How to be a fig wasp down under: the diversity and structure of an Australian fig wasp community

Endophytic insects and their parasitoids provide valuable models for community ecology. The wasp communities in inflorescences of fig trees have great potential for comparative studies, but we must first describe individual communities. Here, we add to the few detailed studies of such communities by describing the one associated with Ficus rubiginosa in Australia. First, we describe community composition, using two different sampling procedures. Overall, we identified 14 species of non-pollinating fig wasp (NPFW) that fall into two size classes. Small wasps, including pollinators, gallers and their parasitoids, were more abundant than large wasps (both galler and parasitoid species). We show that in figs where wasps emerge naturally, the presence of large wasps may partly explain the low emergence of small wasps. During fig development, large gallers oviposit first, before and around the time of pollination, while parasitoids lay eggs after pollination. We further show that parasitoids in the subfamily Sycoryctinae, which comprise the majority of all individual NPFWs, segregate temporally by laying eggs at different stages of fig development. We discuss our results in terms of species co-existence and community structure and compare our findings to those from fig wasp communities on other continents.

Linking alkaline phosphatase activity with bacterial phoD gene abundance in soil from a long-term management trial

Changes in land management practices may have significant implications for soil microbial communities important in organic P turnover. Soil bacteria can increase plant P availability by excreting phosphatase enzymes which catalyze the hydrolysis of ester-phosphate bonds. Examining the diversity and abundance of alkaline phosphatase gene harboring bacteria may provide valuable insight into alkaline phosphatase production in soils. This study examined the effect of 20 years of no input organic (ORG), organic with composted manure (ORG + M), conventional (CONV) and restored prairie (PRA) management on soil P bioavailability, alkaline phosphatase activity (ALP), and abundance and diversity of ALP gene (phoD) harboring bacteria in soils from the northern Great Plains of Canada. Management system influenced bioavailable P (P < 0.001), but not total P, with the lowest concentrations in the ORG systems and the highest in PRA. Higher rates of ALP were observed in the ORG and ORG + M treatments with a significant negative correlation between bioavailable P and ALP in 2011 (r2 = 0.71; P = 0.03) and 2012 (r2 = 0.51; P = 0.02), suggesting that ALP activity increased under P limiting conditions. The phoD gene abundance was also highest in ORG and ORG + M resulting in a significant positive relationship between bacterial phoD abundance and ALP activity (r2 = 0.71; P = 0.009). Analysis of phoD bacterial community fingerprints showed a higher number of species in CONV compared to ORG and ORG + M, contrary to what was expected considering greater ALP activity under ORG management. In 2012, banding profiles of ORG + M showed fewer phoD bacterial species following the second manure application, although ALP activity is higher than in 2011. This indicates that a few species may be producing more ALP and that quantitative gene analysis was a better indicator of activity than the number of species present.

Soil bacterial phoD gene abundance and expression in response to applied phosphorus and long-term management

Bacterial transformation of phosphorus (P) compounds in soil is largely dependent on soil microbial community function, and is therefore sensitive to anthropogenic disturbances such as fertilization or cropping systems. However, the effect of soil management on the transcription of bacterial genes that encode phosphatases, such as phoD, is largely unknown. This greenhouse study examined the effect of long-term management and P amendment on potential alkaline phosphatase (ALP) activity and phoD gene (DNA) and transcript (RNA) abundance. Soil samples (0–15 cm) were collected from the Glenlea Long-term Rotation near Winnipeg, Manitoba, to compare organic, conventional and prairie management systems. In the greenhouse, pots of soil from each management system were amended with P as either soluble mineral fertilizer or cattle manure and then planted with Italian ryegrass (Lolium multiforum). Soils from each pot were sampled for analysis immediately and after 30 and 106 days. Significant differences among the soil/P treatments were detected for inorganic P, but not the organic P in NaHCO3-extracts. At day 0, ALP activity was similar among the soil/P treatments, but was higher after 30 days for all P amendments in soil from organically managed plots. In contrast, ALP activity in soils under conventional and prairie management responded to increasing rates of manure only, with significant effects from medium and high manure application rates at 30 and 106 days. Differences in ALP activity at 30 days corresponded to the abundance of bacterial phoD genes, which were also significantly higher in soils under organic management. However, this correlation was not significant for transcript abundance. Next-generation sequencing allowed the identification of 199 unique phoD operational taxonomic units (OTUs) from the metagenome (soil DNA) and 35 unique OTUs from the metatranscriptome (soil RNA), indicating that a subset of phoD genes was being transcribed in all soils.