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SPRUCE Peatland Methane-Cycling Microbial Community

Community ID CommunityMech:000135
Ecological State PERTURBED
Environment bog
ENVO:00000044

A natural peatland microbial community studied in the DOE-supported SPRUCE whole-ecosystem warming experiment at the S1 Bog in northern Minnesota. The community inhabits acidic, carbon-rich, waterlogged peat and mediates terminal anaerobic carbon turnover, including acetoclastic and hydrogenotrophic methanogenesis. Metagenome-assembled genomes and metatranscriptomes show depth-stratified microbial composition, active methanogenesis by Candidatus Methanoflorens, and temperature-sensitive methane and carbon dioxide production driven by activity changes rather than wholesale community replacement.

Taxonomy

Taxon Ontology ID Functional Roles Abundance
methanogenic archaea at SPRUCE NCBITaxon:2157
SYNTROPHIC_PARTNER
DOMINANT
  • PMID:40715043 - SUPPORT (COMPUTATIONAL)
    "we find evidence that the dominant methanogen at SPRUCE, Ca. Methanoflorens, is actively performing both acetoclastic and hydrogenotrophic methanogenesis at the surface of the bog"
Acidobacteriota MAGs in SPRUCE peat NCBITaxon:57723
PRIMARY_DEGRADER CROSS_FEEDER
N/A
  • PMID:40715043 - SUPPORT (COMPUTATIONAL)
    "Acidobacteriota MAGs in our dataset further corroborate these findings."
deep peat acetogenic bacteria NCBITaxon:2
SECONDARY_FERMENTER CROSS_FEEDER
N/A
  • PMID:40715043 - SUPPORT (COMPUTATIONAL)
    "the genomic potential for acetogenesis via the Wood-Ljungdahl pathway continues to increase, resulting in the highest concentrations of acetate in the deep peat"

Ecological Interactions

Ecological interaction network for SPRUCE Peatland Methane-Cycling Microbial Community Bipartite graph where circle nodes represent taxa and colored rectangles represent ecological interactions (cross-feeding, mutualism, syntrophy, competition, commensalism).
Taxon
Cross-feeding
Mutualism
Syntrophy
Competition
Commensalism
Niche partitioning
Colonization facilitation
Strain competition
Predation

Acetate-Fueled Methanogenesis Under Warming

CROSS_FEEDING

Source Taxon: deep peat acetogenic bacteria

Target Taxon: methanogenic archaea at SPRUCE

Metabolites: acetate (CHEBI:30089), methane (CHEBI:16183), carbon dioxide (CHEBI:16526)

Biological Processes:

Evidence

  • PMID:40715043 - SUPPORT (COMPUTATIONAL)
    "the mechanism by which elevated temperatures promote methanogenesis in the bog is through enhanced availability of substrates (e.g., acetate)."
  • PMID:40715043 - SUPPORT (COMPUTATIONAL)
    "we find evidence that the dominant methanogen at SPRUCE, Ca. Methanoflorens, is actively performing both acetoclastic and hydrogenotrophic methanogenesis at the surface of the bog"

Depth-Stratified Anaerobic Peat Metabolism

NICHE_PARTITIONING

Evidence

  • PMID:40715043 - SUPPORT (COMPUTATIONAL)
    "Depth was the main driver of variation in microbial community composition (P = 0.002, adjR2 = 0.13, Fig. 1A, B) and functional potential (P < 0.001, R2 = 0.623)."

Associated Datasets

Dataset Type Repository Accession
SPRUCE peat metagenomes
Public NCBI BioProject ranges containing raw metagenomic sequences from SPRUCE peat samples. 		METAGENOME NCBI_BIOPROJECT PRJNA364951-PRJNA364992; PRJNA443580-PRJNA443616; PRJNA444884-PRJNA444890; PRJNA651484-PRJNA651504; PRJNA677007-PRJNA677020; PRJNA697594-PRJNA697710
SPRUCE MAG BioProject
NCBI BioProject containing metagenome-assembled genomes analyzed for the SPRUCE peat microbial community. 		GENOME NCBI_BIOPROJECT PRJNA1084886
SPRUCE metaproteomics and metabolomics
Mass spectrometry proteomics datasets associated with the SPRUCE warming metagenome study. 		METAPROTEOME MASSIVE PXD063775; MSV000097832

Environmental Factors

Factor Value Unit
Whole-ecosystem warming and elevated carbon dioxide air and peat warming with elevated atmospheric CO2 N/A
  • PMID:40715043 - SUPPORT (IN_VIVO)
    "The Spruce and Peatland Responses Under Changing Environments (SPRUCE) experiment, combines air and peat warming in a whole-ecosystem manipulation experiment"
  • PMID:38515239 - SUPPORT (IN_VIVO)
    "the Spruce and Peatland Responses Under Changing Environments (SPRUCE) experiment, to explore the effects of a whole-ecosystem warming gradient (+0°C to 9°C) and eCO2 on vascular plant fine roots and their associated microbes"
Acidic organic-rich peat chemistry pH 3.42 average outflow; total organic carbon 85.83 mg C/L N/A
  • PMID:40715043 - SUPPORT (IN_VIVO)
    "the pH was 3.42 and total organic carbon was 85.83 mg C/L."
  • PMID:34836550 - SUPPORT (COMPUTATIONAL)
    "viral community composition was significantly correlated with peat depth, water content, and carbon chemistry, including CH4 and CO2 concentrations"