The effect of environmental heterogeneity on bacteria within an agricultural soil community
Open Access
Author:
De Priest, Miranda
Graduate Program:
Ecology
Degree:
Master of Science
Document Type:
Master Thesis
Date of Defense:
March 18, 2022
Committee Members:
Terrence Hugh Bell, Thesis Advisor/Co-Advisor Emily R Davenport, Committee Member Jason Kaye, Program Head/Chair Michela Centinari, Committee Member Paul David Esker, Committee Member
Ecosystem disruptions have the potential to disproportionately challenge certain organisms and reduce biodiversity. Disproportionately impacted species are often limited in their niche breadth or are specialist, while less impacted species often have a wider niche breadth, or are generalist. Bacterial response to increasing environmental heterogeneity may differ from that of larger organisms because of the inherent differences of microbial life. We used active selection gradients to filter by temperature and pH to examine the impact of increasing heterogeneity on bacterial communities from an agricultural soil. 16S rRNA gene sequencing was used to profile the resulting communities, allowing for investigation into the taxonomic level by which certain traits are conserved, as well as the identification of putative thermal and pH generalists. Ultimately, community composition was significantly impacted by different temperature and pH regimes while alpha diversity was not significantly impacted, likely due to traits such as dormancy.
