title: Dramatic Increases of Soil Microbial Functional Gene Diversity at the Treeline Ecotone of Changbai Mountain.
abstract: The elevational and latitudinal diversity patterns of microbial taxa have attracted great attention in the past decade. Recently, the distribution of functional attributes has been in the spotlight. Here, we report a study profiling soil microbial communities along an elevation gradient (500-2200 m) on Changbai Mountain. Using a comprehensive functional gene microarray (GeoChip 5.0), we found that microbial functional gene richness exhibited a dramatic increase at the treeline ecotone, but the bacterial taxonomic and phylogenetic diversity based on 16S rRNA gene sequencing did not exhibit such a similar trend. However, the β-diversity (compositional dissimilarity among sites) pattern for both bacterial taxa and functional genes was similar, showing significant elevational distance-decay patterns which presented increased dissimilarity with elevation. The bacterial taxonomic diversity/structure was strongly influenced by soil pH, while the functional gene diversity/structure was significantly correlated with soil dissolved organic carbon (DOC). This finding highlights that soil DOC may be a good predictor in determining the elevational distribution of microbial functional genes. The finding of significant shifts in functional gene diversity at the treeline ecotone could also provide valuable information for predicting the responses of microbial functions to climate change.
authors.affiliation: State Key Laboratory of Soil and Sustainable Agriculture, Institute of Soil Science, Chinese Academy of SciencesNanjing, China; State Key Laboratory of Urban and Regional Ecology, Research Center for Eco-Environmental Sciences, Chinese Academy of SciencesBeijing, China; University of the Chinese Academy of SciencesBeijing, China.
authors.forename: Congcong
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Shen
authors.affiliation: State Key Laboratory of Soil and Sustainable Agriculture, Institute of Soil Science, Chinese Academy of Sciences Nanjing, China.
authors.forename: Yu
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Shi
authors.affiliation: State Key Laboratory of Soil and Sustainable Agriculture, Institute of Soil Science, Chinese Academy of Sciences Nanjing, China.
authors.forename: Yingying
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Ni
authors.affiliation: CAS Key Laboratory of Environmental Biotechnology, Research Center for Eco-Environmental Sciences, Chinese Academy of Sciences Beijing, China.
authors.forename: Ye
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Deng
authors.affiliation: Institute for Environmental Genomics and Department of Microbiology and Plant Biology, University of Oklahoma, Norman OK, USA.
authors.forename: Joy D
authors.initials: JD
authors.lastname: Van Nostrand
authors.affiliation: Institute for Environmental Genomics and Department of Microbiology and Plant Biology, University of Oklahoma, Norman OK, USA.
authors.forename: Zhili
authors.initials: Z
authors.lastname: He
authors.affiliation: Institute for Environmental Genomics and Department of Microbiology and Plant Biology, University of Oklahoma, NormanOK, USA; State Key Laboratory of Environment Simulation and Pollution Control, School of Environment, Tsinghua UniversityBeijing, China; Earth and Environmental Sciences, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, BerkeleyCA, USA.
authors.forename: Jizhong
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Zhou
authors.affiliation: State Key Laboratory of Soil and Sustainable Agriculture, Institute of Soil Science, Chinese Academy of Sciences Nanjing, China.
authors.forename: Haiyan
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Chu
keywords: GeoChip; alpha and beta diversity patterns; bacterial taxonomic and phylogenetic diversity; elevation gradient; metagenomics; microbial functional genes; soil dissolved organic carbon; treeline ecotone