Publication
Title
Lipid biomarker temperature proxy responds to abrupt shift in the bacterial community composition in geothermally heated soils
Author
Abstract
Specific soil bacterial membrane lipids, branched glycerol dialkyl glycerol tetraethers (brGDGTs), are used as an empirical proxy for past continental temperatures. Their response to temperature change is assumed to be linear, caused by physiological plasticity of their, still unknown, source organisms. A well-studied set of geothermally warmed soils (Iceland) shows that the brGDGT fingerprint only changes when the soil mean annual temperature is warmer than 14 degrees C. This sudden change in brGDGT distribution coincides with an abrupt shift in the bacterial community composition in the same soils. Determining which bacterial OTUs are indicative for each soil cluster shows that Acidobacteria are possible brGDGT producers, together with representatives from the Actinobacteria, Chloroflexi, Gemmationadetes and Proteobacteria. Projecting the lipid fingerprint of the cold and warm bacterial communities onto the global soil calibration dataset creates two distinct soil clusters, in which brGDGTs respond differently to temperature and, especially, soil pH. We show that, on a local scale, a community effect rather than physiological plasticity can be the primary driver of the brGDGT-based paleothermometer along large temperature gradients. This threshold response needs to be taken into account when interpreting brGDGT-based paleo-records. (C) 2019 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
Language
English
Source (journal)
Organic geochemistry / International Association of Geochemistry and Cosmochemistry. - Oxford
Publication
Oxford : 2019
ISSN
0146-6380
DOI
10.1016/J.ORGGEOCHEM.2019.07.006
Volume/pages
137 (2019) , 13 p.
Article Reference
UNSP 103897
ISI
000500546700002
Medium
E-only publicatie
Full text (Publisher's DOI)
Full text (publisher's version - intranet only)
UAntwerpen
Faculty/Department
Research group
Project info
Warmed Icelandic Soils, Lipids and Sequencing: towards a better understood climate proxy (WISLAS).
Global Ecosystem Functioning and Interactions with Global Change.
FORHOT: the Icelandic natural temperature gradients: a gift from nature.
Publication type
Subject
Affiliation
Publications with a UAntwerp address
External links
Web of Science
Record
Identifier
Creation 08.01.2020
Last edited 02.10.2024
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