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The Coevolution of Microorganisms and Hazards on Earth and Beyond

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A special issue of Microorganisms (ISSN 2076-2607). This special issue belongs to the section "Environmental Microbiology".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (31 December 2022) | Viewed by 10815

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Special Issue Editors

Dr. Tsing Bohu

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Guest Editor

1. CSIRO Mineral Resources, Australian Resources and Research Centre, Kensington, WA 6151, Australia
2. State Key Laboratory of Lunar and Planetary Sciences, Macau University of Science and Technology, Taipa, Macau
Interests: biogeochemistry; Critical Zone; geomicrobiology; metals and microbes
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

Prof. Dr. Xuliang Zhuang

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor

Research Center for Eco-Environmental Sciences, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100085, China
Interests: nitrogen cycle; microbial ecology; constructed wetlands; watershed management; wastewater treatment; aquatic ecology; wastewater reuse and resource recovery; quorum sensing; partial nitrification
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

A battle began when the first cellular life emerged 3.8 billion years ago on Earth. Hazards, including substances, events or circumstances as potential sources of harm, intensively interact with living organisms and deeply influence life evolution. In the battle against hazards, life is constantly improving, evolving new functions and forming new community structures. Since the beginning of the 21^st century, Earth has faced extreme environmental hazards, such as climate change and environmental pollution. It is critical to understand how microorganisms mitigate stress from hazardous materials and hostile environments, and how the hazards shift concomitantly. Beyond Earth, human probes have landed on the Moon and Mars, and we are now faced with the fascinating question of whether there are traces of interactions with life and hazards left behind there.

This Special Issue aims to provide an adequate multidisciplinary platform for the interchange of constructive information (both basic and applied research) aiding in the understanding of the coevolution of microorganisms and hazards on Earth and beyond. This topic exclusively covers research questions regarding matters such as global warming, extremophiles, environmental pollution, interactions between microorganisms and in/organic molecules and relevant studies in astrobiology and cosmochemistry.

As the Guest Editor, I invite researchers to submit research and review articles as well as short communications related to the coevolution of microorganisms and hazards on Earth and beyond for inclusion in this Special Issue.

Dr. Tsing Bohu
Prof. Dr. Xuliang Zhuang
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Microorganisms is an international peer-reviewed open access monthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2700 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Keywords

hazard
climate change
environmental pollution
earth
mars
microbial communities
global warming
evolution
extremophiles
Tibetan Plateau

Published Papers (5 papers)

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Research

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17 pages, 4541 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Urbanization Reduces Phyllosphere Microbial Network Complexity and Species Richness of Camphor Trees

by Yifang Zhang, Xiaomin Li, Lu Lu, Fuyi Huang, Hao Liu, Yu Zhang, Luhua Yang, Muhammad Usman and Shun Li

Microorganisms 2023, 11(2), 233; https://doi.org/10.3390/microorganisms11020233 - 17 Jan 2023

Cited by 2 | Viewed by 2033

Abstract

Studies on microbial communities associated with foliage in natural ecosystems have grown in number in recent years yet have rarely focused on urban ecosystems. With urbanization, phyllosphere microorganisms in the urban environment have come under pressures from increasing human activities. To explore the effects of urbanization on the phyllosphere microbial communities of urban ecosystems, we investigated the phyllosphere microbial structure and the diversity of camphor trees in eight parks along a suburban-to-urban gradient. The results showed that the number of ASVs (amplicon sequence variants), unique on the phyllosphere microbial communities of three different urbanization gradients, was 4.54 to 17.99 times higher than that of the shared ASVs. Specific microbial biomarkers were also found for leaf samples from each urbanization gradient. Moreover, significant differences (R² = 0.133, p = 0.005) were observed in the phyllosphere microbial structure among the three urbanization gradients. Alpha diversity and co-occurrence patterns of bacterial communities showed that urbanization can strongly reduce the complexity and species richness of the phyllosphere microbial network of camphor trees. Correlation analysis with environmental factors showed that leaf total carbon (C), nitrogen (N), and sulfur (S), as well as leaf C/N, soil pH, and artificial light intensity at night (ALIAN) were the important drivers in determining the divergence of phyllosphere microbial communities across the urbanization gradient. Together, we found that urbanization can affect the composition of the phyllosphere bacterial community of camphor trees, and that the interplay between human activities and plant microbial communities may contribute to shaping the urban microbiome. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue The Coevolution of Microorganisms and Hazards on Earth and Beyond)

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19 pages, 4517 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Unraveling the Impact of Long-Term Rice Monoculture Practice on Soil Fertility in a Rice-Planting Meadow Soil: A Perspective from Microbial Biomass and Carbon Metabolic Rate

by Zhanxi Wei, Hao Wang, Chao Ma, Shuyuan Li, Haimiao Wu, Kaini Yuan, Xiangyuan Meng, Zefeng Song, Xiaofeng Fang and Zhirui Zhao

Microorganisms 2022, 10(11), 2153; https://doi.org/10.3390/microorganisms10112153 - 30 Oct 2022

Cited by 4 | Viewed by 2222

Abstract

Global agricultural intensification leads to a decline in soil quality; however, the extent to which long-term rice cultivation adversely impacts soil, based on chemical and microbial perspectives, remains unclear. The present study was conducted on a seed multiplication farm in Wuchang, Heilongjiang Province, China, to quantify changes in the nutrient properties and microbial profiles of meadow soil in cultivated (rhizosphere and bulk soil) and uncultivated paddy plots from spring to winter. A non-parametric method was used to compare carbon metabolism characteristics among the three groups of soil samples. Principal component analysis was used to distinguish soil chemical properties and carbon source utilization profiles among the soil samples across different seasons. Under rice cultivation, pH, organic matter, total nitrogen, and alkali-hydrolyzed nitrogen concentrations were generally higher in rhizosphere soils than in bulk or uncultivated soils. However, microbial biomass in cultivated soils was consistently lower than in uncultivated soils. There was a discernible difference in carbon substrate preference between summer and other seasons in the three sample groups. In conclusion, agricultural activities in rice cultivation could reshape soil microbial communities in the long term. Notably, specific cultivation activity may induce distinct soil microbial responses, which are more sensitive than chemical responses. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue The Coevolution of Microorganisms and Hazards on Earth and Beyond)

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13 pages, 2523 KiB

Open AccessArticle

In-Forest Planting of High-Value Herb Sarcandra glabra Enhances Soil Carbon Storage without Affecting the Diversity of the Arbuscular Mycorrhiza Fungal Community and Composition of Cunninghamia lanceolata

by Hanchang Zhou, Tianlin Ouyang, Liting Liu, Shiqi Xia and Quanquan Jia

Microorganisms 2022, 10(9), 1844; https://doi.org/10.3390/microorganisms10091844 - 15 Sep 2022

Viewed by 1396

Abstract

Sarcandra glabra in-forest planting, an anthropogenic activity that may introduce a variety of disturbances into the forest, is being popularly promoted in southern China, while its consequential influences on soil nutrients, as well as the arbuscular mycorrhiza fungal (AMF) community of key forest keystone plants, are still unelucidated, which hampers the assessment of ecological safety and the improvement of agronomic measurements. In this research, topsoil from a 3-year-old Sarcandra glabra planted forest and a nearby control forest were sampled, and the annual variation in the soil nutrients and AMF community of the keystone tree Cunninghamia lanceolata were investigated. Our result showed that the total amount of soil organic carbon of the Sarcandra glabra cultivation group was significantly higher than that of the control group (p < 0.05), which indicated that Sarcandra glabra cultivation significantly enhanced the topsoil carbon storage. Yet, there were only insignificant differences in the Shannon index and Chao index of the AMF community between the two groups (p > 0.05). PCoA analysis found that the compositional differences between two groups were also insignificant. This indicated that Sarcandra glabra cultivation had no significant influence on the diversity and composition of the Cunninghamia lanceolata AMF community. However, we found that the differences in the total amounts of nitrogen and total phosphorus between the two groups were relatively lower in April and September, which indicated the higher nutrient demands and consumption of Sarcandra glabra in these two periods and suggested that a sufficient fertilizer application in these two stages would reduce the potential competition for nutrients between Sarcandra glabra and Cunninghamia lanceolata in order to ensure Sarcandra glabra production and forest health. Lastly, our results reported a total extra income ranging from of CNY 127,700 hm⁻² (7 years of cultivation) to CNY 215,300 hm⁻² (10 years cultivation) provided by Sarcandra glabra in-forest planting, which indicated its powerful potential for mitigating poverty. Our research systematically investigated the annual variation in the soil nutrient content and keystone tree AMF community caused by Sarcandra glabra cultivation and offers constructive guidance for Sarcandra glabra cultivation and fertilization management and ecological safety assessment. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue The Coevolution of Microorganisms and Hazards on Earth and Beyond)

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18 pages, 5994 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Rhizosphere Microbial Communities and Geochemical Constraining Mechanism of Antimony Mine Waste-Adapted Plants in Southwestern China

by Xiaofeng Xie, Shangyi Gu, Likai Hao, Tianyi Zhang and Zidong Guo

Microorganisms 2022, 10(8), 1507; https://doi.org/10.3390/microorganisms10081507 - 26 Jul 2022

Cited by 6 | Viewed by 1976

Abstract

Antimony (Sb) and arsenic (As) are two hazardous metalloid elements, and the biogeochemical cycle of Sb and As can be better understood by studying plant rhizosphere microorganisms associated with Sb mine waste. In the current study, samples of three types of mine waste—Sb mine tailing, waste rocks, and smelting slag—and associated rhizosphere microorganisms of adapted plants were collected from Qinglong Sb mine, southwest China. 16S rRNA was sequenced and used to study the composition of the mine waste microbial community. The most abundant phylum in all samples was Proteobacteria, followed by Bacteroidota, Acidobacteriota, and Actinobacteriota. The community composition varied among different mine waste types. Gammaproteobacteria was the most abundant microorganism in tailings, Actinobacteria was mainly distributed in waste rock, and Saccharimonadia, Acidobacteriae, and Ktedonobacteria were mainly present in slag. At the family level, the vast majority of Hydrogenophilaceae were found in tailings, Ktedonobacteraceae, Chthoniobacteraceae, and Acidobacteriaceae (Subgroup 1) were mostly found in slag, and Pseudomonadaceae and Micrococcaceae were mainly found in waste rock. Actinobacteriota and Arthrobacter are important taxa for reducing heavy metal(loid) mobility, vegetation restoration, and self-sustaining ecosystem construction on antimony mine waste. The high concentrations of Sb and As reduce microbial diversity. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue The Coevolution of Microorganisms and Hazards on Earth and Beyond)

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Review

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15 pages, 1329 KiB

Open AccessReview

Ultrasonic Activated Biochar and Its Removal of Harmful Substances in Environment

by Juanjuan Wang, Wenshu Li, Zhirui Zhao, Florence Sharon Nabukalu Musoke and Xiaoge Wu

Microorganisms 2022, 10(8), 1593; https://doi.org/10.3390/microorganisms10081593 - 8 Aug 2022

Cited by 12 | Viewed by 2269

Abstract

Biochar has been widely used in the fields of environment and energy, and green preparation can make biochar-based materials more environmentally friendly. Particularly, in the low-temperature pyrolysis of biochar, labile C with low biological toxicity is the main influencing factor of bacteria in soil. Therefore, it is worth studying to develop the fabrication technology of low-temperature pyrolysis biochar with rich pore structure. The mechanical effect of ultrasonic cavitation is considered to be an effective strategy for the preparation of biochar. However, the sonochemical effects on biochar remain to be studied. In this review, ultrasonic modification and ultrasonic-chemical modification on biochar has been reviewed. Metal oxide/biochar composites can also be obtained by an ultrasonic-chemical method. It is worth mentioning that there have been some reports on the regeneration of biochar by ultrasound. In addition to ultrasonic preparation of biochar, ultrasound can also trigger the sonocatalytic performance and promote the adsorption ability of biochar for the removal of harmful substances. The catalytic mechanism of ultrasound/biochar needs to be further investigated. For application, biochar prepared by ultrasound has been used for the removal of heavy metals in water, the adsorption of carbon dioxide, and soil remediation. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue The Coevolution of Microorganisms and Hazards on Earth and Beyond)

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