Article
Soil Science
Ruihan Xiao, Xiuling Man, Beixing Duan, Tijiu Cai, Zhaoxin Ge, Xuefei Li, Timo Vesala
Summary: Plant community composition can alter soil microbial community structure and function, especially in boreal forests characterized by understory vegetation. This study investigated the effects of forest types characterized by understory vegetation on soil N mineralization and bacterial community in northeast China. The results showed that soil N availability, N mineralization rates, bacterial community, and microbial biomass varied with the difference of understory vegetation. Soil microbial biomass was strongly correlated with soil N mineralization, and soil microbial biomass was significantly affected by soil bacterial composition. Abundances of Actinobacteria, Patescibacteria, and Chloroflexi were significantly correlated with soil N mineralization.
SOIL BIOLOGY & BIOCHEMISTRY
(2022)
Article
Geosciences, Multidisciplinary
Yu-Te Lin, William B. Whitman, David C. Coleman, Shih-Hao Jien, Hsueh-Ching Wang, Chih-Yu Chiu
Summary: The study found significant differences in bacterial community composition between coniferous forest and grassland soils at the treeline, with correlations to soil pH, organic C, and C/N. Historical vegetation types also had a significant impact on the abundance of certain bacterial groups.
Article
Multidisciplinary Sciences
Fernanda Valente, Marcio Laurini
Summary: Wildfires in the Amazon have a significant impact on the forest structure and carbon cycle. This study analyzed the changes in fire occurrence patterns in the Brazilian Amazon using a novel spatio-temporal point process framework. The results showed a decrease in long-term fire occurrence movements followed by an increase, attributed to governance measures and market mechanisms. The analysis successfully captured the spatial variability of fire occurrence rates in the region.
SCIENTIFIC REPORTS
(2023)
Article
Remote Sensing
Marian Schoenauer, Kari Vaatainen, Robert Prinz, Harri Lindeman, Dariusz Pszenny, Martin Jansen, Joachim Maack, Bruce Talbot, Rasmus Astrup, Dirk Jaeger
Summary: The utilization of detailed digital terrain models can enhance support for sustainable forest management, but lacks consideration of temporal dynamics of soil moisture in predictions.
INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF APPLIED EARTH OBSERVATION AND GEOINFORMATION
(2021)
Article
Ecology
Marina Rodes-Blanco, Paloma Ruiz-Benito, Carlos A. Silva, Mariano Garcia
Summary: This study aimed to characterize the canopy gaps in Mediterranean forests and quantify their dynamics, identifying hotspots of openings and closings. The results showed a high rate of forest openings and closings, but an overall net closing trend, with hotspots found across the entire study area. These findings contribute to our understanding of the structure and dynamics of Mediterranean forests and provide a benchmark for future studies.
Article
Microbiology
Qian Lyu, Yan Luo, Yuliang Dong, Yongqi Xiang, Kuangji Zhao, Gang Chen, Yuqin Chen, Chuan Fan, Xianwei Li
Summary: The decline in forest ecological function caused by pure forest plantations in the Yangtze River basin is a serious problem. Through the experiment of forest gap transformation in low-efficiency weeping cypress plantations, it was found that large forest gaps were more conducive to the accumulation of soil nutrients, thus improving the structure of the soil bacterial community. The formation of forest gaps had profound effects on the soil bacterial community structure, which may have profound effects on soil biogeochemical processes in weeping cypress forest plantations.
FRONTIERS IN MICROBIOLOGY
(2022)
Article
Engineering, Environmental
Xiaohan Zhang, Zhiguang Niu, Ying Zhang, Shijia Guan, Meiqi Jing, Nan Wu, Yongzheng Ma
Summary: Microplastics act as distinct substrates for bacterial colonization and can carry bacterial communities during their travels. The process of bacterial community changes on traveling microplastics, called 'localization', depends on the differences between the former and latter environments as well as the preexisting bacteria. Localization is more pronounced when the former and latter environments are similar. The time for localization is often shorter compared to the first cultivation of pristine microplastics. Additionally, the preexisting bacteria on microplastics have selective effects on subsequent bacterial colonization, and the stability of the entire bacterial communities on migrated microplastics increases over time.
Article
Environmental Sciences
Jianqing Wang, Xiuzhen Shi, Chengyang Zheng, Helen Suter, Zhiqun Huang
Summary: China has experienced a widespread increase in N deposition due to intensive anthropogenic activities, particularly in subtropical regions. The effects of long-term N deposition on soil bacterial and fungal abundance, diversity, and community composition show that fungi are more sensitive to N deposition, and soil N availability and pH are the most influential factors.
SCIENCE OF THE TOTAL ENVIRONMENT
(2021)
Article
Environmental Sciences
Xuechao Chen, Xinran Zhang, Hao Yu, Meiaoxue Han, Jianhua Sun, Gang Liu, Yan Ji, Chuan Zhai, Liyan Zhu, Hongbing Shao, Yantao Liang, Andrew Mcminn, Min Wang
Summary: This study describes the structure of bacterial communities in sediment biofilms in Jiaozhou Bay using high-throughput sequencing and discusses the effects of temporal change and different sediment types. The results show significant differences in bacterial diversity and composition between different sediment types. Additionally, different functional enrichment patterns were observed between sediment types and stations, highlighting their role in determining bacterial function.
ENVIRONMENTAL RESEARCH
(2023)
Article
Environmental Sciences
Elisa Vega-Martinez, Juan Ramon Molina, Vidal Barron, Francisco Rodriguez ySilva, Maria del Carmen del Campillo, Antonio Rafael Sanchez-Rodriguez
Summary: In recent years, controlled burns have become more frequent in Europe as a means of managing forest ecosystems. This study evaluated the main alterations in soil properties caused by a high intensity-controlled burn in Los Boquerones area in Spain. The results showed that the burn significantly affected soil pH, nutrient availability, and soil microorganisms.
SCIENCE OF THE TOTAL ENVIRONMENT
(2023)
Article
Environmental Sciences
Ruhollah Taghizadeh-Mehrjardi, Hassan Fathizad, Mohammad Ali Hakimzadeh Ardakani, Hamid Sodaiezadeh, Ruth Kerry, Brandon Heung, Thomas Scholten
Summary: This study aimed to predict the spatial distribution of absorbable heavy metals in arid regions of Iran from 1986 to 2016 using a random forest model, with successful predictions for Fe, Mn, Ni, Pb, and Zn. Results showed significant increases in heavy metal distribution over time, providing valuable insights for developing appropriate management strategies.
Article
Microbiology
Yang Liu, Xiangping Tan, Shenglei Fu, Weijun Shen
Summary: This study found that soil bacterial and fungal communities in the organic layer of a temperate forest responded differently to canopy and understory nitrogen (N) addition. Soil pH mainly regulated the response of bacterial diversity and community composition to N addition, while soil moisture and nutrient availability controlled fungal diversity and community composition. Understory N addition had a strong effect on soil bacterial Shannon diversity and community composition, but a weaker effect on soil bacterial richness in the organic soil layer.
FRONTIERS IN MICROBIOLOGY
(2022)
Article
Geochemistry & Geophysics
Raian Maretto, Leila M. G. Fonseca, Nathan Jacobs, Thales S. Koerting, Hugo N. Bendini, Leandro L. Parente
Summary: This study focuses on automatically mapping deforested areas in the Brazilian Amazon using deep learning techniques to aid in the formulation of effective deforestation containment policies. By introducing various domain-specific components and preprocessing methods to optimize the training dataset, the research proposes two spatio-temporal variations of the U-Net architecture, achieving an accuracy of approximately 95%.
IEEE GEOSCIENCE AND REMOTE SENSING LETTERS
(2021)
Article
Computer Science, Artificial Intelligence
Mathies Wedler, Merten Stender, Marco Klein, Svenja Ehlers, Norbert Hoffmann
Summary: This paper introduces a novel loss function, called surface similarity parameter (SSP), for training machine learning models on smooth oscillatory sequences. Experimental results demonstrate that SSP can shape gradients, accelerate the training process, reduce prediction errors, increase weight initialization robustness, and achieve stronger regularization effects compared to traditional loss functions. The novel loss metric shows great potential in handling highly complex and chaotic data.
Article
Microbiology
Daiyan Li, Meng Meng, Baihui Ren, Xinwei Ma, Long Bai, Jiahuan Li, Guohua Bai, Fengjun Yao, Chunming Tan
Summary: This study investigated the composition, structure, and diversity characteristics of soil microbial communities in a forest-grassland ecotone under different levels of nitrogen addition in northwest Liaoning Province, China. The results showed that increasing nitrogen concentrations led to a decrease in soil pH and fluctuation in total nitrogen and ammonium nitrogen contents. Nitrogen addition had limited effect on fungal community, but significantly reduced the diversity of bacterial community. The abundance of fungal and bacterial phyla was correlated with soil pH and total nitrogen content, respectively. Functional genes related to soil nitrogen transformations did not show significant differences under different treatments.
FRONTIERS IN MICROBIOLOGY
(2023)
Article
Plant Sciences
Adrienn Geiger, Zoltan Karacsony, Richard Golen, Kalman Zoltan Vaczy, Jozsef Geml
Summary: Grapevine trunk diseases (GTDs) pose a significant threat to the wine industry, and understanding the differences in plant pathogenic fungal communities in asymptomatic and symptomatic grapevines is crucial. This study found that GTD-associated fungi dominate in perennial wood while non-GTD pathogens dominate in soil, and there were no significant differences between asymptomatic and Esca symptomatic grapevines. Additionally, there were compositional differences among sampling sites, suggesting the importance of local factors on plant pathogenic fungal communities.
Article
Environmental Sciences
Piotr Rozwalak, Pawel Podkowa, Jakub Buda, Przemyslaw Niedzielski, Szymon Kawecki, Roberto Ambrosini, Roberto S. Azzoni, Giovanni Baccolo, Jorge L. Ceballos, Joseph Cook, Biagio Di Mauro, Gentile Francesco Ficetola, Andrea Franzetti, Dariusz Ignatiuk, Piotr Klimaszyk, Edyta Lokas, Masato Ono, Ivan Parnikoza, Miroslawa Pietryka, Francesca Pittino, Ewa Poniecka, Dorota L. Porazinska, Dorota Richter, Steven K. Schmidt, Pacifica Sommers, Juliana Souza-Kasprzyk, Marek Stibal, Witold Szczucinski, Jun Uetake, Lukasz Wejnerowski, Jacob C. Yde, Nozomu Takeuchi, Krzysztof Zawierucha
Summary: Cryoconite, composed of mineral and organic material, covers glacial ice and plays a crucial role in ecological processes and glacier functioning. Research has shown that cryoconite exhibits diverse morphologies, with organic matter content closely linked to granular forms.
SCIENCE OF THE TOTAL ENVIRONMENT
(2022)
Article
Microbiology
Kim Vincent, Hannah Holland-Moritz, Adam J. Solon, Eli M. S. Gendron, Steven K. Schmidt
Summary: This study investigates the composition of bacterioplankton communities in alpine and subalpine lakes. The results show that there are differences in bacterial communities between the two types of lakes in the early summer, but these differences disappear by the end of the summer. Several environmental factors, including dissolved organic carbon, pH, chlorophyll-a, and total dissolved nitrogen, are found to be correlated with the community divergence in the early summer. The timing of increased hydrologic connections with the terrestrial environment, due to springtime snowmelt, may contribute to the observed patterns.
FRONTIERS IN MICROBIOLOGY
(2022)
Article
Plant Sciences
Erika Buscardo, Jozsef Geml, Steven K. Schmidt, Helena Freitas, Anete P. Souza, Hillandia B. Cunha, Laszlo Nagy
Summary: This study quantified the relationship between soil mineral nitrogen availability, fungal community composition, and functional groups in an Amazon rainforest. The findings suggest that animal excretions, which create high-nitrogen patches, contribute to soil microbial diversity and plant community diversity.
JOURNAL OF ECOLOGY
(2022)
Article
Zoology
Scott J. Steppan, Thomas Bowen, Max R. Bangs, Matthew Farson, Jay F. Storz, Marcial Quiroga-Carmona, Guillermo D'Elia, Lara Vimercati, Cristina Dorador Ortiz, Graham Zimmerman, Steve K. Schmidt
Summary: A population of leaf-eared mice, Phyllotis vaccarum, has been discovered at an elevation higher than any previously reported for mammals, marking a new record for terrestrial vertebrates. This finding is based on evidence from multiple expeditions, including live observations, mummified remains, environmental DNA, and soil microbial analysis.
JOURNAL OF MAMMALOGY
(2022)
Article
Multidisciplinary Sciences
Demelash Alem, Tatek Dejene, Jozsef Geml, Juan Andres Oria-de-Rueda, Pablo Martin-Pinto
Summary: This study assessed soil fungal communities in three church forests in Ethiopia using ITS2 rDNA metabarcoding. The results revealed significant differences in diversity and richness among the forests, and the composition of fungal communities was influenced by climatic, edaphic, vegetation, and spatial variables. Linear relationships were found between tree basal area and the abundance of fungal communities. The baseline information obtained in this study could assist other countries facing similar forest conservation issues.
SCIENTIFIC REPORTS
(2022)
Article
Microbiology
Adam Istvan Hegyi, Margot Otto, Jozsef Geml, Julia Hegyi-Kalo, Jozsef Kun, Attila Gyenesei, Rian Pierneef, Kalman Zoltan Vaczy
Summary: This study analyzed the gene expression data during the noble rot process in grapes, revealing the important genes for grape berry structural integrity and the dominant role of Botrytis cinerea in this process.
Article
Plant Sciences
Anna Molnar, Jozsef Geml, Adrienn Geiger, Carla Mota Leal, Glodia Kgobe, Adrienn Maria Toth, Szabolcs Villango, Lili Mezes, Mark Czegledi, Gyorgy Lorincz, Zsolt Zsofi
Summary: Improving our understanding of the grapevine mycobiome and its influencing factors is crucial for agriculture. This study examines the impact of scion cultivar on fungal communities in grapevine berries and leaves, finding that both chemical composition and physiological traits of the plant influence the composition and diversity of these communities. The findings also highlight differences in fungal community composition among cultivars, as well as correlations between fungal community composition and physiological variables in leaves, suggesting a complex interaction between the plant and its microbial environment.
Article
Multidisciplinary Sciences
Marisa C. W. Lim, Anton Seimon, Batya Nightingale, Charles C. Y. Xu, Stephan R. P. Halloy, Adam J. Solon, Nicholas B. Dragone, Steven K. Schmidt, Alex Tait, Sandra Elvin, Aurora C. Elmore, Tracie A. Seimon
Summary: Species composition in high-alpine ecosystems can be used as an indicator for monitoring climate and environmental changes. Using eDNA analysis, researchers documented the biodiversity present on Mount Everest, identifying taxa from 36 phyla and 187 potential orders. This inventory provides valuable information for future monitoring and studies on the impact of climate change and anthropogenic influences on this unique ecosystem.
Article
Environmental Sciences
Nicholas B. Dragone, L. Baker Perry, Adam J. Solon, Anton Seimon, Tracie A. Seimon, Steven K. Schmidt
Summary: Microbial communities in alpine environments above 7,500 m.a.s.l. have been poorly studied. This study investigated the microbial diversity in sediment samples from the South Col (around 7,900 m.a.s.l.) of Mount Everest using both culturing and next generation sequencing approaches. The results showed low diversity of bacteria, protists, and fungi, including cosmopolitan taxa and specialized microorganisms often found at high elevations. The findings suggest that the high-elevation surfaces may function as collection zones for organisms deposited from the atmosphere or left by climbers.
ARCTIC ANTARCTIC AND ALPINE RESEARCH
(2023)
Article
Plant Sciences
Laszlo Nagy, Cleiton B. Eller, Lina M. Mercado, Francisco X. Cuesta, Luis D. Llambi, Erika Buscardo, Luiz E. O. C. Aragao, Carlos Garcia-Nunez, Rafael S. Oliveira, Milton Barbosa, Sergio J. Ceballos, Marco Calderon-Loor, G. Wilson Fernandes, Ezequiel Araoz, Ariadna M. Q. Munoz, Ricardo Rozzi, Francisco Aguirre, Esteban alvarez-Davila, Norma Salinas, Stephen Sitch
Summary: This study reviews the existing empirical understanding and model-based approaches to quantify the contribution of mountain ecosystems in South America to ecosystem service provision. It proposes the implementation of mountain vegetation into dynamic global vegetation models, identifies key missing elements in these models, and explores a treeline model. The evaluation of the JULES land surface model reveals major gaps between data availability and the requirements for process-based modeling of South American mountain vegetation.
PLANT ECOLOGY & DIVERSITY
(2023)
Article
Environmental Sciences
Pablo Martin-Pinto, Tatek Dejene, Gian Maria Niccolo Benucci, Olaya Mediavilla, Maria Hernandez-Rodriguez, Jozsef Geml, Petr Baldrian, Ignacio Sanz-Benito, Jaime Olaizola, Gregory Bonito, Juan Andres Oria-de-Rueda
Summary: This study investigates the effects of different fire prevention treatments and site history on the co-response and co-occurrence patterns of bacteria and fungi in a fire-risky scrubland ecosystem. The results show that site history, especially fire occurrence, strongly influences the microbial community. Young burnt areas have lower microbial diversity and a heat-resistant community, while young clearing history affects the fungal community.
SCIENCE OF THE TOTAL ENVIRONMENT
(2023)
Article
Microbiology
Laurel M. Brigham, Clifton P. Bueno de Mesquita, Marko J. Spasojevic, Emily C. Farrer, Dorota L. Porazinska, Jane G. Smith, Steven K. Schmidt, Katharine N. Suding
Summary: Bacterial and fungal root endophytes can be affected by host plant species, the composition and density of surrounding plants, space, and abiotic drivers. In a study of alpine plants, host plant species explained the most variation in root endophyte composition for both bacterial and fungal communities. Plant neighborhood, space, and abiotic drivers also had similar effects on both communities, but plant neighborhood had less impact on fungal endophytes than expected.
FEMS MICROBIOLOGY ECOLOGY
(2023)
