As contamination alters rhizosphere microbial community composition with soil type dependency during the rice growing season

Abstract

Rhizosphere microbes play a cardinal role in transformation and crop uptake of arsenic (As), thereby relieving or intensifying the risk of As contamination in the food webs. How rhizosphere microbiomes respond to As contamination in different paddy soils and rice growth stages is still unclear. Here, we conducted a rice pot experiment to address the effects of rice developmental stage and As contamination on the rhizosphere microbial communities in two contrast paddy soils, a yellow clayey paddy soil (YP, pH 5.1, soil organic matter 20.8 g/kg) and red paddy soil (RP, pH 6.2, soil organic matter 46.1 g/kg). The rhizosphere microbial communities were investigated using phospholipid fatty acids analysis at tillering, panicle initiation, and maturity stages. The results showed that rice growing in YP soil accumulated 2-10 times higher contents of As in root than that in RP soil. There was a significant effect of rice growing stage, independent of soil types and As treatment, on rhizosphere microbial community composition in both YP and RP soils as depicted by canonical correspondence analysis. As contamination significantly altered rhizosphere microbial community composition only in YP soil, which showed the soil type dependency of the As contamination effect. In RP soil, the higher content of soil organic matter reduced the impact of As contamination. Soil pH explained more percentage of variation in microbial community composition than soil DOC and DON did. These influences of soil physiochemical properties on heavy metal available and rhizosphere microbial community may lay the foundation for exploration of bioremediation potential.