Soil Bacteria in Archaeology: What Could Rank Abundance Functions Tell Us About Ancient Human Impacts on Microbial Communities?
Metagenomic analysis of soil bacterial communities based on 16S rRNA reflects a typical community composition containing a low number of high-abundance types and a very high number of low-abundance types. Here, the formation of characteristic rank order functions of bacterial abundance is investigat...
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MDPI AG
2024-11-01
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| author | J. Michael Köhler Linda Ehrhardt P. Mike Günther Jialan Cao |
| author_facet | J. Michael Köhler Linda Ehrhardt P. Mike Günther Jialan Cao |
| author_sort | J. Michael Köhler |
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| description | Metagenomic analysis of soil bacterial communities based on 16S rRNA reflects a typical community composition containing a low number of high-abundance types and a very high number of low-abundance types. Here, the formation of characteristic rank order functions of bacterial abundance is investigated by modelling the dynamics of soil bacterial communities, assuming a succession of different bacterial populations that grow rapidly and decay more slowly. We found that the characteristic shape of typical rank order functions is well reflected by simulations. In addition, our model allowed us to investigate strong disturbances in the soil, which could be expected in cases of strongly changing local environmental conditions in soil, e.g., after translocation and covering of soil material. Such events could lead to the formation of shoulders in the rank order functions. Abundance rank orders observed in cases of some archaeological soil samples do indeed show such a shoulder and could be well interpreted by simulated rank order functions. As a result, it can be concluded that the investigations herein support our hypothesis that abundance rank orders contain information about the temporal order of developing bacterial types in changing communities and thus store information about local environmental conditions in the past, including ancient humans’ impact on soil. This information can be used for interpretation of archeological findings and for reconstruction of different former human activities, as well as knowledge on the translocation of soil material in the past. |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj-art-5cbca093de9f4e2b9d9c2caeb911c9ff |
| institution | DOAJ |
| issn | 2076-2607 |
| language | English |
| publishDate | 2024-11-01 |
| publisher | MDPI AG |
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| series | Microorganisms |
| spelling | doaj-art-5cbca093de9f4e2b9d9c2caeb911c9ff2025-08-20T02:48:01ZengMDPI AGMicroorganisms2076-26072024-11-011211224310.3390/microorganisms12112243Soil Bacteria in Archaeology: What Could Rank Abundance Functions Tell Us About Ancient Human Impacts on Microbial Communities?J. Michael Köhler0Linda Ehrhardt1P. Mike Günther2Jialan Cao3Institute for Micro- and Nanotechnologies/Institute for Chemistry and Biotechnology, Technische University Ilmenau, PF 10 05 65, D-98684 Ilmenau, GermanyInstitute for Micro- and Nanotechnologies/Institute for Chemistry and Biotechnology, Technische University Ilmenau, PF 10 05 65, D-98684 Ilmenau, GermanyInstitute for Micro- and Nanotechnologies/Institute for Chemistry and Biotechnology, Technische University Ilmenau, PF 10 05 65, D-98684 Ilmenau, GermanyInstitute for Micro- and Nanotechnologies/Institute for Chemistry and Biotechnology, Technische University Ilmenau, PF 10 05 65, D-98684 Ilmenau, GermanyMetagenomic analysis of soil bacterial communities based on 16S rRNA reflects a typical community composition containing a low number of high-abundance types and a very high number of low-abundance types. Here, the formation of characteristic rank order functions of bacterial abundance is investigated by modelling the dynamics of soil bacterial communities, assuming a succession of different bacterial populations that grow rapidly and decay more slowly. We found that the characteristic shape of typical rank order functions is well reflected by simulations. In addition, our model allowed us to investigate strong disturbances in the soil, which could be expected in cases of strongly changing local environmental conditions in soil, e.g., after translocation and covering of soil material. Such events could lead to the formation of shoulders in the rank order functions. Abundance rank orders observed in cases of some archaeological soil samples do indeed show such a shoulder and could be well interpreted by simulated rank order functions. As a result, it can be concluded that the investigations herein support our hypothesis that abundance rank orders contain information about the temporal order of developing bacterial types in changing communities and thus store information about local environmental conditions in the past, including ancient humans’ impact on soil. This information can be used for interpretation of archeological findings and for reconstruction of different former human activities, as well as knowledge on the translocation of soil material in the past.https://www.mdpi.com/2076-2607/12/11/2243bacterial communitiessoilarchaeologyrank order functionsmodellinghuman impact |
| spellingShingle | J. Michael Köhler Linda Ehrhardt P. Mike Günther Jialan Cao Soil Bacteria in Archaeology: What Could Rank Abundance Functions Tell Us About Ancient Human Impacts on Microbial Communities? Microorganisms bacterial communities soil archaeology rank order functions modelling human impact |
| title | Soil Bacteria in Archaeology: What Could Rank Abundance Functions Tell Us About Ancient Human Impacts on Microbial Communities? |
| title_full | Soil Bacteria in Archaeology: What Could Rank Abundance Functions Tell Us About Ancient Human Impacts on Microbial Communities? |
| title_fullStr | Soil Bacteria in Archaeology: What Could Rank Abundance Functions Tell Us About Ancient Human Impacts on Microbial Communities? |
| title_full_unstemmed | Soil Bacteria in Archaeology: What Could Rank Abundance Functions Tell Us About Ancient Human Impacts on Microbial Communities? |
| title_short | Soil Bacteria in Archaeology: What Could Rank Abundance Functions Tell Us About Ancient Human Impacts on Microbial Communities? |
| title_sort | soil bacteria in archaeology what could rank abundance functions tell us about ancient human impacts on microbial communities |
| topic | bacterial communities soil archaeology rank order functions modelling human impact |
| url | https://www.mdpi.com/2076-2607/12/11/2243 |
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