Microcosms and microbiota activity of the methane and n (N2O) cycle under the influence of moisture in soils from Eastern Amazon

• Grant number: 17/02635-4
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships in Brazil - Master
• Effective date (Start): June 01, 2017
• Effective date (End): September 01, 2018
• Field of knowledge: Biological Sciences - Microbiology
• Acordo de Cooperação: Coordination of Improvement of Higher Education Personnel (CAPES)
• Principal Investigator: Tsai Siu Mui
• Grantee: Alexandre Pedrinho
• Host Institution: Centro de Energia Nuclear na Agricultura (CENA). Universidade de São Paulo (USP). Piracicaba , SP, Brazil
• Associated research grant: 14/50320-4 - Dimensions US-BIOTA - São Paulo: collaborative research: integrating dimensions of microbial biodiversity across land use change in tropical forests, AP.BTA.TEM
• Associated scholarship(s): 17/16757-4 - Insights into the effect of forest-to-pasture conversion and soil moisture on N2O emission and denitrifying community, BE.EP.MS

Abstract

The Amazon rainforest is considered an important biodiversity hotspot, which plays a key role in the terrestrial biosphere. Although the Amazon region maintains the largest water reservoirs in the world, contribute to climate control, precipitation and the balance of atmospheric gases flow, the Amazon rainforest is under threat of destruction due to commercial logging and farming. In this scenario, it is still unknown how anthropogenic interference will influence the microbiota and its processes in the soil. Based on the hypothesis that land use change and soil moisture alter the carbon (C) and nitrogen (N) content in the soil, and consequently affect the functional potential of the methanogenic and denitrifying microbial communities and the flux of methane and nitrous oxide in soils. Therefore, the effect of the land use change and soil moisture on the methanogenic and denitrifying microbial communities will be evaluated using soil samples collected from different study sites and obtained from a laboratory microcosm experiment with soil incubated under different moisture contents. Analytically, real-time quantitative PCR will be used to quantify the number of copies of the 16S rRNA genes from bacteria and archaea and microbial functional genes (mcrA for methanogenic and nirK, cnorB and nosZ for denitrifying bacteria) involved in the methane and nitrous oxide production, and gas chromatography will be used to determine the flux of these gases in undisturbed primary forest, secondary forest, pasture and agriculture in the Eastern Amazon region. Computational and statistical methods will be used for analysis and to integration of experimental data. The results of this research project will be disseminated at scientific events, and in the form of a scientific article to be submitted to publication in a scientific journal with editorial board. (AU)

Scientific publications

(References retrieved automatically from Web of Science and SciELO through information on FAPESP grants and their corresponding numbers as mentioned in the publications by the authors)

PEDRINHO, ALEXANDRE; MENDES, LUCAS WILLIAM; MERLOTI, LUIS FERNANDO; ANDREOTE, FERNANDO DINI; TSAI, SIU MUI. The natural recovery of soil microbial community and nitrogen functions after pasture abandonment in the Amazon region. FEMS MICROBIOLOGY ECOLOGY, v. 96, n. 9, SEP 2020. (17/02635-4, 14/50320-4, 17/16757-4)

Academic Publications

(References retrieved automatically from State of São Paulo Research Institutions)

PEDRINHO, Alexandre. Effect of land-use change and soil abandonment on microbial communities in Eastern Amazon Rainforest. 2018. Master's Dissertation - Universidade de São Paulo (USP). Centro de Energia Nuclear na Agricultura (CENA/STB) Piracicaba.