Data from: Resistance and recovery of methane-oxidizing communities depends on stress regime and history; a microcosm study

Although soil microbes are responsible for important ecosystem functions, and soils are under increasing environmental pressure, little is known about their resistance and resilience to multiple stressors. Here, we test resistance and recovery of soil methane-oxidizing communities to two different, repeated, perturbations: soil drying, ammonium addition and their combination. In replicated soil microcosms we measured methane oxidation before and after perturbations, while monitoring microbial abundance and community composition using quantitative PCR assays for the bacterial 16S rRNA and pmoA gene, and sequencing of the bacterial 16S rRNA gene. Although microbial community composition changed after soil drying, methane oxidation rates recovered, even after four desiccation events. Moreover, microcosms subjected to soil drying recovered significantly better from ammonium addition compared to microcosms not subjected to soil drying. Our results show the flexibility of microbial communities, even if abundances of dominant populations drop, ecosystem functions can recover. In addition, a history of stress may induce changes in community composition and functioning, which may in turn affect its future tolerance to different stressors.

尽管土壤微生物介导诸多关键生态系统功能，且土壤正面临日益加剧的环境压力，但学界对其在多重胁迫下的抗性与恢复力仍缺乏系统认知。本研究聚焦土壤甲烷氧化群落，检验其对两种重复性干扰因子（土壤干旱、铵盐添加及其复合处理）的抗性与恢复能力。本研究通过重复设置土壤微宇宙（soil microcosms）体系，在干扰前后测定甲烷氧化活性，并采用针对细菌16S核糖体RNA（16S rRNA）基因与颗粒物甲烷单加氧酶A亚基基因（pmoA gene）的定量聚合酶链式反应（quantitative PCR），结合细菌16S rRNA基因测序，监测微生物丰度与群落组成变化。尽管土壤干旱后微生物群落组成发生显著改变，但即使经历四次干旱处理，甲烷氧化速率仍可恢复至初始水平。此外，预先经历土壤干旱的微宇宙体系，相较于未经历干旱的对照组，在遭受铵盐添加干扰后的恢复效果显著更优。本研究结果证实了微生物群落的功能弹性：即使优势类群丰度下降，生态系统功能仍可实现恢复。此外，既往胁迫经历可诱导群落组成与功能发生改变，进而影响其后续对不同胁迫因子的耐受能力。