Spatial scaling effects on soil bacterial communities in Malaysian tropical forests

Spatial scaling to some extent determines biodiversity patterns in larger organisms, but its role in microbial diversity patterns is much less understood. Some studies have shown that bacterial community similarity decreases with distance, whereas others do not support this. Here, we studied soil ba...

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Main Authors: Tripathi, Binu Mani, Lee Cruz, Larisa, Kim, Mincheol, Singh, Dharmesh, Go, Rusea, Ab. Shukor, Nor Aini, Mohd Hanif, Ahmad Husni, Chun, Jongsik, Adams, Jonathan M.
Format: Article
Published: Springer Verlag 2014
Online Access:http://psasir.upm.edu.my/id/eprint/35428/
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author Tripathi, Binu Mani
Lee Cruz, Larisa
Kim, Mincheol
Singh, Dharmesh
Go, Rusea
Ab. Shukor, Nor Aini
Mohd Hanif, Ahmad Husni
Chun, Jongsik
Adams, Jonathan M.
author_facet Tripathi, Binu Mani
Lee Cruz, Larisa
Kim, Mincheol
Singh, Dharmesh
Go, Rusea
Ab. Shukor, Nor Aini
Mohd Hanif, Ahmad Husni
Chun, Jongsik
Adams, Jonathan M.
author_sort Tripathi, Binu Mani
building UPM Institutional Repository
collection Online Access
description Spatial scaling to some extent determines biodiversity patterns in larger organisms, but its role in microbial diversity patterns is much less understood. Some studies have shown that bacterial community similarity decreases with distance, whereas others do not support this. Here, we studied soil bacterial communities of tropical rainforest in Malaysia at two spatial scales: a local scale with samples spaced every 5 m over a 150-m transect, and a regional scale with samples 1 to 1,800 km apart. PCR-amplified soil DNA for the bacterial 16S rRNA gene targeting the V1–V3 region was pyrosequenced using Roche/454 GS FLX Titanium platform. A ranked partial Mantel test showed a weak correlation between spatial distance and whole bacterial community dissimilarity, but only at the local scale. In contrast, environmental distance was highly correlated with community dissimilarity at both spatial scales, stressing the greater role of environmental variables rather than spatial distance in determining bacterial community variation at different spatial scales. Soil pH was the only environmental parameter that significantly explained the variance in bacterial community at the local scale, whereas total nitrogen and elevation were additional important factors at the regional scale. We obtained similar results at both scales when only the most abundant OTUs were analyzed. A variance partitioning analysis showed that environmental variables contributed more to bacterial community variation than spatial distance at both scales. In total, our results support a strong influence of the environment in determining bacterial community composition in the rainforests of Malaysia. However, it is possible that the remaining spatial distance effect is due to some of the myriad of other environmental factors which were not considered here, rather than dispersal limitation.
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spelling upm-354282016-01-11T01:39:58Z http://psasir.upm.edu.my/id/eprint/35428/ Spatial scaling effects on soil bacterial communities in Malaysian tropical forests Tripathi, Binu Mani Lee Cruz, Larisa Kim, Mincheol Singh, Dharmesh Go, Rusea Ab. Shukor, Nor Aini Mohd Hanif, Ahmad Husni Chun, Jongsik Adams, Jonathan M. Spatial scaling to some extent determines biodiversity patterns in larger organisms, but its role in microbial diversity patterns is much less understood. Some studies have shown that bacterial community similarity decreases with distance, whereas others do not support this. Here, we studied soil bacterial communities of tropical rainforest in Malaysia at two spatial scales: a local scale with samples spaced every 5 m over a 150-m transect, and a regional scale with samples 1 to 1,800 km apart. PCR-amplified soil DNA for the bacterial 16S rRNA gene targeting the V1–V3 region was pyrosequenced using Roche/454 GS FLX Titanium platform. A ranked partial Mantel test showed a weak correlation between spatial distance and whole bacterial community dissimilarity, but only at the local scale. In contrast, environmental distance was highly correlated with community dissimilarity at both spatial scales, stressing the greater role of environmental variables rather than spatial distance in determining bacterial community variation at different spatial scales. Soil pH was the only environmental parameter that significantly explained the variance in bacterial community at the local scale, whereas total nitrogen and elevation were additional important factors at the regional scale. We obtained similar results at both scales when only the most abundant OTUs were analyzed. A variance partitioning analysis showed that environmental variables contributed more to bacterial community variation than spatial distance at both scales. In total, our results support a strong influence of the environment in determining bacterial community composition in the rainforests of Malaysia. However, it is possible that the remaining spatial distance effect is due to some of the myriad of other environmental factors which were not considered here, rather than dispersal limitation. Springer Verlag 2014-08 Article PeerReviewed Tripathi, Binu Mani and Lee Cruz, Larisa and Kim, Mincheol and Singh, Dharmesh and Go, Rusea and Ab. Shukor, Nor Aini and Mohd Hanif, Ahmad Husni and Chun, Jongsik and Adams, Jonathan M. (2014) Spatial scaling effects on soil bacterial communities in Malaysian tropical forests. Microbial Ecology, 68 (2). pp. 247-258. ISSN 0095-3628; ESSN:1432-184X http://link.springer.com/article/10.1007%2Fs00248-014-0404-7 10.1007/s00248-014-0404-7
spellingShingle Tripathi, Binu Mani
Lee Cruz, Larisa
Kim, Mincheol
Singh, Dharmesh
Go, Rusea
Ab. Shukor, Nor Aini
Mohd Hanif, Ahmad Husni
Chun, Jongsik
Adams, Jonathan M.
Spatial scaling effects on soil bacterial communities in Malaysian tropical forests
title Spatial scaling effects on soil bacterial communities in Malaysian tropical forests
title_full Spatial scaling effects on soil bacterial communities in Malaysian tropical forests
title_fullStr Spatial scaling effects on soil bacterial communities in Malaysian tropical forests
title_full_unstemmed Spatial scaling effects on soil bacterial communities in Malaysian tropical forests
title_short Spatial scaling effects on soil bacterial communities in Malaysian tropical forests
title_sort spatial scaling effects on soil bacterial communities in malaysian tropical forests
url http://psasir.upm.edu.my/id/eprint/35428/
http://psasir.upm.edu.my/id/eprint/35428/
http://psasir.upm.edu.my/id/eprint/35428/