The browser you are using is not supported by this website. All versions of Internet Explorer are no longer supported, either by us or Microsoft (read more here: https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/microsoft-365/windows/end-of-ie-support).

Please use a modern browser to fully experience our website, such as the newest versions of Edge, Chrome, Firefox or Safari etc.

Adaptation of soil microbial communities to temperature: comparison of fungi and bacteria in a laboratory experiment

Author

Summary, in English

Temperature not only has direct effects on microbial activity, but can also affect activity indirectly by changing the temperature dependency of the community. This would result in communities performing better over time in response to increased temperatures. We have for the first time studied the effect of soil temperature (5-50 degrees C) on the community adaptation of both bacterial (leucine incorporation) and fungal growth (acetate-in-ergosterol incorporation). Growth at different temperatures was estimated after about a month using a short-term assay to avoid confounding the effects of temperature on substrate availability. Before the experiment started, fungal and bacterial growth was optimal around 30 degrees C. Increasing soil temperature above this resulted in an increase in the optimum for bacterial growth, correlated to soil temperature, with parallel shifts in the total response curve. Below the optimum, soil temperature had only minor effects, although lower temperatures selected for communities growing better at the lowest temperature. Fungi were affected in the same way as bacteria, with large shifts in temperature tolerance at soil temperatures above that of optimum for growth. A simplified technique, only comparing growth at two contrasting temperatures, gave similar results as using a complete temperature curve, allowing for large scale measurements also in field situations with small differences in temperature.

Publishing year

2009

Language

English

Pages

2950-2957

Publication/Series

Global Change Biology

Volume

15

Issue

12

Document type

Journal article

Publisher

Wiley-Blackwell

Topic

  • Biological Sciences

Keywords

  • temperature
  • soil
  • fungal growth
  • bacterial growth
  • community adaptation
  • temperature response

Status

Published

Project

  • Effect of environmental factors on fungal and bacterial growth in soil
  • Microbial carbon-use efficiency

Research group

  • Microbial Ecology

ISBN/ISSN/Other

  • ISSN: 1354-1013