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Abstract Background Mosses in high-latitude ecosystems harbor diverse bacterial taxa, including N 2 -fixers which are key contributors to nitrogen dynamics in these systems. Yet the relative importance of moss host species, and environmental factors, in structuring these microbial communities and their N 2 -fixing potential remains unclear. We studied 26 boreal and tundra moss species across 24 sites in Alaska, USA, from 61 to 69° N. We used cultivation-independent approaches to characterize the variation in moss-associated bacterial communities as a function of host species identity and site characteristics. We also measured N 2 -fixation rates via 15 N 2 isotopic enrichment and identified potential N 2 -fixing bacteria using available literature and genomic information. Results Host species identity and host evolutionary history were both highly predictive of moss microbiome composition, highlighting strong phylogenetic coherence in these microbial communities. Although less important, light availability and temperature also influenced composition of the moss microbiome. Finally, we identified putative N 2 -fixing bacteria specific to some moss hosts, including potential N 2 -fixing bacteria outside well-studied cyanobacterial clades. Conclusions The strong effect of host identity on moss-associated bacterial communities demonstrates mosses’ utility for understanding plant-microbe interactions in non-leguminous systems. Our work also highlights the likely importance of novel bacterial taxa to N 2 -fixation in high-latitude ecosystems. 

In boreal forests, climate warming is shifting the wildfire disturbance regime to more frequent fires that burn more deeply into organic soils, releasing sequestered carbon to the atmosphere. To understand the destabilization of carbon storage, it is necessary to consider these effects in the context of long-term ecological change. In Alaskan boreal forests, we found that shifts in dominant plant species catalyzed by severe fire compensated for greater combustion of soil carbon over decadal time scales. Severe burning of organic soils shifted tree dominance from slow-growing black spruce to fast-growing deciduous broadleaf trees, resulting in a net increase in carbon storage by a factor of 5 over the disturbance cycle. Reduced fire activity in future deciduous-dominated boreal forests could increase the tenure of this carbon on the landscape, thereby mitigating the feedback to climate warming. 

Moss-associated N2 fixation provides a substantial but heterogeneous input of new N to nutrient-limited ecosystems at high latitudes. In spite of the broad diversity of mosses found in boreal and Arctic ecosystems, the extent to which host moss identity drives variation in N2 fixation rates remains largely undetermined. We used 15N2 incubations to quantify the fixation rates associated with 34 moss species from 24 sites ranging from 60° to 68° N in Alaska, USA. Remarkably, all sampled moss genera fixed N2, including well-studied feather and peat mosses and genera such as Tomentypnum, Dicranum, and Polytrichum. The total moss-associated N2 fixation rates ranged from almost zero to 3.2 mg N m−2 d−1, with an average of 0.8 mg N m−2 d−1, based on abundance-weighted averages of all mosses summed for each site. Random forest models indicated that moss taxonomic family was a better predictor of rate variation across Alaska than any of the measured environmental factors, including site, pH, tree density, and mean annual precipitation and temperature. Consistent with this finding, mixed models showed that trends in N2 fixation rates among moss genera were consistent across biomes. We also found “hotspots” of high fixation rates in one-fourth of sampled sites. Our results demonstrated the importance of moss identity in influencing N2 fixation rates. This in turn indicates the potential utility of moss identity when making ecosystem N input predictions and exploring other sources of process rate variation. 

Greater tree density and forest productivity at the tundra–taiga ecotone (TTE) are expected with climate warming, with potential feedbacks to the climate system. Yet, competition for nitrogen (N) may impact TTE dynamics. Greater tree density will likely increase N demand, while reducing N supply through soil shading and slower decomposition rates. We explored whether characteristics of roots and root‐associated fungi important to N acquisition responded to changes in density at the TTE and were related to above‐ground stand productivity and N cycling.

We measured rooting depth, uptake of N forms among soil layers and ectomycorrhizal (EcM) colonization and composition along a natural tree density gradient of monodominant larchLarix cajanderiin northeastern Siberia. We tested relationships between larch root and fungal characteristics, above‐ground productivity and stand‐level N cycling parameters.

Overall, there was preferential uptake of ammonium compared to glycine or nitrate. Nitrogen uptake was greatest in shallow soils of the organic horizon and related to root chemistry, root‐associated fungi and above‐ground N cycling parameters, but the direction of these relationships depended on N form. Uptake of different N forms, rooting depth and EcM colonization and composition were not related to tree density, but fungal composition was correlated with root N chemistry and above‐ground N cycling parameters. In addition to EcM, the abundance of dark septate endophytes and other ascomycetous taxa was positively related to N uptake and above‐ground N cycling parameters.

Synthesis. There was little impact of tree density on root and fungal parameters related to N acquisition suggesting intraspecific larch competition for N was not amplified with increased density. There was, however, a strong impact of root‐associated fungi on N uptake and stand N dynamics regardless of tree density. Together, this suggests an important role of root‐associated fungi on broadscale patterns of N cycling in TTE larch forests independent of changes in tree density expected with climate warming.

 

ABSTRACT Predation structures food webs, influences energy flow, and alters rates and pathways of nutrient cycling through ecosystems, effects that are well documented for macroscopic predators. In the microbial world, predatory bacteria are common, yet little is known about their rates of growth and roles in energy flows through microbial food webs, in part because these are difficult to quantify. Here, we show that growth and carbon uptake were higher in predatory bacteria compared to nonpredatory bacteria, a finding across 15 sites, synthesizing 82 experiments and over 100,000 taxon-specific measurements of element flow into newly synthesized bacterial DNA. Obligate predatory bacteria grew 36% faster and assimilated carbon at rates 211% higher than nonpredatory bacteria. These differences were less pronounced for facultative predators (6% higher growth rates, 17% higher carbon assimilation rates), though high growth and carbon assimilation rates were observed for some facultative predators, such as members of the genera Lysobacter and Cytophaga , both capable of gliding motility and wolf-pack hunting behavior. Added carbon substrates disproportionately stimulated growth of obligate predators, with responses 63% higher than those of nonpredators for the Bdellovibrionales and 81% higher for the Vampirovibrionales , whereas responses of facultative predators to substrate addition were no different from those of nonpredators. This finding supports the ecological theory that higher productivity increases predator control of lower trophic levels. These findings also indicate that the functional significance of bacterial predators increases with energy flow and that predatory bacteria influence element flow through microbial food webs. IMPORTANCE The word “predator” may conjure images of leopards killing and eating impala on the African savannah or of great white sharks attacking elephant seals off the coast of California. But microorganisms are also predators, including bacteria that kill and eat other bacteria. While predatory bacteria have been found in many environments, it has been challenging to document their importance in nature. This study quantified the growth of predatory and nonpredatory bacteria in soils (and one stream) by tracking isotopically labeled substrates into newly synthesized DNA. Predatory bacteria were more active than nonpredators, and obligate predators, such as Bdellovibrionales and Vampirovibrionales , increased in growth rate in response to added substrates at the base of the food chain, strong evidence of trophic control. This work provides quantitative measures of predator activity and suggests that predatory bacteria—along with protists, nematodes, and phages—are active and important in microbial food webs.