@article{7b7b6c522edd482e9de7d10975616ca2,
title = "Spatial patterning of soil microbial communities created by fungus-farming termites",
abstract = "Spatially overdispersed mounds of fungus-farming termites (Macrotermitinae) are hotspots of nutrient availability and primary productivity in tropical savannas, creating spatial heterogeneity in communities and ecosystem functions. These termites influence the local availability of nutrients in part by redistributing nutrients across the landscape, but the links between termite ecosystem engineering and the soil microbes that are the metabolic agents of nutrient cycling are little understood. We used DNA metabarcoding of soils from Odontotermes montanus mounds to examine the influence of termites on soil microbial communities in a semi-arid Kenyan savanna. We found that bacterial and fungal communities were compositionally distinct in termite-mound topsoils relative to the surrounding savanna, and that bacterial communities were more diverse on mounds. The higher microbial alpha and beta diversity associated with mounds created striking spatial patterning in microbial community composition, and boosted landscape-scale microbial richness and diversity. Selected enzyme assays revealed consistent differences in potential enzymatic activity, suggesting links between termite-induced heterogeneity in microbial community composition and the spatial distribution of ecosystem functions. We conducted a large-scale field experiment in which we attempted to simulate termites{\textquoteright} effects on microbes by fertilizing mound-sized patches; this altered both bacterial and fungal communities, but in a different way than natural mounds. Elevated levels of inorganic nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium may help to explain the distinctive fungal communities in termite-mound soils, but cannot account for the distinctive bacterial communities associated with mounds.",
keywords = "African savannas, DNA metabarcoding, nitrogen cycling, soil microbial communities, spatial structure, termites",
author = "Baker, {Christopher C.M.} and {Castillo Vardaro}, {Jessica A.} and Doak, {Daniel F.} and Johan Pansu and J{\'e}r{\'e}my Puissant and Pringle, {Robert M.} and Tarnita, {Corina E.}",
note = "Funding Information: We are grateful for help with fieldwork from Onesmus Kibiwott, James Kiplang'at, Echakan Nairobi, Paul Seketeti and John Mwihaki (MRC), and Marissa Dyck (Ohio University). As always, the staff at MRC made our stay there both fun and productive. Special thanks to MRC Executive Director Dino Martins for encouraging our research. This work could not have been conducted without the support of the National Museums of Kenya (NMK) and the Kenya Wildlife Service. We are most grateful to Laban Njoroge, Esther Kioko and Richard Bagine (NMK), and Tyler Kartzinel (Brown University), for their assistance and helpful suggestions. We thank Sylvia Ochanda and the staff at Nature Kenya for invaluable logistical support. The computational parts of this work were run on the Della computing cluster supported by the Princeton University Research Computing Group and the FASRC Cannon cluster supported by the FAS Division of Science Research Computing Group at Harvard University. This work was supported by NSF grant DEB‐1355122 to C.E.T. and R.M.P., and NSF grant DEB‐1353781 to D.F.D. Funding was also provided by a Grand Challenges grant from the Princeton Environmental Institute to C.E.T. and R.M.P. Funding Information: We are grateful for help with fieldwork from Onesmus Kibiwott, James Kiplang'at, Echakan Nairobi, Paul Seketeti and John Mwihaki (MRC), and Marissa Dyck (Ohio University). As always, the staff at MRC made our stay there both fun and productive. Special thanks to MRC Executive Director Dino Martins for encouraging our research. This work could not have been conducted without the support of the National Museums of Kenya (NMK) and the Kenya Wildlife Service. We are most grateful to Laban Njoroge, Esther Kioko and Richard Bagine (NMK), and Tyler Kartzinel (Brown University), for their assistance and helpful suggestions. We thank Sylvia Ochanda and the staff at Nature Kenya for invaluable logistical support. The computational parts of this work were run on the Della computing cluster supported by the Princeton University Research Computing Group and the FASRC Cannon cluster supported by the FAS Division of Science Research Computing Group at Harvard University. This work was supported by NSF grant DEB-1355122 to C.E.T. and R.M.P., and NSF grant DEB-1353781 to D.F.D. Funding was also provided by a Grand Challenges grant from the Princeton Environmental Institute to C.E.T. and R.M.P. Publisher Copyright: {\textcopyright} 2020 John Wiley & Sons Ltd",
year = "2020",
month = nov,
day = "1",
doi = "10.1111/mec.15585",
language = "English (US)",
volume = "29",
pages = "4487--4501",
journal = "Molecular ecology",
issn = "0962-1083",
publisher = "Wiley-Blackwell",
number = "22",
}