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Initial Copper Stress Strengthens the Resistance of Soil Microorganisms to a Subsequent Copper Stress

  • Soil Microbiology
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Abstract

To improve the prediction of essential ecosystem functioning under future environmental disturbances, it is of significance to identify responses of soil microorganisms to environmental stresses. In this study, we collected polluted soil samples from field plots with eight copper levels ranging from 0 to 3,200 mg Cu kg−1 soil. Then, the soils with 0 and 3,200 mg Cu kg−1 were selected to construct a microcosm experiment. Four treatments were set up including Cu0-C and Cu3200-C without further Cu addition, and Cu0-A and Cu3200-A with addition of 57.5 mg Cu kg−1 soil. We measured substrate-induced respiration (SIR) and potential nitrification rate (PNR). Furthermore, the abundance of bacterial, archaeal 16S rRNA genes, ammonia-oxidizing bacteria and archaea amoA genes were determined through quantitative PCR. The soil microbial communities were investigated by terminal restriction fragment length polymorphism (T-RFLP). For the field samples, the SIR and PNR as well as the abundance of soil microorganisms varied significantly between eight copper levels. Soil microbial communities highly differed between the low and high copper stress. In the microcosm experiment, the PNR and SIR both recovered while the abundance of soil microorganisms varied irregularly during the 90-day incubation. The differences of microbial communities measured by pairwise Bray–Curtis dissimilarities between Cu0-A and Cu0-C on day 0 were significantly higher after subsequent stress than before. However, the differences of microbial communities between Cu3200-A and Cu3200-C on day 0 changed little between after subsequent stress and before. Therefore, initial copper stress could increase the resistance of soil microorganisms to subsequent copper stress.

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Acknowledgments

This study was funded by Natural Sciences Foundation of China (41025004 and 41201523) and the Ministry of Environmental Protection (201009032–03). We are grateful to Jun-Tao Wang for his assistance in data analysis and to Peng Cao for her help in revising the manuscript.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. State Key Laboratory of Urban and Regional Ecology, Research Center for Eco-Environmental Sciences, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, 100085, China

    Jing Li, Yuan-Ming Zheng, Yu-Rong Liu, Hang-Wei Hu & Ji Zheng He

  2. University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, 100049, China

    Jing Li

  3. Key Laboratory of Plant Nutrition and Nutrient Cycling, Ministry of Agriculture, Institute of Agricultural Resources and Regional Planning, Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences, Beijing, 100081, China

    Yi-Bing Ma

  4. Melbourne School of Land and Environment, The University of Melbourne, Parkville, 3052, Victoria, Australia

    Hang-Wei Hu & Ji Zheng He

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  1. Jing Li
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Correspondence to Ji Zheng He.

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Li, J., Zheng, YM., Liu, YR. et al. Initial Copper Stress Strengthens the Resistance of Soil Microorganisms to a Subsequent Copper Stress. Microb Ecol 67, 931–941 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00248-014-0391-8

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