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SUMMARY:Plenary Lecture 12: The paradox of nitrification in acid soils and
  lessons for microbial community ecology - Prosser\, J (University of Aber
 deen)
DTSTART:20141127T155500Z
DTEND:20141127T163000Z
UID:TALK56387@talks.cam.ac.uk
CONTACT:Mustapha Amrani
DESCRIPTION:Co-author: Cecile Gubry-Rangin (University of Aberdeen) \n\nA 
 major\, long-standing question in nitrifier ecology has been the paradox o
 f nitrification in acid soils: cultivated ammonia oxidisers cannot growth 
 in liquid batch culture below pH 7 but gross nitrification rate in soil is
  unaffected by pH and some of the highest rates are seen in soils of pH 4 
  5. This question is of both scientific interest and significant global ec
 onomic importance\, as approximately 30% of the worlds soils are acidic\, 
 including 50% of arable soils\, and up to 70% of ammonia-based nitrogen fe
 rtiliser is lost through nitrification and leaching or denitrification of 
 nitrate. Although several mechanisms were proposed for growth of bacterial
  ammonia oxidisers in acid soils\, a major breakthrough was evidence that 
 the ratio of archaeal:bacterial amoA genes and gene transcripts increase a
 s pH decreases\, suggesting that acidophilic archaeal ammonia oxidisers ma
 y exist. Further evidence for this hypothesis was a global study of the di
 stribution of archaeal amoA genes\, which indicated that pH was a major fa
 ctor determining archaeal ammonia oxidiser distribution in soil and identi
 fying clusters associated with soils of different pH. The pH preference fo
 r these clusters was confirmed by predictions of their distribution in a l
 arge number of UK soil covering a range of pH values. The second line of e
 vidence was the isolation of an acidophilic archaeal ammonia oxidisers\, N
 itrosotalea devanaterra\, which belongs to one of the acidophilic clusters
  characterised in the global study\, and demonstration of its growth in ac
 id soil. While discussing this specific question in ammonia oxidiser commu
 nity ecology\, the different approaches used will be discussed and compare
 d and will be used to exemplify the current state of microbial community e
 cology and ways in which new technologies may help and hinder future studi
 es.\n
LOCATION:Seminar Room 1\, Newton Institute
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