Abstract
Afforestation with different tree species formed different vegetation patterns, and altered soil properties and the composition and diversity of the soil bacterial community. In order to analyze the difference characteristics of vegetation, soil and bacterial community after 20 years’ restoration of different tree species, we investigated changes in vegetation (tree, shrubs, and herbs), soil properties and the soil bacterial community composition in the topsoil (0–10 cm) following afforestation of P. asperata Mast. and L. kaempferi (Lamb.) Carr.on the southern slope of the Qinling mountains. The results showed that, within a 20-year recovery period, the restorative effect of L. kaempferi was better than that of P. asperata, for alpha diversity and biomass of vegetation, composition and diversity of soil bacterial community were all preferable under nearly same environmental conditions if just taking these indices into consideration. Additionally, biodiversity of L. kaempfer was much richer than that of P. asperata. Our observations suggest that soil physicochemical properties, soil bacterial community composition and diversity following afforestation were mainly affected by tree species. The results could explain our hypothesis to some extent that a planted forest with quick growth speed and sparse canopy has higher biomass productivity and alpha diversity of ecosystem.
Highlights
Lots of studies on planted forest ecosystems have been reported [11], such as forest ecosystem recovery assessments [1], planted forest and biodiversity studies [2,12], biomass, carbon and nutrient storage of planted forest [13], effects on hydrologic process caused by forest vegetation change [14], effects of tree species and soil properties on the composition and diversity of the soil microbial community [4,8], few studies have examined the correlation between plant diversity and soil bacterial community structure between two different planted tree species at the same restoration age
P. asperata was dominant with the occurrence frequency of 88.37% in the sample area
Different from the result that soil pH was the most important influencing factor for driving the composition and alpha-diversity patterns of soil microbial community [51], we found there was no significant relationship between alpha-diversity of soil bacterial and pH, the same as the result of Liu et al (2018) that soil bacterial community composition and diversity following afforestation were mainly affected by tree species, followed by soil parameters
Summary
Tree restoration processes build new environmental conditions [6], and different planted tree species result in the formation of different ecological environment conditions, which directly or indirectly affected soil physico–chemical properties as well as the structure and function of soil microbial communities [7,8]. Lots of studies on planted forest ecosystems have been reported [11], such as forest ecosystem recovery assessments [1], planted forest and biodiversity studies [2,12], biomass, carbon and nutrient storage of planted forest [13], effects on hydrologic process caused by forest vegetation change [14], effects of tree species and soil properties on the composition and diversity of the soil microbial community [4,8], few studies have examined the correlation between plant diversity and soil bacterial community structure between two different planted tree species at the same restoration age
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