What could explain δ13C signatures in biocrust cyanobacteria of drylands?

Eva Stricker; Grace Cain; Jennifer A. Rudgers; Robert L Sinsabaugh; Vanessa Fernandes; Corey Nelson; Ana Giraldo Silva; Ferran Garcia-Pichel; Jayne Belnap; Anthony Darrouzet-Nardi

doi:10.1007/s00248-020-01536-3

What could explain δ¹³C signatures in biocrust cyanobacteria of drylands?

Microbial Ecology

By: Eva Stricker, Grace Cain, Jennifer A. Rudgers, Robert L Sinsabaugh, Vanessa Fernandes, Corey Nelson, Ana Giraldo Silva, Ferran Garcia-Pichel, Jayne Belnap, and Anthony Darrouzet-Nardi

https://doi.org/10.1007/s00248-020-01536-3

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Abstract

Dryland ecosystems are increasing in geographic extent and contribute greatly to interannual variability in global carbon dynamics. Disentangling interactions among dominant primary producers, including plants and autotrophic microbes, can help partition their contributions to dryland C dynamics. We measured the δ¹³C signatures of biological soil crust cyanobacteria and dominant plant species (C₃ and C₄) across a regional scale in the southwestern USA to determine if biocrust cyanobacteria were coupled to plant productivity (using plant-derived C mixotrophically), or independent of plant activity (and therefore purely autotrophic). Cyanobacterial assemblages located next to all C₃ plants and one C₄ species had consistently more negative δ¹³C (by 2‰) than the cyanobacteria collected from plant interspaces or adjacent to two C₄Bouteloua grass species. The differences among cyanobacterial assemblages in δ¹³C could not be explained by cyanobacterial community composition, photosynthetic capacity, or any measured leaf or root characteristics (all slopes not different from zero). Thus, microsite differences in abiotic conditions near plants, rather than biotic interactions, remain a likely mechanism underlying the observed δ¹³C patterns to be tested experimentally.

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Additional publication details
Publication type	Article
Publication Subtype	Journal Article
Title	What could explain δ13C signatures in biocrust cyanobacteria of drylands?
Series title	Microbial Ecology
DOI	10.1007/s00248-020-01536-3
Volume	81
Year Published	2021
Language	English
Publisher	Springerlink
Contributing office(s)	Southwest Biological Science Center
Description	12 p.
First page	134
Last page	145
Country	United States
State	New Mexico
Other Geospatial	Jornada Basin
Google Analytic Metrics	Metrics page