OOS 34
Molecular Insights into Microbial Feedbacks to Climate

Tuesday, August 11, 2015: 1:30 PM-5:00 PM
342, Baltimore Convention Center
Organizer:
Kristen M. DeAngelis
Co-organizer:
Kirsten S. Hofmockel
Moderator:
Kristen M. DeAngelis

Earth's climate is warming, and this is exacerbated by both biophysical (e.g., albedo) and biogeochemical (e.g., carbon cycle) feedbacks. Microbes are key players in every biogeochemical cycle, regulating greenhouse gas fluxes between ecosystems and the atmosphere. Despite their pivotal role, we know little about how microbes respond to environmental change, and microbial dynamics are only beginning to be represented in ecosystem models. Advances in molecular biological methods combined with field experiments make it possible to identify the microbes that strongly influence the Earth's biogeochemical cycles critical to climate. These insights are an important first step towards explicit models of relationships between microbes and climate system feedbacks. New genomic approaches hint at what the most abundant organisms are, though their ecological roles are still becoming clear. A better understanding of microbial dynamics is critical for projecting the rate and magnitude of climate change.

As we celebrate ESA's centennial, we find ourselves at the frontier of climate change, with many projections pointing us towards worst case scenario emissions and nearing a theoretical point of no return in a matter of decades. At the same time, new technologies put us at the frontier of molecular insights, where we are able to sample the information-dense molecular pools with a depth that approaches the depth of diversity present in natural systems. There is a wealth of information in microbial communities in the form of DNA, RNA and proteins, but there are many caveats associated with the extraction, amplification, sequencing, statistical and bioinformatic analysis of natural microbial communities.

In this proposed session, we bring together investigators who are using molecular methods to disentangle the links between microbial communities and ecosystem feedbacks to climate. By bringing together researchers who are interested in these issues, we hope to highlight both the strengths to be drawn on as well as the problems to be solved, or avoided, when using molecular insights to extrapolate microbial feedbacks to climate.

1:30 PM
Microbial feedbacks to climate: How climate and edaphic controllers shape the rhizosphere microbiome of a wild annual grass
Erin E. Nuccio, Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory; Jennifer Pett-Ridge, Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory; Eoin Brodie, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory; Mary K. Firestone, University of California, Berkeley
1:50 PM
Microbial communities in southern California kelp forests: Who is there, what they are doing, and the implications for kelp recruitment
Megan M. Morris, San Diego State University; J. Matthew Haggerty, San Diego State University; Michael P. Doane, San Diego State University; Kristen N. Aguinaldo, San Diego State University; Matthew S. Edwards, San Diego State University; Elizabeth A. Dinsdale, San Diego State University
2:10 PM
Rhizosphere soil fungal communities vary by host genotype and influence host performance during drought
Andrew L. Krohn, Northern Arizona University; Lluvia Flores-Renteria, University of Western Sydney; Adair M. Patterson, Northern Arizona University; Amy V. Whipple, Northern Arizona University; Thomas G. Whitham, Northern Arizona University; Catherine Gehring, Northern Arizona University
2:30 PM
The role of ectomycorrhizal fungi in warming-induced regime shift of Arctic tundra
Julie Deslippe, Victoria University of Wellington; Martin Hartmann, Swiss Federal Research Institute WSL, Agroscope; Susan J. Grayston, University of British Columbia; William W Mohn, University of British Columbia; Suzanne W. Simard, University of British Columbia
2:50 PM
Using soil metatranscriptomics to understand fungal functioning in a changing climate
Linda T.A. Van Diepen, University of New Hampshire; Serita Frey, University of New Hampshire
3:10 PM
3:20 PM
Soil microbial community responses to warming as revealed by comparative metagenomics
Eric Johnston, Georgia Institute of Technology; Chengwei Luo, Georgia Institute of Technology; Luis Rodriguez-R, Georgia Institute of Technology; Liyou Wu, University of Oklahoma; Yiqi Luo, University of Oklahoma; Edward Schuur, Northern Arizona University; James Tiedje, Michigan State University; Jizhong Zhou, University of Oklahoma; Kostas Konstantinidis, Georgia Institute of Technology
3:40 PM
Determining drivers of carbon cycling through co-occurrence of soil microorganisms and their traits
Ryan J. Williams, Iowa State University; Kirsten S. Hofmockel, Iowa State University; Adina C. Howe, Iowa State University
4:00 PM
Hydrology defines microbial communities and functions across polygon types at the Next Generation Ecosystem Experiment (NGEE)-Arctic Barrow site
Neslihan Tas, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory; Lydia Smith, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory; Yuxin Wu, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory; Craig Ulrich, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory; Susannah G. Tringe, Berkeley National Laboratory; Margaret S. Torn, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory; Janet K. Jansson, Pacific Northwest National Laboratory; Susan Hubbard, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory
4:20 PM
Atmospheric n deposition alters co-occurrence, but not functional potential among saprotrophic bacterial communities
Zachary B. Freedman, University of Michigan; Donald R. Zak, University of Michigan
4:40 PM
Mechanisms of manganese(II) oxidation by filamentous Ascomycete fungi vary with species, time, and composition of the secretome
Carolyn A. Zeiner, Harvard University; Samuel Purvine, Pacific Northwest National Laboratory; Erika Zink, Pacific Northwest National Laboratory; Si Wu, University of Oklahoma; Ljiljana Pasa-Tolic, Pacific Northwest National Laboratory; Cara M. Santelli, Smithsonian Institution; Colleen M. Hansel, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution