Abstract
Soil microbiomes are rapidly becoming known as an important driver of plant phenotypic variation and may mediate plant responses to environmental factors. However, integrating spatial scales relevant to climate change with plant intraspecific genetic variation and soil microbial ecology is difficult, making studies of broad inference rare. Here we hypothesize and show: 1) the degree to which tree genotypes condition their soil microbiomes varies by population across the geographic distribution of a widespread riparian tree, Populus angustifolia; 2) geographic dissimilarity in soil microbiomes among populations is influenced by both abiotic and biotic environmental variation; and 3) soil microbiomes that vary in response to abiotic and biotic factors can change plant foliar phenology. We show soil microbiomes respond to intraspecific variation at the tree genotype and population level, and geographic variation in soil characteristics and climate. Using a fully reciprocal plant population by soil location feedback experiment, we identified a climate-based soil microbiome effect that advanced and delayed bud break phenology by approximately 10 days. These results demonstrate a landscape-level feedback between tree populations and associated soil microbial communities and suggest soil microbes may play important roles in mediating and buffering bud break phenology with climate warming, with whole ecosystem implications.
| Original language | English |
|---|---|
| Article number | 748 |
| Journal | Communications Biology |
| Volume | 4 |
| Issue number | 1 |
| DOIs | |
| State | Published - Dec 2021 |
Funding
We extend gratitude to Stephanie Kivlin, James Fordyce, and Liam Mueller for invaluable discussion on this manuscript. We thank Shannon Bayliss, Kendall Beals, Phil Patterson, Ken McFarland, Jeff Martin, Alex Neild, Dailee Metts, Kassie Hollabaugh, Kelsey Greiff, Parker Wilson, Kaleb Menzel, Dylan Johnson, Blake Scalf, Katie Baer, and Alex Gifford for lab and greenhouse support. DNA sequencing for the work presented was provided by the DOE Joint Genome Institute. Funding support for I.M.W., M.V.N., J.A.S., and J.K. B. was from the University of Tennessee, Knoxville, and Z.K.Y. and C.W.S. are supported by the Genomic Science Program, US Department of Energy, as part of the Plant Microbe Interfaces Scientific Focus Area (http://pmi.ornl.gov). The work conducted by the U.S. Department of Energy Joint Genome Institute, a DOE Office of Science User Facility, is supported by the Office of Science of the U.S. Department of Energy under Contract No. DE-AC02-05CH11231.
