The role of exotic plants in regulating soil microbial community structure and activity following invasion chronosequence remains unclear. We investigated soil microbial community structure and microbial respiration following Spartina alterniflora invasion in a chronosequence of 6-, 10-, 17-, and 20-year-old by comparing with bare flat in a coastal wetland of China. S. alterniflora invasion sig...

Nitrogen (N) fertilization may profoundly affect soil microbial communities. In this study, a field fertilization experiment was conducted in temperate grassland in Inner Mongolia, China to examine the effect of N fertilization on soil microbial properties and the main factors related to the characteristics of soil microbial community. Soil microbial biomass carbon (MBC) and microbial functiona...

BACKGROUND Microbial communities in floral nectar have been shown to be characterized by low levels of species diversity, yet little is known about among-plant population variation in microbial community composition. METHODOLOGY/PRINCIPAL FINDINGS We investigated the microbial community structure (yeasts and bacteria) in floral nectar of ten fragmented populations of the bee-pollinated forest...

Background: The phyllosphere hosts a variety of microorganisms, including bacteria, which can play a positive role in the success of the host plant. Bacterial communities in the phylloplane are influenced by both biotic and abiotic factors, including host plant surface topography and chemistry, which change in concert with microbial communities as the plant leaves develop and age. Methods: We e...

Lonar Lake is a hypersaline and hyperalkaline soda lake and the only meteorite impact crater in the world situated in basalt rocks. Although culture-dependent studies have been reported, a comprehensive understanding of microbial community composition and structure in Lonar Lake remains elusive. In the present study, microbial community structure associated with Lonar Lake sediment and water sa...

How biotic and abiotic factors influence soil carbon (C) mineralization rate (RS) has recently emerged as one of the focal interests in ecological studies. To determine the relative effects of temperature, soil substrate and microbial community on Rs, we conducted a laboratory experiment involving reciprocal microbial inoculations of three zonal forest soils, and measured RS over a 61-day perio...

Soil types heavily influence ecological dynamics. It remains controversial to what extent soil types shape microbial responses to land management changes, largely due to lack of in-depth comparison across various soil types. Here, we collected samples from three major zonal soil types spanning from cold temperate to subtropical climate zones. We examined bacterial and fungal community structure...

A system-level framework of complex microbe-microbe and host-microbe chemical cross-talk would help elucidate the role of our gut microbiota in health and disease. Here we report a literature-curated interspecies network of the human gut microbiota, called NJS16. This is an extensive data resource composed of ∼570 microbial species and 3 human cell types metabolically interacting through >4,400...

Grasslands have a long history of invasion by exotic annuals, which may alter microbial communities and nutrient cycling through changes in litter quality and biomass turnover rates. We compared plant community composition, soil chemical and microbial community composition, potential soil respiration and nitrogen (N) turnover rates between invaded and restored plots in inland and coastal grassl...

Atmospheric nitrogen (N) deposition profoundly alters the soil microbial communities and will thus affect nutrient cycles. The effects of N availability on microbial community, however, are not clear. We used PLFA analysis to evaluate the effects of a gradient of N addition (0, 2.8, 5.6, 11.2, and 22.4 g N m-2 y-1) for three years on the rhizospheric microbial community of Pinus tabuliformis se...