Skip to main content
bioRxiv
  • Home
  • About
  • Submit
  • ALERTS / RSS
Advanced Search
New Results

Tree size drives diversity and community structure of microbial communities on the bark of beech (Fagus sylvatica)

View ORCID ProfileLukas Dreyling, Imke Schmitt, Francesco Dal Grande
doi: https://doi.org/10.1101/2022.01.19.476951
Lukas Dreyling
1Institut für Ökologie, Evolution und Diversität, Goethe-Universität Frankfurt, Max-von-Laue- Strasse. 9, 60438 Frankfurt am Main, Germany
2Senckenberg Biodiversity and Climate Research Centre (SBiK-F), Senckenberganlage 25, 60325 Frankfurt am Main, Germany
  • Find this author on Google Scholar
  • Find this author on PubMed
  • Search for this author on this site
  • ORCID record for Lukas Dreyling
  • For correspondence: lukas.dreyling@senckenberg.de francesco.dalgrande@senckenberg.de
Imke Schmitt
1Institut für Ökologie, Evolution und Diversität, Goethe-Universität Frankfurt, Max-von-Laue- Strasse. 9, 60438 Frankfurt am Main, Germany
2Senckenberg Biodiversity and Climate Research Centre (SBiK-F), Senckenberganlage 25, 60325 Frankfurt am Main, Germany
3LOEWE Centre for Translational Biodiversity Genomics (TBG), Senckenberganlage 25, 60325 Frankfurt am Main, Germany
  • Find this author on Google Scholar
  • Find this author on PubMed
  • Search for this author on this site
Francesco Dal Grande
2Senckenberg Biodiversity and Climate Research Centre (SBiK-F), Senckenberganlage 25, 60325 Frankfurt am Main, Germany
3LOEWE Centre for Translational Biodiversity Genomics (TBG), Senckenberganlage 25, 60325 Frankfurt am Main, Germany
  • Find this author on Google Scholar
  • Find this author on PubMed
  • Search for this author on this site
  • For correspondence: lukas.dreyling@senckenberg.de francesco.dalgrande@senckenberg.de
  • Abstract
  • Full Text
  • Info/History
  • Metrics
  • Preview PDF
Loading

Abstract

Tree bark constitutes ideal habitat for microbial communities, because it is a stable substrate, rich in micro-niches. Bacteria, fungi, and terrestrial microalgae together form microbial communities, which in turn support more bark-associated organisms, such as mosses, lichens, and invertebrates, thus contributing to forest biodiversity. We have a limited understanding of the diversity and biotic interactions of the bark-associated microbiome, as investigations have mainly focussed on agriculturally relevant systems and on single taxonomic groups. Here we implemented a multi-kingdom metabarcoding approach to analyse diversity and community structure of the green algal, bacterial, and fungal components of the bark-associated microbial communities of beech, the most common broadleaved tree of Central European forests. We identified the most abundant taxa, hub taxa, and co-occurring taxa. We found that tree size (as a proxy for age) is an important driver of community assembly, suggesting that environmental filtering leads to less diverse fungal and algal communities over time. Conversely, forest management intensity had negligible effects on microbial communities on bark. Our study suggests the presence of undescribed, yet ecologically meaningful taxa, especially in the fungi, and highlights the importance of bark surfaces as a reservoir of microbial diversity. Our results constitute a first, essential step towards an integrated framework for understanding microbial community assembly processes on bark surfaces, an understudied habitat and neglected component of terrestrial biodiversity. Finally, we propose a cost-effective sampling strategy to study bark-associated microbial communities across large spatial or environmental scales.

Competing Interest Statement

The authors have declared no competing interest.

Copyright 
The copyright holder for this preprint is the author/funder, who has granted bioRxiv a license to display the preprint in perpetuity. It is made available under a CC-BY-NC 4.0 International license.
Back to top
PreviousNext
Posted January 21, 2022.
Download PDF
Email

Thank you for your interest in spreading the word about bioRxiv.

NOTE: Your email address is requested solely to identify you as the sender of this article.

Enter multiple addresses on separate lines or separate them with commas.
Tree size drives diversity and community structure of microbial communities on the bark of beech (Fagus sylvatica)
(Your Name) has forwarded a page to you from bioRxiv
(Your Name) thought you would like to see this page from the bioRxiv website.
CAPTCHA
This question is for testing whether or not you are a human visitor and to prevent automated spam submissions.
Share
Tree size drives diversity and community structure of microbial communities on the bark of beech (Fagus sylvatica)
Lukas Dreyling, Imke Schmitt, Francesco Dal Grande
bioRxiv 2022.01.19.476951; doi: https://doi.org/10.1101/2022.01.19.476951
Digg logo Reddit logo Twitter logo Facebook logo Google logo LinkedIn logo Mendeley logo
Citation Tools
Tree size drives diversity and community structure of microbial communities on the bark of beech (Fagus sylvatica)
Lukas Dreyling, Imke Schmitt, Francesco Dal Grande
bioRxiv 2022.01.19.476951; doi: https://doi.org/10.1101/2022.01.19.476951

Citation Manager Formats

  • BibTeX
  • Bookends
  • EasyBib
  • EndNote (tagged)
  • EndNote 8 (xml)
  • Medlars
  • Mendeley
  • Papers
  • RefWorks Tagged
  • Ref Manager
  • RIS
  • Zotero
  • Tweet Widget
  • Facebook Like
  • Google Plus One

Subject Area

  • Ecology
Subject Areas
All Articles
  • Animal Behavior and Cognition (3586)
  • Biochemistry (7545)
  • Bioengineering (5495)
  • Bioinformatics (20732)
  • Biophysics (10294)
  • Cancer Biology (7951)
  • Cell Biology (11611)
  • Clinical Trials (138)
  • Developmental Biology (6586)
  • Ecology (10168)
  • Epidemiology (2065)
  • Evolutionary Biology (13580)
  • Genetics (9521)
  • Genomics (12817)
  • Immunology (7906)
  • Microbiology (19503)
  • Molecular Biology (7641)
  • Neuroscience (41982)
  • Paleontology (307)
  • Pathology (1254)
  • Pharmacology and Toxicology (2192)
  • Physiology (3259)
  • Plant Biology (7025)
  • Scientific Communication and Education (1294)
  • Synthetic Biology (1947)
  • Systems Biology (5419)
  • Zoology (1113)