Differential effects of warming on the complexity and stability of the microbial network in Phragmites australis and Spartina alterniflora wetlands in Yancheng, Jiangsu Province, China

Lixin Pei; Siyuan Ye; Liujuan Xie; Pan Zhou; Lei He; Shixiong Yang; Xigui Ding; Hongming Yuan; Tianjiao Dai; Edward A Laws

doi:10.3389/fmicb.2024.1347821

Differential effects of warming on the complexity and stability of the microbial network in Phragmites australis and Spartina alterniflora wetlands in Yancheng, Jiangsu Province, China

Front Microbiol. 2024 Mar 27:15:1347821. doi: 10.3389/fmicb.2024.1347821. eCollection 2024.

Authors

Lixin Pei^{1

2}, Siyuan Ye^{1

2}, Liujuan Xie^{1

2}, Pan Zhou^{1

2}, Lei He^{1

2}, Shixiong Yang^{1

2}, Xigui Ding^{1

2}, Hongming Yuan^{1

2}, Tianjiao Dai³, Edward A Laws⁴

Affiliations

¹ Qingdao Institute of Marine Geology, China Geologic Survey, Qingdao, China.
² Laboratory for Marine Geology, Qingdao Marine Science and Technology Center, Qingdao, China.
³ School of Water Resources and Environment, China University of Geosciences (Beijing), Beijing, China.
⁴ Department of Environmental Sciences, College of the Coast and Environment, Louisiana State University, Baton Rouge, LA, United States.

Abstract

The impact of climate warming on soil microbial communities can significantly influence the global carbon cycle. Coastal wetlands, in particular, are susceptible to changes in soil microbial community structure due to climate warming and the presence of invasive plant species. However, there is limited knowledge about how native and invasive plant wetland soil microbes differ in their response to warming. In this study, we investigated the temporal dynamics of soil microbes (prokaryotes and fungi) under experimental warming in two coastal wetlands dominated by native Phragmites australis (P. australis) and invasive Spartina alterniflora (S. alterniflora). Our research indicated that short-term warming had minimal effects on microbial abundance, diversity, and composition. However, it did accelerate the succession of soil microbial communities, with potentially greater impacts on fungi than prokaryotes. Furthermore, in the S. alterniflora wetland, experimental warming notably increased the complexity and connectivity of the microbial networks. While in the P. australis wetland, it decreased these factors. Analysis of robustness showed that experimental warming stabilized the co-occurrence network of the microbial community in the P. australis wetland, but destabilized it in the S. alterniflora wetland. Additionally, the functional prediction analysis using the Faprotax and FunGuild databases revealed that the S. alterniflora wetland had a higher proportion of saprotrophic fungi and prokaryotic OTUs involved in carbon degradation (p < 0.05). With warming treatments, there was an increasing trend in the proportion of prokaryotic OTUs involved in carbon degradation, particularly in the S. alterniflora wetland. Therefore, it is crucial to protect native P. australis wetlands from S. alterniflora invasion to mitigate carbon emissions and preserve the health of coastal wetland ecosystems under future climate warming in China.

Keywords: carbon sequestration; climate change; coastal wetland; microbial network; microorganism.

Grants and funding

The author(s) declare that financial support was received for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article. This research was jointly funded by National Forestry and Grassland Administration Emergency Leading the Charge with Open Competition Project (202302), National Natural Science Foundation of China (U22A20558), Laoshan Laboratory (LSKJ202204003), Shandong Provincial Natural Science Foundation (ZR2023MD060 and ZR2022MD024), National Key R&D Program of China (2016YFE0109600), and the China Geological Survey Program (DD20221775 and DD20189503).