CONSISTENT BACTERIAL RESPONSES TO LAND USE CHANGE ACROSS THE TROPICS
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Date
2019-09-18
Authors
Petersen, Ian
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
University of Oregon
Abstract
Bacteria are a major component of global diversity and are intimately involved in most terrestrial biogeochemical processes. Despite their importance, little is known about the response of bacteria to human-induced environmental change. Understanding the response to land use change is especially pressing for tropical rainforests, which are being altered rapidly. Here, I conduct a meta-analysis spanning the major tropical rainforest regions to ask whether there are consistent responses of bacterial communities to t tropical rainforest conversion. Remarkably, I find commonalities despite wide variation in agricultural practices and research methodology. These responses include changes in abundance of phyla, most notably decreases in Acidobacteria and Proteobacteria and increases in Actinobacteria, Chloroflexi and Firmicutes. I also find alpha diversity (at single soil core scale), consistently increases with conversion. These consistent responses suggest that common features such as the use of slash-and-burn tactics have the potential to alter bacterial community composition and diversity belowground.
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Keywords
Bacteria, Land Use Change (LUC), Meta-analysis, Pan-tropical, Rainforest, Soil microbial ecology