Bacterial and archaeal communities in saline soils from a Los Negritos geothermal area in Mexico

Abstract

In recent years, there has been a growing need to understand how salinity affects microbial communities in agricultural soils. The archaeal and bacterial community diversity and structure were investigated through high-throughput sequencing analysis of their 16S rRNA in two arable soils with low electrolytic conductivity (EC) (arable 1 soil 2.3 dS m -1 and arable 2 soil 2.6 dS m -1 ) and a saline soil (EC = 17.6 dS m -1 ). The dominant bacterial phyla in the soils were Proteobacteria (relative abundance 46.2±8.9%), followed by Acidobacteria (13.1±9.1%) and Actinobacteria (10.0±4.8%), while Serratia (6.0±5.8%) and Bacillus (4.0±3.6%) were the dominant bacterial genera. Candidatus Nitrososphaera (53.5±46.8%) was the dominant archaeal phylotype in the arable soils, whereas Nitrosopumilus (0.4±0.01%) in the saline soil. The archaeal and bacterial community structure was different between the soils and the sand, As, Ba and Sb content had a significant effect on bacterial and archaeal community structure in the soils of this study, but not soil salinity.