Estimating taxon-specific population dynamics in diverse microbial communities

Benjamin J. Koch, Theresa A. McHugh, Michaela Hayer, Egbert Schwartz, Steven J. Blazewicz, Paul Dijkstra, Natasja V.A.N. Gestel, Jane C. Marks, Rebecca L. Mau, Ember M. Morrissey, Jennifer Pett-Ridge, Bruce A. Hungate

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

74 Scopus citations

Abstract

Understanding how population-level dynamics contribute to ecosystem-level processes is a primary focus of ecological research and has led to important breakthroughs in the ecology of macroscopic organisms. However, the inability to measure population-specific rates, such as growth, for microbial taxa within natural assemblages has limited ecologists’ understanding of how microbial populations interact to regulate ecosystem processes. Here, we use isotope incorporation within DNA molecules to model taxon-specific population growth in the presence of 18O-labeled water. By applying this model to phylogenetic marker sequencing data collected from stable-isotope probing studies, we estimate rates of growth, mortality, and turnover for individual microbial populations within soil assemblages. When summed across the entire bacterial community, our taxon-specific estimates are within the range of other whole-assemblage measurements of bacterial turnover. Because it can be applied to environmental samples, the approach we present is broadly applicable to measuring population growth, mortality, and associated biogeochemical process rates of microbial taxa for a wide range of ecosystems and can help reveal how individual microbial populations drive biogeochemical fluxes.

Original languageEnglish (US)
Article numbere02090
JournalEcosphere
Volume9
Issue number1
DOIs
StatePublished - Jan 2018

Keywords

  • Population growth rate
  • Population mortality rate
  • Quantitative stable-isotope probing (qSIP)
  • Rewetting
  • Soil bacteria
  • Turnover

ASJC Scopus subject areas

  • Ecology, Evolution, Behavior and Systematics
  • Ecology

Fingerprint

Dive into the research topics of 'Estimating taxon-specific population dynamics in diverse microbial communities'. Together they form a unique fingerprint.

Cite this