forename: Joy D
authors.initials: JD
authors.lastname: Van Nostrand
authors.affiliation: Institute of Forestry Ecology, Environment and Protection, and the Key Laboratory of Forest Ecology and Environment of State Forestry Administration, the Chinese Academy of Forestry, Beijing 100091, China.
authors.forename: Diqiang
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Li
authors.affiliation: 1] State Key Joint Laboratory of Environment Simulation and Pollution Control, School of Environment, Tsinghua University, Beijing 100084, China [2] Institute for Environmental Genomics and Department of Botany and Microbiology, University of Oklahoma, Norman, OK 73019, USA [3] Earth Sciences Division, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, Berkeley, CA 94720, USA.
authors.forename: Jizhong
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Zhou
authors.affiliation: State Key Joint Laboratory of Environment Simulation and Pollution Control, School of Environment, Tsinghua University, Beijing 100084, China.
authors.forename: Yunfeng
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Yang
mesh_terms: D001419:Bacteria / Q000145:classification / Q000235:genetics; D044822:Biodiversity; D057486:Carbon Cycle / Q000235:genetics; D017753:Ecosystem; D004777:Environment; D065928:Forests; D053263:Gene Regulatory Networks; D059014:High-Throughput Nucleotide Sequencing; D056186:Metagenomics; D058458:Nitrogen Cycle / Q000235:genetics; D010758:Phosphorus / Q000737:chemistry; D012987:Soil / Q000737:chemistry; D012988:Soil Microbiology
chemical_list: D012987:Soil; D010758:Phosphorus