Seasonal Variation of Phyllosphere Microbial Communities Under Warming

The phyllosphere, as one of the major habitats for microorganisms, plays a crucial role in maintaining plant health and ecosystem functionality. Given its high sensitivity to changes in temperature and humidity, understanding the phyllosphere’s response to climate warming and seasonal humidity fluctuations is vital for predicting ecosystem function under future climate scenarios.

This study leveraged the long-term field warming experiment platform established in 2012 at the Dinghushan Forest Ecosystem National Field Observation and Research Station in Guangdong Province. The research analyzed ecological adaptation strategies of phyllosphere microbial communities to climate warming and seasonal variation during the wet and dry seasons over three consecutive years (2021–2023).

Phyllosphere microbial community structure and diversity varied seasonally, with higher bacterial richness in the dry season; however, warming reduced bacterial richness across seasons (Figure 1). Co-occurrence networks revealed stronger microbial interactions in the dry season, which exhibited reduced connectivity under warming. Community assembly was largely stochastic, with warming enhancing species turnover and dispersal. Notably, plant probiotics, enriched in the wetter season with greater environmental disturbances, such as Methylobacterium-Methylorubrum and Curtobacterium, played a key role in adaptation to seasonal changes and warming (Figure 2). Seasonal shifts in microbial function were observed: wet-season bacteria were enriched in carbohydrate and energy metabolism, while dry-season bacteria showed elevated sulfur metabolism, reflecting adaptive metabolic strategies to environmental conditions (Figure 2). This study enhances the understanding of the seasonal patterns of phyllosphere microbial communities and the impact of climate warming, offering new insights into plant-microbial adaptation strategies in response to climate change.

Building upon earlier work by Associate Researcher Shu-Yi-Dan Zhou and colleagues, which uncovered differential effects of warming on soil microbial community assembly in forest ecosystems, this study further explores the adaptive strategies of phyllosphere microbial communities under warming conditions. Link to the article: https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/gcb.16541

The findings were published in June 2025 in the journal Global Change Biology (IF₂₀₂₄ = 10.8), under the title “Seasonal Variation of Phyllosphere Microbial Communities Under Warming.”The first author of the paper is doctoral student LEI Chaotang from Dinghushan Station, with Associate Researcher ZHOU Shu-Yi-Dan and Researcher LIU Juxiu as corresponding authors. This research was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China, the Guangdong Key R&D Program, and the China Postdoctoral Science Foundation. Link to the publication: https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/gcb.70270

Figure 1. Seasonal variation in the diversity of phyllosphere microbial communities under warming.

（Imaged by LEI et al）

Figure 2. Identification of core microbial taxa and functional traits of phyllosphere microbial communities under warming in different seasons.（Imaged by LEI et al）