tag: bacteria

Soil microbes of the Kalahari and the Pennines

Soil is a non-renewable resource which sustains life and delivers countless beneficial ecosystem services that we need and take for granted. The microbial diversity of soil dwarfs above-ground plant diversity, but is intimately linked with it. Whilst macroscopic ecology is a well-developed discipline that supports our efforts to manage and …

Diverse mycorrhizal representation and bacterial-fungal interactions in an upland peatland vegetation mosaic undergoing restoration

Peatlands are under threat from land management, anthropogenic pollution and climate change. These factors are implicated in severe degradation of peatlands in the southern Pennines of northern England. Significant areas of unconsolidated bare peat are both highly vulnerable to peat erosion and resistant to natural re-vegetation. Restoration efforts during the …

Networks of Power and Influence

This week I am attending the 33rd New Phytologist symposium (Networks of Power and Influence) with Robin Sen and Francis Brearley from MMU. I will present a poster of work supported by MMU and Moors for the Future. The poster shows a preliminary network analysis of bacterial and fungal microbial …

Microbial community composition of biological soil crusts and subsoil in the Kalahari

The Kalahari of southern Africa is characterised by sparse vegetation interspersed with biological soil crusts which deliver a range of ecosystem services including soil stabilisation and carbon fixation. The crusts vary in morphology from barely aggregated sand grains, to strongly aggregated thick crusts with dark pigmentation. Crust morphology and development …

Diversity of planktonic and attached bacterial communities in a phenol-contaminated sandstone aquifer

Polluted aquifers contain indigenous microbial communities with the potential for in situ bioremediation. However, the effect of hydrogeochemical gradients on in situ microbial communities (especially at the plume fringe, where natural attenuation is higher) is still not clear. In this study, we used culture-independent techniques to investigate the diversity of …

Fragmentación, ecología del suelo y su interacción con las plantas: exploración del cambio global mediterráneo en un microcosmos experimental

La fragmentación del hábitat es uno de los principales motores de cambio global en los ecosistemas Mediterráneos (MEA, 2005). La magnitud de las perturbaciones asociadas a la fragmentación a menudo se relaciona con el tamaño del fragmento (Lindenmayer y Fisher, 2006). La disponibilidad de agua es un factor limitante en …

Soil microbial diversity and spatiality across peatland vegetation mosaics under restoration in the southern Pennines, UK

Impacts of degraded blanket bog restoration on culturable and non-culturable soil bacterial and fungal biodiversity and spatiality were assessed. Peat sampled from unvegetated peat areas and from 3 restored vegetation classes, remnant vegetation and grass dominated gullies were subjected to culturable microbial enumeration and rDNA based community profiling and pyrosequencing. …

Aggregative behaviour of bacteria isolated from canine dental plaque

Interbacterial adhesion of bacteria isolated from canine dental plaque was assessed by performing a visual coaggregation assay. Using conditions mimicking those likely to be encountered in vivo, the entire cultivable plaque microbiota from a single dog was assessed, and eight (6.7%) unique coaggregation interactions were detected for 120 crosses. Transmission …