Drought legacy effects on microbial community structure in a managed grassland

Here we report on a study that aims to understand how future climate conditions (+3 oC; +300 ppm CO2) and drought, alone and in combination, affects the microbial community composition throughout the vegetation period in a sub-montane grassland. We found season specific changes on the DNA-based bacterial/archaeal and fungal community structure in response to future climate conditions and drought . In addition, the effects of the summer drought on community structure could still be detected two months after the end of the drought treatment. Fungal communities were more sensitive than bacteria and archaea, and the community structure between droughted and non-droughted soils did not fully recover even fourteen months after the end of the drought treatment. Future climate conditions also impacted the RNA-based bacterial/archaeal community structure at the in May and October, while drought caused significant differences in community structure two and fourteen months after the end of the drought treatment. Amplicon sequencing was performed at the Joint Microbiome Facility of the Medical University of Vienna and the University of Vienna under the project ID JMF-2006-6 and JMF-2201-13.