Abstract
Plant encroachment in alpine regions, caused by global changes and human activities, has been well documented. However, our knowledge of the effects of plant encroachment on belowground microbial communities is limited. Here, we investigated soil physicochemical properties and microbial community structures under the impact of plant encroachment along an elevation gradient in the alpine tundra of the Changbai Mountain, China. We found that plant encroachment had insignificant (P > 0.05) and inconsistent effects on the α-diversity (number of observed OTUs, Shannon, Chao1, Faith's PD) of soil microbial communities. Plant encroachment indirectly influenced soil microbial community structures by altering soil physicochemical properties, which differed between elevations and plant types (P < 0.05). In all, 40 bacterial indicator taxa and 57 fungal indicator taxa significantly shifted in response to plant encroachment, some of which were involved in soil biogeochemical cycle. Overall, our results documented the impacts of plant encroachment on soil microbial diversity and community composition, and provided a scientific basis for predicting future changes in alpine ecosystem structure and function and its subsequent feedbacks to global change.
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