Nutrient limitation shapes functional traits of mycorrhizal fungi and phosphorus-cycling bacteria across an elevation gradient
#mSystems by @hannahshulman.bsky.social et al
journals.asm.org/doi/10.1128/...
In our latest paper, just published in @natcomms.nature.com we show that soil conditions, landscape structure & land-use change shape global soil pathogenic fungal diversity. Landscape complexity and crops increase diversity, while grass and tree cover reduce it www.nature.com/articles/s41...
Phosphorus (P) limits plant productivity in high-elevation ecosystems, yet the microbial networks that mobilize P, including arbuscular mycorrhizal (AM) fungi and phosphorus-cycling bacteria (PCBs), remain under-characterized in these nutrient-poor soils. We show that across a 10,00-m elevation gradient, AM fungi and P-cycling gene assemblages shift predictably with pH, organic carbon, and phosphate availability. Higher elevations, with less available P, select for stress-tolerant AM fungal taxa and PCB strategies geared toward mineral solubilization, while low-elevation sites favor root colonization by AM fungi and organic P mineralization. These results suggest that nutrient limitation can constrain microbial community assembly in consistent ways across landscapes. High mountain soils are low in P and rely on a network of underground AM fungi and PCB to deliver nutrients to plants. This study shows how those underground relationships reorganize with elevation and how climate change could collapse long-standing microbial strategies by pushing high-elevation ecosystems toward lowland conditions. As soils warm and dry, the microbial scaffolding that supports alpine plant life may become increasingly unstable.journals.asm.org
Boxplots are great when different data distributions matter to your research question, but they’re used a lot (by default) in #rstats when the goal is to show treatment means. If your model focuses on mean responses, a simple mean ± SD (or CI) bar plot is nicer 😗
Ákos T Kovács
Tennessee red valencia peanuts grown in my garden in knoxville, with beautiful nodules of rhizobia 🥜🤎
I'm so enchanted by this new record, "Mycorrhizal Music" by Ess Whiteley, a composer and grad student at UC San Diego. My favorite track is "Whispered Messages in Tapestried Fields of Fluid Motion."
metronrecords.bandcamp.com/album/mycorr...
Ily wvu 💙💛 thanks for having meee
Space-for-time substitution approaches in ecology do work! (at least in temperate grasslands)
www.nature.com/articles/s41...
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