Long-term CO₂ injection and its impact on near-surface soil microbiology

Gwosdz, Simone; West, Julia M.; Jones, David; Rakoczy, Jana; Green, Kay; Barlow, Tom; Bl�the, Marco; Smith, Karon L.; Steven, Michael D.; Kr�ger, Martin

Abstract

Impacts of long-term CO₂ exposure on environmental processes and microbial populations of near-surface soils are poorly understood. This near-surface long-term CO₂ injection study demonstrated that soil microbiology and geochemistry is influenced more by seasonal parameters than elevated CO₂. Soil samples were taken during a 3-year field experiment including sampling campaigns before, during and after 24 months of continuous CO₂ injection. CO₂ concentrations within CO₂-injected plots increased up to 23% during the injection period. No CO₂ impacts on geochemistry were detected over time. In addition, CO₂ exposed samples did not show significant changes in microbial CO₂ and CH₄ turnover rates compared to reference samples. Likewise, no significant CO₂-induced variations were detected for the abundance of Bacteria, Archaea (16S rDNA) and gene copy numbers of the mcrA gene, Crenarchaeota and amoA gene. The majority (75%–95%) of the bacterial sequences were assigned to five phyla: Firmicutes, Proteobacteria, Actinobacteria, Acidobacteria and Bacteroidetes. The majority of the archaeal sequences (85%–100%) were assigned to the thaumarchaeotal cluster I.1b (soil group). Univariate and multivariate statistical as well as principal component analyses showed no significant CO₂-induced variation. Instead, seasonal impacts especially temperature and precipitation were detected.

Citation

Gwosdz, S., West, J. M., Jones, D., Rakoczy, J., Green, K., Barlow, T., Blöthe, M., Smith, K. L., Steven, M. D., & Krüger, M. (2016). Long-term CO₂ injection and its impact on near-surface soil microbiology. FEMS Microbiology Ecology, 92(12), Article fiw193. https://doi.org/10.1093/femsec/fiw193

• Journal Article Type: Article
• Acceptance Date: Aug 29, 2016
• Online Publication Date: Sep 8, 2016
• Publication Date: Dec 1, 2016
• Deposit Date: Nov 6, 2017
• Journal: FEMS Microbiology Ecology
• Print ISSN: 0168-6496
• Electronic ISSN: 1574-6941
• Publisher: Oxford University Press
• Peer Reviewed: Peer Reviewed
• Volume: 92
• Issue: 12
• Article Number: fiw193
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.1093/femsec/fiw193
• Keywords: CCS; CO₂-leakage; Bacteria; Archaea; qPCR; pyrosequencing
• Public URL: https://nottingham-repository.worktribe.com/output/825465
• Publisher URL: https://academic.oup.com/femsec/article/92/12/fiw193/2570443
• Contract Date: Nov 6, 2017