Abstract
To prevent plants from being damaged due to extreme temperature and sunlight, the pitaya orchards in Hainan Province, China, are increasingly adopting living and black fabric cloth mulching. In this study, an Illumina Hiseq sequencer was employed to compare the soil microbial communities of two pitaya orchards, one covered by living mulching (LM) and the other covered by black fabric cloth (FC). Bacterial abundance was higher in the LM orchard than in the FC orchard (1.19 × 104versus 4.49 × 104 g−1 soil). In contrast, fungal abundance was higher in the FC orchard than in the LM orchard (2.71 × 106versus 2.97 × 105 g−1 soil). We also found that the most dominant species in the FC orchard were from the genus Neoscytalidium, which included species that could cause infection in a large variety of plant hosts. However, the LM orchard mainly harbored useful fungal species, such as Trichoderma and Chaetomium. Soil nutrients were positively correlated in the FC orchard, which potentially indicated that the FC orchard could demonstrate better fertilizer utilization efficiency. However, the LM and FC strategies have both advantages and disadvantages with regards to the cultivation management of pitaya orchards.
Highlights
Pitaya cultivation plays an essential role in the economic and social importance of Hainan Province, China
The abundance and diversity of microorganisms in the two types of pitaya orchard soil were distinct from each other; the cause of these differences was the differing mulching strategy
Gene copy numbers of the 18S rRNA were greater than that of 16S rRNA in the two orchards, and the abundance and diversity of fungi was higher in fabric cloth mulching (FC) than in living mulching (LM)
Summary
Pitaya cultivation plays an essential role in the economic and social importance of Hainan Province, China. One of the most widely used field management techniques in local orchards, is an effective method with which to control soil temperature, reduce soil evaporation and increase root growth[1,2,3,4]. In recent years, living mulching (LM) and black fabric cloth mulching (FC) have been increasingly adopted by orchards in South China to protect the roots of fruit trees or to prevent soil degradation. These methods represent the main management strategies in pitaya orchards as they encourage the growth of fruit trees. The diversity and relative abundance of microbial communities were determined by analyzing the 16S rRNA gene of bacteria, and the 18S rRNA gene of fungi, using Illumina HiSeq technology
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