Peatland plant-microbe network rewiring outpaces species turnover

Enviro-climatological changes are thought to be causing alterations in ecosystem processes through shifts in plant and microbial communities. However, how links between plant and microbial communities change with enviro-climatological change is likely to be less straightforward, but may be fundamental for many ecological processes. To address this, we assessed the composition of the plant community and the prokaryotic community –using amplicon-based sequencing– of three European peatlands that were distinct in enviro-climatological conditions. Bipartite networks were used to construct site-specific plant-prokaryote co-occurrence networks. Our data show that between sites, plant and prokaryotic communities differ and that turnover in interactions between the communities was complex. Essentially, turnover in plant-microbial interactions is much faster than turnover in the respective communities. Our findings suggest that network rewiring does largely result from novel associations between species that are common and shared across the networks. Turnover in network composition is largely driven by novel interactions between a core community of plants and microorganisms. Taken together our results indicate that the functional role of species is context dependent, and that changes in enviro-climatological conditions will likely lead to network rewiring. Integrating turnover in plant-microbe interactions into studies that assess the impact of enviro-climatological change on peatland ecosystems is essential to understand ecosystem dynamics and must be combined with studies on the impact of these changes on ecosystem processes.