Abstract
BackgroundThe bacterial community of forest soils is influenced by environmental disturbance and/or meteorological temperature and precipitation. In this study, we investigated three bacterial communities in soils of a natural hardwood forest and two plantations of conifer, Calocedrus formosana and Cryptomeria japonica, in a perhumid, low mountain area. By comparison with our previous studies with similar temperature and/or precipitation, we aimed to elucidate how disturbance influences the bacterial community in forest soils and whether bacterial communities in similar forest types differ under different climate conditions.ResultsAnalysis of 16S ribosomal RNA gene clone libraries revealed that Acidobacteria and Proteobacteria were the most abundant phyla in the three forest soil communities, with similar relative abundance of various bacterial groups. However, UniFrac analysis based on phylogenetic information revealed differences of bacterial communities between natural hardwood forest and coniferous plantation soils. The diversities of bacterial communities of the replanted Calocedrus and Cryptomeria forests were higher than that in natural hardwood forest. The bacterial diversity of these three forest soil were all higher than those in the same forest types at other locations with less precipitation or with lower temperature. In addition, the distribution of some of the most abundant operational taxonomic units in the three communities differed from other forest soils, including those related to Acidobacteria, α-, β- and γ-Proteobacteria.ConclusionsReforestation could increase the bacterial diversity. Therefore, soil bacterial communities could be shaped by the forestry management practices and climate differences in warm and humid conditions.Electronic supplementary materialThe online version of this article (doi:10.1186/s40529-014-0050-x) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.
Highlights
The bacterial community of forest soils is influenced by environmental disturbance and/or meteorological temperature and precipitation
Parts of the region have been replanted with coniferous plantations, including Calocedrus formosana and Cryptomeria japonica forests which are around 20 m height and have planted for more than 40 years
The highest cation exchange capacity (CEC) value was in the hardwood soils, which was associated with relatively high organic C and clay contents
Summary
The bacterial community of forest soils is influenced by environmental disturbance and/or meteorological temperature and precipitation. We investigated three bacterial communities in soils of a natural hardwood forest and two plantations of conifer, Calocedrus formosana and Cryptomeria japonica, in a perhumid, low mountain area. Our previous studies showed a greater bacterial diversity of a disturbed hardwood forest soil with annual precipitation ~4,000 mm in a low mountain region (~300 m a.s.l) at Huoshaoliao (Lin et al 2011b) than that in natural and secondary forest soils at Lienhuachi, with similar elevation but less precipitation (Lin et al 2011c). The bacterial community at Huoshaoliao is more diverse than that in a perhumid natural Chamaecyparis forest at Yuanyang Lake forest soils, where is with relatively high elevation (~1,800 m a.s.l.) lower mean temperature (Lin et al 2010). High bacterial diversity could be due to forest disturbance or temperature and/or precipitation differences
Sign-in/Register to view highlights & summary Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Schedule a callDisclaimer: All third-party content on this website/platform is and will remain the property of their respective owners and is provided on "as is" basis without any warranties, express or implied. Use of third-party content does not indicate any affiliation, sponsorship with or endorsement by them. Any references to third-party content is to identify the corresponding services and shall be considered fair use under The CopyrightLaw.
