Environmental stress stimulates microbial activities as indicated by cyclopropane fatty acid enhancement

Xinhao Zhu; Ziyu Guo; Nannan Wang; Jianzhao Liu; Yunjiang Zuo; Kexin Li; Changchun Song; Yanyu Song; Chao Gong; Xiaofeng Xu; Fenghui Yuan; Lihua Zhang

doi:10.1016/j.scitotenv.2023.162338

Environmental stress stimulates microbial activities as indicated by cyclopropane fatty acid enhancement

Sci Total Environ. 2023 May 15:873:162338. doi: 10.1016/j.scitotenv.2023.162338. Epub 2023 Feb 20.

Authors

Xinhao Zhu¹, Ziyu Guo², Nannan Wang³, Jianzhao Liu², Yunjiang Zuo², Kexin Li², Changchun Song³, Yanyu Song³, Chao Gong³, Xiaofeng Xu⁴, Fenghui Yuan⁵, Lihua Zhang⁶

Affiliations

¹ Key Laboratory of Wetland Ecology and Environment, Northeast Institute of Geography and Agroecology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Changchun 130102, Jilin, China; Biology Department, San Diego State University, San Diego, CA 92182, USA.
² Key Laboratory of Wetland Ecology and Environment, Northeast Institute of Geography and Agroecology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Changchun 130102, Jilin, China; University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100049, China.
³ Key Laboratory of Wetland Ecology and Environment, Northeast Institute of Geography and Agroecology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Changchun 130102, Jilin, China.
⁴ Biology Department, San Diego State University, San Diego, CA 92182, USA.
⁵ Key Laboratory of Wetland Ecology and Environment, Northeast Institute of Geography and Agroecology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Changchun 130102, Jilin, China; Department of Soil, Water, and Climate, University of Minnesota, Saint Paul, MN 55108, USA. Electronic address: fyuan@umn.edu.
⁶ Key Laboratory of Ecology and Environment in Minority Areas, Minzu University of China, Beijing 100081, China. Electronic address: zhanglihua788403@126.com.

PMID: 36813189
DOI: 10.1016/j.scitotenv.2023.162338

Abstract

Soil microbial responses to environmental stress remain a critical question in microbial ecology. The content of cyclopropane fatty acid (CFA) in cytomembrane has been widely used to evaluate environmental stress on microorganisms. Here, we used CFA to investigate the ecological suitability of microbial communities and found a stimulating impact of CFA on microbial activities during wetland reclamation in Sanjiang Plain, Northeastern China. The seasonality of environmental stress resulted in the fluctuation of CFA content in the soil, which suppressed microbial activities due to nutrient loss upon wetland reclamation. After land conversion, the aggravation of temperature stress to microbes increased the CFA content by 5 % (autumn) to 163 % (winter), which led to the suppression of microbial activities by 7 %-47 %. By contrast, the warmer soil temperature and permeability decreased the CFA content by 3 % to 41 % and consequently aggravated the microbial reduction by 15 %-72 % in spring and summer. Complex microbial communities of 1300 CFA-produced species were identified using a sequencing approach, suggesting that soil nutrients dominated the differentiation in these microbial community structures. Further analysis with structural equation modeling highlighted the important function of CFA content to environmental stress and the stimulating influence of CFA induced by environmental stress on microbial activities. Our study shows the biological mechanisms of seasonal CFA content for microbial adaption to environmental stress under wetland reclamation. It advances our knowledge of microbial physiology affecting soil element cycling caused by anthropogenic activities.

Keywords: Cyclopropane fatty acid; Environmental stress; Microbial respiration; Seasonality; Wetland reclamation.

MeSH terms

China
Fatty Acids*
Soil / chemistry
Soil Microbiology*
Wetlands

Substances

Fatty Acids
Soil