Contribution of soil bacteria to the atmosphere across biomes

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Authors

Archer, Stephen D.J.
Lee, Kevin C.
Caruso, Tancredi
Alcami, Antonio
Araya, Jonathan G.
Cary, S. Craig
Cowan, Don A.
Etchebehere, Claudia
Gantsetseg, Batdelger
Gomez-Silva, Benito

Journal Title

Journal ISSN

Volume Title

Publisher

Elsevier

Abstract

The dispersion of microorganisms through the atmosphere is a continual and essential process that underpins biogeography and ecosystem development and function. Despite the ubiquity of atmospheric microorganisms globally, specific knowledge of the determinants of atmospheric microbial diversity at any given location remains unresolved. Here we describe bacterial diversity in the atmospheric boundary layer and underlying soil at twelve globally distributed locations encompassing all major biomes, and characterise the contribution of local and distant soils to the observed atmospheric community. Across biomes the diversity of bacteria in the atmosphere was negatively correlated with mean annual precipitation but positively correlated to mean annual temperature. We identified distinct non-randomly assembled atmosphere and soil communities from each location, and some broad trends persisted across biomes including the enrichment of desiccation and UV tolerant taxa in the atmospheric community. Source tracking revealed that local soils were more influential than distant soil sources in determining observed diversity in the atmosphere, with more emissive semi-arid and arid biomes contributing most to signatures from distant soil. Our findings highlight complexities in the atmospheric microbiota that are relevant to understanding regional and global ecosystem connectivity.

Description

DATA AVAILABILITY : Data have been submitted to a publicly accessible database

Keywords

Atmospheric microbiology, Biogeography, Microbial dispersal, Soil microbiology, Source tracking, SDG-15: Life on land

Sustainable Development Goals

SDG-15:Life on land

Citation

Archer, S.D.J., Lee, K.C., Caruso, T. 2023, 'Contribution of soil bacteria to the atmosphere across biomes', Science of the Total Environment, vol. 871, art. 162137, pp. 1-12. http://dx.DOI.org/10.1016/j.scitotenv.2023.162137.