Mechanisms of recovery of forest soil bacterial ecosystems by thermal disturbance

2023 Fiscal Year Final Research Report

• Project/Area Number: 21K12203
• Research Category: Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research (C)
• Allocation Type: Multi-year Fund
• Section: 一般
• Review Section: Basic Section 63010:Environmental dynamic analysis-related
• Research Institution: Hokkaido University
• Principal Investigator: Kasahara Yasuhiro 北海道大学, 低温科学研究所, 准教授 (20273849)
• Co-Investigator(Kenkyū-buntansha): 小椋 義俊 久留米大学, 医学部, 教授 (40363585)
• Project Period (FY): 2021-04-01 – 2024-03-31
• Keywords: 細菌群集 / 生態系機能 / 攪乱 / 回復 / 山焼き

Outline of Final Research Achievements

Wildfires are a significant disturbance to ecosystems and have a significant impact on soil microorganisms. Microbes play an important role in the recovery of soil ecosystems after fire, but the mechanisms of recovery of microbial communities are not yet understood.
Considering a traditional agricultural wildfire as a forest fire, bacterial community analysis of pre- and post-fire soil showed that bacterial community composition changed dramatically after 1 day of the fire and recovered to almost the pre-fire composition in about 10 months. To understand the changes in the functional microbial population during this community change process, qualitative (identification) and quantitative (expression levels) of the bacterial groups responsible for the degradative metabolic system are being conducted based on transcriptional meta-analysis (RNA-seq analysis).

Free Research Field

微生物生態学、ゲノム微生物学

Academic Significance and Societal Importance of the Research Achievements

山林火災後の土壌微生物群集の回復メカニズムは群集の構造・多様性・遷移に関する経時的な解析データの不足に加え、生態系機能レベルの群集集合の研究不足も回復メカニズムの理解を阻んでいる。本研究から火災後、土壌細菌群集が１年以内で回復する結果を得ている。この火熱の撹乱を受けた山林土壌の回復過程における細菌群集の構造と機能の変動様式を、より経時的に定性・定量解析を行うことで、構造と機能の関連性を探り、細菌群集の回復を駆動する要因とメカニズムを明らかにできる。これより細菌群集がどのような条件下でどのように変化するのか理解することにより、生態系がどのように再生していくかを予想するのに役立つ。