Network analysis reveals that bacteria and fungi
form modules that correlate independently with
soil parameters

De Menezes, AB; Prendergast-Miller, MT; Richardson, AE; Toscas, P; Farrell, M; MacDonald, LM; Baker, G; Wark, T; Thrall, PH

Abstract

Network and multivariate statistical analyses were
performed to determine interactions between bacterial
and fungal community terminal restriction length
polymorphisms as well as soil properties in paired
woodland and pasture sites. Canonical correspondence
analysis (CCA) revealed that shifts in woodland
community composition correlated with soil dissolved
organic carbon, while changes in pasture
community composition correlated with moisture,
nitrogen and phosphorus. Weighted correlation
network analysis detected two distinct microbial
modules per land use. Bacterial and fungal ribotypes
did not group separately, rather all modules comprised
of both bacterial and fungal ribotypes. Woodland
modules had a similar fungal : bacterial ribotype
ratio, while in the pasture, one module was fungal
dominated. There was no correspondence between
pasture and woodland modules in their ribotype composition.
The modules had different relationships to
soil variables, and these contrasts were not detected
without the use of network analysis. This study demonstrated
that fungi and bacteria, components
of the soil microbial communities usually treated as
separate functional groups as in a CCA approach,
were co-correlated and formed distinct associations
in these adjacent habitats. Understanding these distinct
modular associations may shed more light on
their niche space in the soil environment, and allow a
more realistic description of soil microbial ecology
and function.

Citation

soil parameters. Environmental Microbiology, 17(8), 2677-2689. https://doi.org/10.1111/1462-2920.12559

• Journal Article Type: Article
• Acceptance Date: Jul 2, 2014
• Publication Date: Aug 6, 2014
• Deposit Date: Oct 1, 2015
• Journal: Environmental Microbiology
• Print ISSN: 1462-2912
• Electronic ISSN: 1462-2920
• Publisher: Wiley
• Peer Reviewed: Peer Reviewed
• Volume: 17
• Issue: 8
• Pages: 2677-2689
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.1111/1462-2920.12559
• Publisher URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/1462-2920.12559
• Related Public URLs: http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/journal/10.1111/(ISSN)1462-2920
• Additional Information: Funders : CSIRO internal funding; Projects : Sensors and Sequences for Soil Biological Function