Download Kristin Matulich: M icrobial responses to environmental change

Microbial community composition alters
response of litter decomposition to global
change.
Kristin Matulich
J. Martiny Lab
May 17th, 2012
Central Questions
1. 
Does microbial community composition
shift in response to global change?
Environment
2. 
Do microbial communities have differential
responses?
Microbe
3. 
Microbe
Decomposition
Can community responses be predicted?
Individual
Community
Background
¨ 
¨ 
¨ 
¨ 
Current global change models don’t include microbial
parameters.
Microbes perform key nutrient and energy transformations
in ecosystems.
Microbes might be key to improving predictions.
What role does microbial community composition play in
litter decomposition, and how does that role change under
environmental perturbations?
Central Questions
1. 
Does microbial community composition have an
effect on litter decomposition rates?
2. 
Does the response of litter decomposition to
environmental perturbations depend on microbial
community composition?
3. 
Does the importance of interactions between
microbial community composition and
environmental perturbation vary with type of
environmental perturbation?
Culturing
Bacteriodetes (6)
Actinobacteria (18)
Alphaproteobacteria (5)
Betaproteobacteria (3)
Gammaproteobacteria (3)
Culturing
Fungi: 24 unique “species”
Bacteria: 32 unique “species”
Laboratory Experiment
X
Laboratory Experiment
Results
Results
a
b
c
b
Results (Entire Data)
Results: Entire Data
Results: Days 1-30
Results: Days 1-30
Results: Days 31-60
Results: Days 31-60
Loma Ridge
Field Experiment
X
Field Experiment
Acknowledgments
Jennifer Martiny
Claudia Weihe
Anthony Amend
Steven Nguyen
Steven Allison
Diane Campbell