Propagule limitation affects the response of soil methane oxidizer community to increased salinity

The extent to which propagule limitation can govern the responses of microbially-mediated processes (such as methane oxidation) to sudden environmental changes, is poorly understood. Here, we compared the ability of the methanotroph community in lakeshore soils of two lakes to respond to an experimental increase in salinity. One set of samples was taken from lakeshore soils of a freshwater lake (Yang Lake), the other from a slightly brackish lake (Qinghai Lake), both on the Tibetan Plateau. Samples were incubated in microcosms by adding similar to 5 % (CH4)-C-13 or (CH4)-C-12 and different concentrations of NaCl solution. DNA stable-isotope probing (DNA-SIP) followed by high-throughput sequencing was used to determine how the active methanotrophic populations differed in lakeshore soils with different salinity levels. Samples from saline and freshwater lake initially showed much-reduced methane oxidation ability and methanotrophic activity at increased salinity. For the freshwater samples with the salinity of 25 to 50 g/L after NaCl addition, there was no adaptation and increase in methanotrophy after 7 days. By contrast, samples from the brackish lake showed an initial depression of methane oxidation, followed by greatly increased rates after several days. Sequencing revealed that this recovery of methanotrophy in the brackish lake samples was associated with a major switchover in composition of active methanotroph community. In particular, the relative abundance of Type Ia methanotrophs became more abundant at increased salinity. It appears that in this freshwater lake environment, isolation from any nearby high-salinity-tolerant bacterial sources has prevented the possibility of full adaptation to a high salinity change in the environment, and only a moderate salinity adaptation is possible by species-sorting from within the existing community. By contrast, in the higher-salinity environment, the highly salinity-tolerant Methylomicrobium was able to break the establishment limitation in the high salinity environment and become the dominant methanotroph. Our study provides an instance of propagule limitation preventing adaptation to changed conditions.

Automated summary

This study compares the response of methanotroph communities in lakeshore soils to different salinity levels. It finds that methanotrophs in higher-salinity environments are able to adapt and increase methane oxidation activity, while those in freshwater environments cannot adapt to high salinity. This suggests that propagule limitation can prevent adaptation to environmental changes.