PARENT SESSION
Poster Session # 21: Biogeography, Biodiversity, Populations, and Genetics.

Thursday, August 7 Presentation from 5:00 PM to 6:30 PM. SITCC Exhibit Hall B.

Linking microbial diversity and ecosystem functioning across land use patterns.

Hartman, Wyatt^*,1, Sundareshwar, Pallaoor¹, Vilgalys, Rytas¹, Bruland, Gregory¹, Richardson, Curtis¹, ¹ Duke University, Durham, North Carolina

ABSTRACT- Our present work attempts to draw links between soil microbial diversity, nutrient speciation, and land use to illuminate the relationship between ecosystem form and function. We will compare soil phosphorus speciation from NMR spectra to microbial biomass and microbial diversity metrics such as operational taxonomic unit (OTUs) accumulation curves, community phylograms, and presence of microbial species possessing distinctive phosphorus metabolic pathways (e.g. polyphosphate and phosphonate accumulation). We will explore functional relationships of microbial diversity across pristine, disturbed and restored wetland ecosystems. Our network of sites encompass a range of impacts from nutrient enrichment to conversion to agriculture and forestry. Preliminary P NMR data suggests that sites impacted by nutrient enrichment and/or agricultural activity exhibit reduced diversity in chemical speciation of this important nutrient. Specifically, impacted sites are marked by the absence of organophosphates and polyphosphates as compared to reference sites. Importantly, restored sites exhibit partial recovery of nutrient species diversity, potentially indicating functional restoration. We anticipate microbial genomic analyses will show differences in diversity and composition across land use patterns. Collectively, these data will help establish links between changes in microbial communities and biogeochemical cycling of nutrients. Our study has important implications for evaluating the progress of ecosystem restoration efforts.

Key words: restoration ecology, phosphorus NMR, microbial diversity, 16S DNA