Ecosystem Ecology and Geochemistry of Cuatro Cienegas : How to Survive in an Extremely Oligotrophic Site

"Carbon (C), Nitrogen (N) and Phosphorus (P) are three of the most important elements used to build living beings, and their uptake from the environment is consequently essential for all organisms. Photosynthesis is the process in which plants absorb atmospheric C as they grow and convert it to biomass. However, plants acquire N and P only when these are available in the soil solution, which makes these elements the most limiting nutrients in plant growth and productivity in most ecosystems. When plant residues and roots decompose, the C, N and P they contain is transformed primarily into soil organic matter (SOM) or C and N can release to the atmosphere. Recent interest on the global C, N and P cycles has focused attention on the different proportion of terrestrial C, N and P stored in different ecosystem pools. Cuatro Cienegas represents an exceptional place, since the plants are not the base of the food web, they are the microbial community, that recycle the elements essential for life. In this book we describe how this is an analog of early Earth." - Prové de l'editor Preface 6 Contents 8 Chapter 1: Carbon, Nitrogen, and Phosphorus in Terrestrial Pools: Where Are the Main Nutrients Located in the Grasslands of the Cuatro Ciénegas Basin? 12 Introduction 13 Materials and Methods 14 Study Area 14 Sampling 15 Laboratory Analyses 15 Data Analyses 16 Results 16 Nutrients in Above- and Belowground Grass Biomass 16 Soil Nutrient and Ecosystem Nutrient Contents 18 Discussion 21 References 22 Chapter 2: Terrestrial N Cycling in an Endangered Oasis 25 N Cycle in Arid Lands 26 N Fixers and Denitrifiers in Soils with Different Water Availability 29 N Fixers in Soils with Different Precipitation Regimes: The Case of Soil Crusts of Cold and Hot Deserts 33 Influence of the Rhizosphere on the Abundance of Microorganisms Involved in the N Cycle 34 References 37 Chapter 3: The Effect of Nutrients and N:P Ratio on Microbial Communities: Testing the Growth Rate Hypothesis and Its Extensions in Lagunita Pond (Churince) 40 Introduction 41 Experiments/Tests 44 Methods 44 Results 46 Interpretations and Conclusions 47 References 49 Chapter 4: The Effect of Nutrient Availability on the Ecological Role of Filamentous Microfungi: Lessons from Elemental Stoichiometry 51 Introduction 52 Materials and Methods 54 Chemical Analyses of Mycelia, Water Samples, and Potato Dextrose Broth 55 Results and Discussion 55 Conclusions 57 References 59 Chapter 5: Life on a Stoichiometric Knife Edge: Biogeochemical Interactions and Trophic Interactions in Stromatolites in Rio Mesquites 62 Introduction 63 Experiments/Studies 65 Implications/Conclusions 70 References 72 Chapter 6: The Sulfur Cycle as the Gear of the “Clock of Life”: The Point of Convergence Between Geological and Genomic Data in the Cuatro Cienegas Basin 73 Oldest Evidence of Life on Earth: Stromatolites, Hydrothermal Vents, and Hot Springs – What Do They Have in Common? 74 Using Sulfur in Early Life: Molecular and Genomic Evidence 76 Modern Distribution of Sulfur Metabolism Across the Tree of Life 77 Integrating the Sulfur Cycle Within the Microbial Mat Model 80 Capturing the Importance of Global Sulfur Cycle with a Single Value 83 Conclusions and Remarks 84 References 85 Chapter 7: Toward a Comprehensive Understanding of Environmental Perturbations in Microbial Mats from the Cuatro Cienegas Basin by Network Inference 90 General Overview of CCB Hydrogeology and Its Aquifer Overexploitation 91 The Churince System: A Scenario for Our Study 91 Microbial Mats: A Biomarker to Understand Environmental Perturbation 94 Understanding Microbial Relationships by Network Inference 95 How Is the Loss of Water Affecting the Microbial Mats Within Churince Lagoon? 97 Network Community Structure Indicates Overlapping Niches Within Microbial Mats 98 Conclusions 99 References 99 Chapter 8: The Magnetotactic Bacteria of the Churince Lagoon at Cuatro Cienegas Basin 103 The Iron and Sulfur Cycles 104 The Extensive Diversity of Magnetotactic Bacteria (MTB) 105 What Kind of MTB Inhabit Cuatro Cienegas? 106 Conclusion 109 References 109 Chapter 9: Ecological Adaptability of Bacillus to Extreme Oligotrophy in the Cuatro Cienegas Basin 112 Introduction 113 The Chemistry of Life 113 Phosphorus Availability and Its Influence on Bacterial Evolution 113 The Number of Copies of Ribosomal RNA Operon and Phosphorus Availability 114 The Extreme Oligotrophy of the Cuatro Cienegas Basin and Its Influence in the Bacterial Evolution 115 The Number of Copies of the rrn Operon in the Bacilli from the CCB 115 The Growth Dynamics of Bacillus Under Oligotrophic Conditions 118 The Cellular Stoichiometry of Bacillus During the Exponential Phase 119 Ecophysiological Mechanism in Response to the Oligotrophic Conditions in the CCB 120 References 123 Chapter 10: Bacterial Siderophore-Mediated Iron Acquisition in Cuatro Cienegas Basin: A Complex Community Interplay Made Simpler in the Light of Evolutionary Genomics 126 Introduction to the Siderophores 127 The Importance of Being Desferrioxamines 129 Regulation of Desferrioxamines and Morphological Development 130 An Evolutionary Model to Simplify Siderophore Ecological Studies 132 Proof-of-concept: Complex Community Interplay in CCB Made Simpler in the Light of Evolution 134 Final Remarks 140 References 141 Chapter 11: Animal-Mediated Nutrient Cycling in Aquatic Ecosystems of the Cuatro Ciénegas Basin 144 Introduction 145 Snails 146 Fishes 148 Gambusia marshi 148 Cyprinodon 149 Conclusions 150 References 153 Chapter 12: How Do Agricultural Practices Modify Soil Nutrient Dynamics in CCB? 156 Introduction 157 Soil Management for Alfalfa Production 158 Changes in Soil Nutrient Dynamics After Agricultural Management 159 Herbicides and Its Effects on the Soil Nutrient Dynamics 161 Conclusion 162 References 163 Index 165 Front Matter ....Pages i-x Carbon, Nitrogen, and Phosphorus in Terrestrial Pools: Where Are the Main Nutrients Located in the Grasslands of the Cuatro Ciénegas Basin? (Felipe García-Oliva, Yunuen Tapia-Torres, Cristina Montiel-Gonzalez, Yareni Perroni-Ventura)....Pages 1-13 Terrestrial N Cycling in an Endangered Oasis (Nguyen E. López-Lozano, Ana E. Escalante, Alberto Barrón-Sandoval, Teresa Perez-Carbajal)....Pages 15-29 The Effect of Nutrients and N:P Ratio on Microbial Communities: Testing the Growth Rate Hypothesis and Its Extensions in Lagunita Pond (Churince) (James Elser, Jordan Okie, Zarraz Lee, Valeria Souza)....Pages 31-41 The Effect of Nutrient Availability on the Ecological Role of Filamentous Microfungi: Lessons from Elemental Stoichiometry (Yunuen Tapia-Torres, Patricia Vélez, Felipe García-Oliva, Luis E. Eguiarte, Valeria Souza)....Pages 43-53 Life on a Stoichiometric Knife Edge: Biogeochemical Interactions and Trophic Interactions in Stromatolites in Rio Mesquites (Jessica Corman, James Elser)....Pages 55-65 The Sulfur Cycle as the Gear of the “Clock of Life”: The Point of Convergence Between Geological and Genomic Data in the Cuatro Cienegas Basin (Valerie De Anda, Icoquih Zapata-Peñasco, Luis E. Eguiarte, Valeria Souza)....Pages 67-83 Toward a Comprehensive Understanding of Environmental Perturbations in Microbial Mats from the Cuatro Cienegas Basin by Network Inference (Valerie De Anda, Icoquih Zapata-Peñasco, Luis E. Eguiarte, Valeria Souza)....Pages 85-97 The Magnetotactic Bacteria of the Churince Lagoon at Cuatro Cienegas Basin (Icoquih Zapata-Peñasco, Santiago Bautista-López, Valeria Souza)....Pages 99-107 Ecological Adaptability of Bacillus to Extreme Oligotrophy in the Cuatro Cienegas Basin (Jorge Valdivia-Anistro, Luis E. Eguiarte, Valeria Souza)....Pages 109-122 Bacterial Siderophore-Mediated Iron Acquisition in Cuatro Cienegas Basin: A Complex Community Interplay Made Simpler in the Light of Evolutionary Genomics (H. Ramos-Aboites, A. Yáñez-Olvera, F. Barona-Gómez)....Pages 123-140 Animal-Mediated Nutrient Cycling in Aquatic Ecosystems of the Cuatro Ciénegas Basin (Eric K. Moody, Evan W. Carson, Jessica R. Corman, Hector Espinosa-Pérez)....Pages 141-152 How Do Agricultural Practices Modify Soil Nutrient Dynamics in CCB? (Yunuen Tapia-Torres, Pamela Chávez Ortiz, Natali Hernández-Becerra, Alberto Morón Cruz, Ofelia Beltrán, Felipe García-Oliva)....Pages 153-161 Back Matter ....Pages 163-167