Experimental evidence root-associated microbes mediate seagrass response to environmental stress

1. Below-ground microbiota play an important role in mediating environmental conditions with important consequences for plant performance. Micro-organisms involved in plant–soil interactions may be associated with roots or bulk soil; however, the relative influence of these below-ground microbial as...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Main Authors: Fuggle, Rose E., Gribben, Paul E., Marzinelli, Ezequiel Miguel
Other Authors: Singapore Centre for Environmental Life Sciences and Engineering
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: 2023
Subjects:
Online Access:https://hdl.handle.net/10356/171785
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
Institution: Nanyang Technological University
Language: English
id sg-ntu-dr.10356-171785
record_format dspace
spelling sg-ntu-dr.10356-1717852023-11-09T15:30:27Z Experimental evidence root-associated microbes mediate seagrass response to environmental stress Fuggle, Rose E. Gribben, Paul E. Marzinelli, Ezequiel Miguel Singapore Centre for Environmental Life Sciences and Engineering Science::Biological sciences Environmental Change Eutrophication 1. Below-ground microbiota play an important role in mediating environmental conditions with important consequences for plant performance. Micro-organisms involved in plant–soil interactions may be associated with roots or bulk soil; however, the relative influence of these below-ground microbial assemblages on plant performance is poorly known, particularly for marine plants. 2. We separately manipulated the root and sediment microbial assemblages of the seagrass Zostera muelleri in a fully factorial experiment to determine how these assemblages determined plant response (e.g. growth) to nutrient enrichment, a major stressor in marine systems. 3. Under ambient nutrient conditions, seagrass growth was maintained regardless of root microbial assemblage disruption. Under high nutrient stress, however, seagrasses with disrupted root microbiota had reduced growth, whereas growth was maintained in seagrasses with an intact root microbiota. Disruption of bulk-sediment microbiota did not affect seagrass growth. Nutrient elevation was correlated with enhanced abundances of several putatively beneficial microbial taxa (e.g. sulphide-oxidising Beggiatoaceae and denitrifying Geofilum rubicundum) associated with roots. 4. Synthesis. Our results suggest that under ambient nutrient conditions micro-organisms play a reduced role in influencing plant performance, but under more stressful conditions positive plant–root micro-organism interactions strengthened. These results are among the first to experimentally determine that interactions between marine plants and the root-associated microbiota are key drivers of seagrass performance under human-induced environmental changes. This suggests that as in terrestrial systems, marine plant resilience depends on the stress-mitigating functions of their root-associated microbiota and disturbance to those plant–microbiota interactions can be deleterious for plant performance. Improving our understanding of these plant–micro-organism interactions may be critical for understanding the functioning and resilience of threatened marine plants and developing more effective restoration strategies for them. Published version Paul E. Gribben and Ezequiel M. Marzinelli received funding from the Australian Research Council (LP200200220). 2023-11-08T01:39:38Z 2023-11-08T01:39:38Z 2023 Journal Article Fuggle, R. E., Gribben, P. E. & Marzinelli, E. M. (2023). Experimental evidence root-associated microbes mediate seagrass response to environmental stress. Journal of Ecology, 111(5), 1079-1093. https://dx.doi.org/10.1111/1365-2745.14081 0022-0477 https://hdl.handle.net/10356/171785 10.1111/1365-2745.14081 2-s2.0-85148016632 5 111 1079 1093 en Journal of Ecology © 2023 The Authors. Journal of Ecology published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd on behalf of British Ecological Society. This is an open access article under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs License, which permits use and distribution in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited, the use is non-commercial and no modifications or adaptations are made. application/pdf
institution Nanyang Technological University
building NTU Library
continent Asia
country Singapore
Singapore
content_provider NTU Library
collection DR-NTU
language English
topic Science::Biological sciences
Environmental Change
Eutrophication
spellingShingle Science::Biological sciences
Environmental Change
Eutrophication
Fuggle, Rose E.
Gribben, Paul E.
Marzinelli, Ezequiel Miguel
Experimental evidence root-associated microbes mediate seagrass response to environmental stress
description 1. Below-ground microbiota play an important role in mediating environmental conditions with important consequences for plant performance. Micro-organisms involved in plant–soil interactions may be associated with roots or bulk soil; however, the relative influence of these below-ground microbial assemblages on plant performance is poorly known, particularly for marine plants. 2. We separately manipulated the root and sediment microbial assemblages of the seagrass Zostera muelleri in a fully factorial experiment to determine how these assemblages determined plant response (e.g. growth) to nutrient enrichment, a major stressor in marine systems. 3. Under ambient nutrient conditions, seagrass growth was maintained regardless of root microbial assemblage disruption. Under high nutrient stress, however, seagrasses with disrupted root microbiota had reduced growth, whereas growth was maintained in seagrasses with an intact root microbiota. Disruption of bulk-sediment microbiota did not affect seagrass growth. Nutrient elevation was correlated with enhanced abundances of several putatively beneficial microbial taxa (e.g. sulphide-oxidising Beggiatoaceae and denitrifying Geofilum rubicundum) associated with roots. 4. Synthesis. Our results suggest that under ambient nutrient conditions micro-organisms play a reduced role in influencing plant performance, but under more stressful conditions positive plant–root micro-organism interactions strengthened. These results are among the first to experimentally determine that interactions between marine plants and the root-associated microbiota are key drivers of seagrass performance under human-induced environmental changes. This suggests that as in terrestrial systems, marine plant resilience depends on the stress-mitigating functions of their root-associated microbiota and disturbance to those plant–microbiota interactions can be deleterious for plant performance. Improving our understanding of these plant–micro-organism interactions may be critical for understanding the functioning and resilience of threatened marine plants and developing more effective restoration strategies for them.
author2 Singapore Centre for Environmental Life Sciences and Engineering
author_facet Singapore Centre for Environmental Life Sciences and Engineering
Fuggle, Rose E.
Gribben, Paul E.
Marzinelli, Ezequiel Miguel
format Article
author Fuggle, Rose E.
Gribben, Paul E.
Marzinelli, Ezequiel Miguel
author_sort Fuggle, Rose E.
title Experimental evidence root-associated microbes mediate seagrass response to environmental stress
title_short Experimental evidence root-associated microbes mediate seagrass response to environmental stress
title_full Experimental evidence root-associated microbes mediate seagrass response to environmental stress
title_fullStr Experimental evidence root-associated microbes mediate seagrass response to environmental stress
title_full_unstemmed Experimental evidence root-associated microbes mediate seagrass response to environmental stress
title_sort experimental evidence root-associated microbes mediate seagrass response to environmental stress
publishDate 2023
url https://hdl.handle.net/10356/171785
_version_ 1783955612452782080