TY - JOUR
T1 - Termite mounds reduce soil microbial diversity by filtering rare microbial taxa
AU - Chen, Qing-Lin
AU - Hu, Hang-Wei
AU - Yan, Zhen-Zhen
AU - Li, Chao-Yu
AU - Nguyen, Bao-Anh Thi
AU - Zheng, Yong
AU - Zhu, Yong-Guan
AU - He, Ji-Zheng
PY - 2021
Y1 - 2021
N2 - Termites are ubiquitous insects in tropical and subtropical habitats, and some of them construct massive nests (‘mounds’), which substantially promote substrate heterogeneity by altering soil properties. Yet, the role of termite nesting process in regulating the distribution and diversity of soil microbial communities remains poorly understood, which introduces uncertainty in predictions of ecosystem functions of termite mounds in a changing environment. Here, by using amplicon sequencing, we conducted a survey of 134 termite mounds across >1500 km in northern Australia and found that termite mounds significantly differed from bulk soils in the microbial diversity and community compositions. Compared with bulk soils, termite nesting process decreased the microbial diversity and the relative abundance of rare taxa. Rare taxa had a narrower habitat niche breadth than dominant taxa and might be easier to be filtered by the potential intensive microbial competition during the nesting processes. We further demonstrated that the shift in pH induced by termite nesting process was a major driver shaping the microbial community profiles in termite mounds. Together, our work provides novel evidence that termite nesting is an important process in regulating soil microbial diversity, which advances our understanding of the functioning of termite mounds.
AB - Termites are ubiquitous insects in tropical and subtropical habitats, and some of them construct massive nests (‘mounds’), which substantially promote substrate heterogeneity by altering soil properties. Yet, the role of termite nesting process in regulating the distribution and diversity of soil microbial communities remains poorly understood, which introduces uncertainty in predictions of ecosystem functions of termite mounds in a changing environment. Here, by using amplicon sequencing, we conducted a survey of 134 termite mounds across >1500 km in northern Australia and found that termite mounds significantly differed from bulk soils in the microbial diversity and community compositions. Compared with bulk soils, termite nesting process decreased the microbial diversity and the relative abundance of rare taxa. Rare taxa had a narrower habitat niche breadth than dominant taxa and might be easier to be filtered by the potential intensive microbial competition during the nesting processes. We further demonstrated that the shift in pH induced by termite nesting process was a major driver shaping the microbial community profiles in termite mounds. Together, our work provides novel evidence that termite nesting is an important process in regulating soil microbial diversity, which advances our understanding of the functioning of termite mounds.
UR - https://hdl.handle.net/1959.7/uws:62217
U2 - 10.1111/1462-2920.15507
DO - 10.1111/1462-2920.15507
M3 - Article
SN - 1462-2920
SN - 1462-2912
VL - 23
SP - 2659
EP - 2668
JO - Environmental Microbiology
JF - Environmental Microbiology
IS - 5
ER -