Climate warming enhances microbial network complexity and stability

Mengting Maggie Yuan, Xue Guo, Linwei Wu, Ya Zhang, Naijia Xiao, Daliang Ning, Zhou Shi, Xishu Zhou, Liyou Wu, Yunfeng Yang, James M. Tiedje and Jizhong Zhou ()
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Mengting Maggie Yuan: University of California
Xue Guo: University of Oklahoma
Linwei Wu: University of Oklahoma
Ya Zhang: University of Oklahoma
Naijia Xiao: University of Oklahoma
Daliang Ning: University of Oklahoma
Zhou Shi: University of Oklahoma
Xishu Zhou: University of Oklahoma
Liyou Wu: University of Oklahoma
Yunfeng Yang: Tsinghua University
James M. Tiedje: Michigan State University
Jizhong Zhou: University of Oklahoma

Nature Climate Change, 2021, vol. 11, issue 4, 343-348

Abstract: Abstract Unravelling the relationships between network complexity and stability under changing climate is a challenging topic in theoretical ecology that remains understudied in the field of microbial ecology. Here, we examined the effects of long-term experimental warming on the complexity and stability of molecular ecological networks in grassland soil microbial communities. Warming significantly increased network complexity, including network size, connectivity, connectance, average clustering coefficient, relative modularity and number of keystone species, as compared with the ambient control. Molecular ecological networks under warming became significantly more robust, with network stability strongly correlated with network complexity, supporting the central ecological belief that complexity begets stability. Furthermore, warming significantly strengthened the relationships of network structure to community functional potentials and key ecosystem functioning. These results indicate that preserving microbial ‘interactions’ is critical for ecosystem management and for projecting ecological consequences of future climate warming.

Date: 2021
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DOI: 10.1038/s41558-021-00989-9

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