Summary Understanding the processes that regulate the diversity of soil microorganisms is essential for predicting ecosystem responses to environmental changes. Research in natural ecosystems is difficult to conduct due to the specific characteristics of soil, where selection pressures in soils are rarely temporally and spatially oriented and often tend to overlap with other soil characteristics. Natural CO2 springs (mofettes) are extreme ecosystems, where carbon dioxide (CO2) of geological origin reaches the soil surface resulting in long term changes in soil gas composition. Because CO2 vents through the soil, plant roots and soil organisms are the first to be affected by this CO2 source. For this study on diversity and ecology of communities of soil microorganisms, speciesrich and functionally important groups of soil microbes; arbuscular mycorrhizal (AM) fungi, archaea, bacteria, and yeasts were chosen. The AM fungal community composition from selected mofette areas in Slovenia, Italy and the Czech Republic, was determined using Roche 454 GS-FLX pyrosequencing. The community composition of archaea and bacteria from the area of Slovenian mofettes near Stavešinci village was determined using PCR, cloning and Sanger sequencing. Yeasts from the area of Slovenian mofettes were isolated using several isolation techniques and different growth media and identified using molecular approaches. The most important environmental factors influencing AM fungal, archaeal, and bacterial community composition from natural CO2 springs are the concentration of CO2 in soil air, hypoxia and soil pH. In addition, we have found that AM fungal community composition was different between the two years of sampling, but no significant compositional changes in AM fungal community were observed among different months, or among geographically distant mofettes. AM fungal communities sampled from control locations showed higher biodiversity while no significant difference in biodiversity of archaea and bacteria among locations with different CO2 concentrations was observed. We have also identified eight yeast isolates, including the yeast Occultifur species sp. nov., a new, previously undescribed species. The results of our study show that the emission of geological gas can have significant ecological consequences arising from the changes in the soil microbial community composition. This is shown by a shift towards a greater abundance of anaerobic and methanogenic archaea and bacteria and higher number of fermentative yeast species and also permanent changes in community composition of all researched microbial groups towards a greater abundance of ecological specialists.
D.09 Tutoring for postgraduate students
COBISS.SI-ID: 802167Invited speaker at special seminar in "Microbial Ecology" at Agroscope Institute for Sustainability Sciences (ISS) - Plant-Soil-Interactions, Zürich, 1. 10. 2014. Title of the talk: 'What are the main drivers of the composition of soil archaeal, bacterial and arbuscular mycorrhizal fungal communities across environmental gradients such as natural CO2 springs in Slovenia?'
B.04 Guest lecture
COBISS.SI-ID: 8011641Successful application for SCOPES - Scientific cooperation between Eastern Europe and Switzerland Funding: Swiss National Science Foundation Duration: June 2014 – May 2017 Function: Co-applicant – Slovenian coordinator Dr Irena Maček Partners: Dr Fritz Oehl, Agroscope Zurich (CH), and Dr Žaklina Marjanović, University of Belgrade (Serbia). Title: 'Biodiversity of arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi and its importance for sustainable landuse in selected areas of Balkan Peninsula'. This is a study on diversity, ecology and biogeography of arbuscular mycorrhizal (AM) fungi in selected biodiversity rich areas of Balkan Peninsula. In this project we will simultaneously use next generation sequencing (NGS) methods on AM fungi from plant roots and morphologically based surveys of AM fungal spores from soil and trap cultures in order to study the changes in AM fungal community composition across a range of different ecosystems of confirmed high level of biodiversity (e.g. different types of pristine forests, dry karstic grasslands, serpentine soils and others). Research into this valuable genetic pool is not only important from the biodiversity view point, but also represents resource for site directed reclamation of disturbed soils (ecosystems), sustainable forestry, nature conservation and agriculture that has never been used as such in Western Balkans so far.
D.01 Chairing over/coordinating (international and national) projects
COBISS.SI-ID: 8070777