Bacteria and fungi associated with plants play critical roles in plant growth, fitness, and stress tolerance. These microbial communities inhabit the rhizosphere—the soil zone influenced by root secretions—and internal plant tissues both belowground and aboveground, collectively known as the plant microbiome. While considerable progress has been made in understanding how disturbances like pathogen outbreaks, invasive species, and pollution affect plant microbiomes, there is limited research on the impacts of climate change-associated disturbances.
In boreal and subarctic areas, ericaceous shrubs (members of the family Ericaceae) often dominate the vegetation and form specialized symbiotic relationships with ericoid mycorrhizal fungi, essential for nutrient uptake in nutrient-poor soils. Climate models predict that heatwaves will increase in frequency and intensity in these regions due to climate change. Understanding how these heat stress events affect shrub-associated microbial communities, both belowground and aboveground, is crucial, as alterations in the microbiome can influence shrub health, survival, and ecosystem dynamics.
Objectives
This project aims to understand how acute heatwaves affect microbial communities associated with three different ericaceous shrub species. We will investigate whether such climatic disturbances influence plant-associated microbial diversity and composition in both belowground and aboveground habitats, as well as plant physiology, using an artificial warming experiment at the Abisko Field Station. By combining microbial community sequencing and plant tissue biochemical characterization, we seek to determine how future climatic disturbances might affect shrub microbiomes and identify potential microbial bioindicators of these changes.
Methodology
- Evaluate shrub root fungal colonization.
- Determine bacterial and fungal community diversity and composition from soil and plant
habitats, including roots and leaves. - Assess plant biochemical composition.
Skills and techniques acquired
- Root staining and microscopy to assess mycorrhizal and endophytic fungal colonization.
- Bacterial and fungal metabarcoding, including DNA extraction and amplification, to profile
plant-associated microbial communities. - Bioinformatics analysis of high-throughput sequencing data to identify microbial taxa and
assess community diversity. - Statistical analysis to interpret patterns in microbial communities and correlate them with
environmental variables.
Application process
- Flexible starting date,
- 45-60 cr
- Interested candidates should contact Dr. François Maillard at francois.maillard@biol.lu.se.