Resilience of Soil Microbial Communities to Metals and Additional Stressors: DNA-Based Approaches for Assessing "Stress-on-Stress" Responses.
Many microbial ecology studies have demonstrated profound changes in community composition caused by environmental pollution, as well as adaptation processes allowing survival of microbes in polluted ecosystems. Soil microbial communities in polluted areas with a long-term history of contamination have been shown to maintain their function by developing metal-tolerance mechanisms. In the present work, we review recent experiments, with specific emphasis on studies that have been conducted in polluted areas with a long-term history of contamination that also applied DNA-based approaches. We evaluate how the "costs" of adaptation to metals affect the responses of metal-tolerant communities to other stress factors ("stress-on-stress"). We discuss recent studies on the stability of microbial communities, in terms of resistance and resilience to additional stressors, focusing on metal pollution as the initial stress, and discuss possible factors influencing the functional and structural stability of microbial communities towards secondary stressors. There is increasing evidence that the history of environmental conditions and disturbance regimes play central roles in responses of microbial communities towards secondary stressors.
Institut National de la Recherche Scientifique-Institut Armand-Frappier, 531 Boulevard des Prairies, Laval, H7V 1B7 QC, Canada. azarbad.hamed@gmail.com.|Institute of Environmental Sciences, Jagiellonian University, Gronostajowa 7, 30-387 Krakow, Poland. azarbad.hamed@gmail.com.|Department of Ecological Science, Faculty of Earth and Life Sciences, Vrije Universiteit, de Boelelaan 1085, 1081HV Amsterdam, The Netherlands. azarbad.hamed@gmail.com.
Hamed
H
Azarbad
Department of Ecological Science, Faculty of Earth and Life Sciences, Vrije Universiteit, de Boelelaan 1085, 1081HV Amsterdam, The Netherlands. kees.van.gestel@vu.nl.
Cornelis A M
CA
van Gestel
Institute of Environmental Sciences, Jagiellonian University, Gronostajowa 7, 30-387 Krakow, Poland. maria.niklinska@uj.edu.pl.
Maria
M
Niklińska
Institute of Environmental Sciences, Jagiellonian University, Gronostajowa 7, 30-387 Krakow, Poland. ryszard.laskowski@uj.edu.pl.
Ryszard
R
Laskowski
Department of Molecular Cell Physiology, Faculty of Earth and Life Sciences, Vrije Universiteit, de Boelelaan 1085, 1081HV Amsterdam, The Netherlands. wilfred.roling@vu.nl.
Wilfred F M
WF
Röling
Department of Ecological Science, Faculty of Earth and Life Sciences, Vrije Universiteit, de Boelelaan 1085, 1081HV Amsterdam, The Netherlands. nico.van.straalen@falw.vu.nl.
Nico M
NM
van Straalen
D000222:Adaptation, Physiological; D008670:Metals / Q000633:toxicity*; D064307:Microbiota / Q000187:drug effects / Q000235:genetics* / Q000502:physiology; D009153:Mutagens / Q000633:toxicity; D012988:Soil Microbiology; D012989:Soil Pollutants / Q000633:toxicity; D013312:Stress, Physiological
D008670:Metals; D009153:Mutagens; D012989:Soil Pollutants
metal pollution; microbial communities; microbial stability; resilience; resistance; secondary stressors