john stephen: introducing base: biome of australian soil environments. a collaborative project to...
DESCRIPTION
John Stephen's talk at the 1st Earth Microbiome Project meeting in ShenzhenTRANSCRIPT
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Introducing BASE:Biome of Australian Soil Environments.
John R Stephen PhD, AGRF Ltd
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A collaborative project to build knowledge for diverse needs
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The scale of the question
Australia; 5% of the Earth’s landmass; rainforest, desert, sub-Antarctic…
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Sample selection for BASE - Positives
Australian soils have been physically well characterised
Characterisation assists sample selection
Sample sites (often remote) can be accessed by
National Parks
Farming R&D bodies
Mining R&D
University Ecologists
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No EMP-high context data
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BPA, BASE and EMP
Bioplatforms Australia provides services and scientific infrastructure in the specialist fields of genomics, proteomics, metabolomics and bioinformatics.
Pacific Biosciences as EMP sponsor
– RS instrument budgeted
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BPA, BASE and EMP
Bioplatforms Australia provides services and scientific infrastructure in the specialist fields of genomics, proteomics, metabolomics and bioinformatics.
Coordinating implementation of Systems Biology approaches in Australia.
Wine-making fermentations at Australian Wine Research Institute.
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EMP association
Sample selection for BASE is focussed on Australia’s national interests
Here: To understand and ensure compatibility with EMP requirements (MIxS) to maximise the value of the study globally
(Information gathering mission)
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Australian Soil Classification
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There are 85 defined Biogeographic Regions in Australia
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National Reserve System
Atlas of Australian Soils(and/or geology)
Landscapes
Bioregions (climatic variation)
Define few or many categories to sample the environmental continuum
Primary Stratification
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How well does the NRS represent Australian soils?
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Soils (Australian Soil Classification)Major farming systems
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Inland sheep & beef
Southern dairy
High rainfall sheep & beef
Southern sheep & beef
Major farming systems
Coastal dairy
Inland dairy
Low rainfall cropping
Mixed farming
Medium rainfall cropping
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Low rainfall cropping
Inland sheep & beef
Southern dairy
High rainfall sheep & beef
Southern sheep & beef
Sites of interest to rural industries
Coastal dairy
Inland dairy
Mixed farming
Medium rainfall cropping
Crop rotations (SCRIME site) >10 yrs
Crop rotation/stubble retention (Avon site)
>30yrs
Crop rotationsHermitage site (>45yrs)
Crop (tillage/stubble) (Harden site) >20yrs
Grain sites
Livestock sites
Crop lime trials >10 yrs
Grazing trials (Ellinbank) >10 yrs
P fertiliser/grazing trials(Hamilton site) >20 yrs
Urea fertiliser/grazing trials(DemoDairy Terang) >15 yrs
“Enhanced metadata”
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Why build a Soil Biodiversity Map for Australia?
1. The Australian economy maintains a large dependence on the primary industries of mining and farming
2. Generate comprehensive survey / audit of Australian soil biodiversity
3. Biodiscovery - add to the known global diversity of key ecological groups
4. Provide a baseline reference dataset to examine effects of land use and management
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Soil microbial diversity
• Microbial communities are primary drivers of soil ecological processes
• These processes are equally vital for broad ecosystem functions and for sustainable primary production (e.g. nutrient cycling, disease suppression, bioremediation)
• Involved in symbiotic and pathogenic co-evolutionary relationships with plant hosts e.g legume-rhizobia
• Likely to play role in determining broad scale patterns of plant species abundance and community resilience
• Few data on species diversity, composition and abundance of soil microbial communities
• Metagenomics now provides an opportunity to investigate and quantify soil communities at large scales
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Why generate baseline data?
1. Model relationships between environmental parameters and microbial diversity
2. Examine the importance of microbes in generating ecological complexity, stability and resilience
3. Test broad biogeographical and evolutionary hypotheses regarding microbial evolution and plant-microbe co-evolution
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Primary Deliverable
Assessment of Rehabilitation
Create a framework for objective & quantitative data to inform restoration of soil communities as
part of ongoing broad scale revegetation
Restoration ecologyMining remediationMaintain/ Enhance farming productivityHuman impacts (Antarctica)etc
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What will the data look like?
It will be layered over existing national and state environmental and vegetation data
It will incorporate local environmental data collected from soil sampling sites
It will place a metagenomic measurement of biodiversity on three soil microbial communities (fungi, bacteria and archaea)
It will allow a metagenomic assessment of functional diversity data from soil samples e.g. “redundancy” of nitrogen and phosphorus cycle genes; relationship to carbon sequestration
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Metadata
Indicative Soil Samples
Environment
(including microbial environment)
Vegetation Type
GPS, landscape position, etc
Soil type and Chemistry
+
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BPA sequencing /
systems biology & bioinformatics
Collaboration model
Dept. National Parks
Industry (farming)
R&D bodies
Mining companies
Land-managers
CSIRO
Universities
Depts. Primary
Industries
Research bodiessamples
env data
Data analysis - environm
ental, evolutionary and functional m
odelling
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Carbon Sequestration
Biochar can sequester carbon in the soil for hundreds to thousands of years, provide nutrients for plant growth, increase pH… A carbon-negative technology.
Interactions with microbial community?
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Use survey gapanalysis modelingto strategically identify sites to add the most new information
Data accrual and conservation planning – a continuous improvement cycle to guide sampling
Figure from Ferrier S. (2002) Mapping spatial pattern in biodiversity for regional conservation planning: Where to from here? Systematic Biology 51, 331-63.
Looking to a future that includes metagenomic data in decision process
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BPA proposed support
Australian Antarctic Division
Farming Industry R&D
National Parks
Terrestrial Ecosystems Research Network (TERN) (“Eco-informatics Strategy: data sets covering flora, fauna, and biophysical properties captured at sites or areas, from genetic to landscape scales”).
50 – 100 sites per initial question area
Deep metagenomics, broader scale Tag profiling
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Example: Land-use comparison 1: Remnant vs managed)
Remnant vegetation
(MCR)
Wheat crop (MCM)
Dairy pasture (EFM)
Calcarosol
Ferrosol
Mele et al (in preparation)
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Soil samples
Recover DNA & Sequence
Extract DNA
PCR 16S& 18S* rRNA regions
ABI 3730 Sanger
50m2 6 x 1 m2
Ecological descriptors (MOTHUR)
Clones Sequences
MCR 4849 9551
MCM 4512 8714
EFM 4864 9554
Sequence reads (M)
MCR 9.13
MCM 9.27
Total 18.40
Shotgun & Titanium 454 pyrosequencer
Annotation and assembly (Celera) (20% frameshift correction to improve
ORF calling)
x 6 & composited
Approaches
Mele et al (in preparation)
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Summary of assembly (Titanium 454 Pyrosequencing- Celera assembler)
MCR MCM Combined
Small contig reads
6 633 981 (73%) 6 546 083 (71%) 13 454 718 (73%)
Singleton reads 2 489 007(28%) 2 625 512 (28%) 4 942 562 (26%)
Total Usable Reads
9 133 017 9 265 080 18 482 741
MCMMCR
Mele et al (in preparation)
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Restorating & rehabilitating native ecosystems
Major focus on revegetation activities in Australia with a range of goals:- restoring native biodiversity- riverbank stabilization- rehabilitating after mining - managing rare or threatened species- enhancing connectivity (corridors)- restoring landscape function e.g. pumping
water to prevent dryland salinity
Unique challenges… but restoring soil microbial
communities plays a key role in all of these…
Example: Land-use comparison 2
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Restoring Rhizobial communities to improve revegetation outcomes
Native plants rely on microbial symbionts for establishment and growth e.g rhizobia, mycorrhizae
Loss of native microbial communities can limit revegetation success
Identify appropriate microbial symbionts for native species
Up to 800% increases in survival and growth
Re-establish microbial communities (inoculation) as part of the restoration process
Acacia oswaldii Acacia stenophylla
Acacia brachybotrya
Acacia mearnsii
+ rhiz - rhiz + rhiz - rhiz
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Restoration trajectory of revegetated soil community
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CSIRO.
Soil community relatedness (tRFLPs)
PastureReveg
Remnant
?Inoculate
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Project Champions / Coordinators
Prof. Andrew Young
Director, Centre for Australian National Biodiversity Research, CSIRO Plant Industry, Canberra
Assoc. Prof. Pauline Mele
BioSciences Research Division, Dept. Primary Industries, Victoria
Anna Fitzgerald, Bioplatforms Australia
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Finally…
Thanks, and Good Luck EMP!
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