Abstract
Microorganisms have important ecological functions in ecosystems. Reseeding is considered as one of the main strategies for preventing grassland degradation in China. However, the response of soil microbial community and diversity to reseeding grassland (RG) and natural grassland (NG) remains unclear, especially in the Songnen Meadow. In this study, the soil microbial community compositions of two vegetation restoration types (RG vs NG) were analyzed using a high-throughput sequencing technique. A total of 23,142 microbial OTUs were detected, phylogenetically derived from 11 known bacterial phyla. Soil advantage categories included Proteobacteria, Acidobacteria, Actinobacteria, and Bacteroidetes, which together accounted for > 78% of the all phyla in vegetation restoration. The soil microbial diversity was higher in RG than in NG. Two types of vegetation restoration had significantly different characteristics of soil microbial community (P < 0.001). Based on a molecular ecological network analysis, we found that the network in RG had a longer average path distance and modularity than in NG network, making it more resilient to environment changes. Meanwhile, the results of the canonical correspondence analysis and molecular ecological network analysis showed that soil pH (6.34 ± 0.35 in RG and 7.26 ± 0.28 in NG) was the main factor affecting soil microbial community structure, followed by soil moisture (SM) in the Songnen meadow, China. Besides, soil microbial community characteristics can vary significantly in different vegetation restoration. Thus, we suggested that it was necessary and reasonable for this area to popularize reseeding grassland in the future.
Highlights
Microorganisms have important ecological functions in ecosystems
The results showed that the dominant species in the reseeding grassland (RG) were Medicago sativa, Leymus chinensis Tzvel, Lathyrus quinquenervius, and Stachys japonica
Cover, aboveground and underground biomass were significantly different in the two types of vegetation restoration (P < 0.05) with these parameters being higher in RG
Summary
Microorganisms have important ecological functions in ecosystems. Reseeding is considered as one of the main strategies for preventing grassland degradation in China. The soil microbial community compositions of two vegetation restoration types (RG vs NG) were analyzed using a high-throughput sequencing technique. Our knowledge regarding the structure of SMC in the ecosystem, in the Songnen Meadow, and how the linkage between environment and microbial ecology may respond to the changing vegetation, is limited. With a growing body of biological evaluations at molecular levels, high-throughput sequencing technology has been widely and effectively applied in the research field of m icrobiology[33] It can be rapidly and effectively used to study the composition of microbial community and identify soil microorganisms via comparative analysis of total DNA. The molecular ecological network analysis method can be instrumental in predicting the microbial community composition[41] and unraveling the microbial diversity response to different vegetation restoration
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