title: Linking the Composition of Bacterial and Archaeal Communities to Characteristics of Soil and Flora Composition in the Atlantic Rainforest.
abstract: The description of microbiomes as intrinsic fractions of any given ecosystem is an important issue, for instance, by linking their compositions and functions with other biotic and abiotic components of natural systems and hosts. Here we describe the archaeal and bacterial communities from soils of the Atlantic Rainforest in Brazil. Based on the comparison of three areas located along an altitudinal gradient-namely, Santa Virginia, Picinguaba and Restinga-we detected the most abundant groups of Bacteria (Acidobacteria and Proteobacteria) and Archaea (Thaumarchaeota, Crenarchaeota and Euryarchaeota). The particular composition of such communities in each of these areas was first evidenced by PCR-DGGE patterns [determined for Bacteria, Archaea and ammonia-oxidizing organisms-ammonia-oxidizing archaea (AOA) and bacteria (AOB)]. Moreover, sequence-based analysis provided a better resolution of communities, which indicated distinct frequencies of archaeal phyla and bacterial OTUs across areas. We found, as indicated by the Mantel test and multivariate analyses, a potential effect of the flora composition that outpaces the effect of soil characteristics (either physical and chemical) influencing the assembly of these microbial communities in soils. Our results indicate a collective role of the ecosystem underlying observed differences in microbial communities in these soils. Particularly, we posit that rainforest preservation also needs to take into account the maintenance of the soil biodiversity, as this is prompted to influence major processes that affect ecosystem functioning.
authors.affiliation: Department of Soil Science, ESALQ/USP, University of São Paulo, Piracicaba, Brazil.
authors.forename: Julia Elidia
authors.initials: JE
authors.lastname: Lima-Perim
authors.affiliation: Department of Soil Science, ESALQ/USP, University of São Paulo, Piracicaba, Brazil.
authors.forename: Emiliana Manesco
authors.initials: EM
authors.lastname: Romagnoli
authors.affiliation: Microbial Ecology Group, Genomic Research in Ecology and Evolution in Nature (GREEN), Groningen Institute for Evolutionary Life Sciences (GELIFES), University of Groningen, Groningen, The Netherlands.
authors.forename: Francisco
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Dini-Andreote
authors.affiliation: Department of Soil Science, ESALQ/USP, University of São Paulo, Piracicaba, Brazil.
authors.forename: Ademir
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Durrer
authors.affiliation: Department of Soil Science, ESALQ/USP, University of São Paulo, Piracicaba, Brazil.
authors.forename: Armando Cavalcante Franco
authors.initials: AC
authors.lastname: Dias
authors.affiliation: Department of Soil Science, ESALQ/USP, University of São Paulo, Piracicaba, Brazil.
authors.forename: Fernando Dini
authors.initials: FD
authors.lastname: Andreote
mesh_terms: D001105:Archaea / Q000145:classification / Q000235:genetics*; D001419:Bacteria / Q000145:classification / Q000235:genetics*; D044822:Biodiversity; D017753:Ecosystem; D065947:Rainforest; D012988:Soil Microbiology