Abstract
The effects of environmental and species structure on soil eukaryotic microbes inhabiting semi-arid mountains remain unclear. Furthermore, whether community assembly differs in a variety of soil habitat types, for example, artificial forest, artificial bush, farmland, and natural grassland, is not well understood. Here, we explored species diversity and composition of soil eukaryotic microbes south of the Taihang Mountains (mid-western region of China) using Illumina sequencing of the 18S rRNA gene (V4) region on the MiSeq platform. The results suggest that the forest soil habitat type improved the diversity and abundance of soil eukaryotic microbes that will benefit the restoration of degraded soil. The SAR (Stramenopiles, Alveolates, Rhizaria) supergroup and Metazoa were the dominant soil eukaryotic microbial groups at the phylum level. About 26% of all operational taxonomic units were common among the different soil habitat types. The O-elements, water content, soil organic matter, and elevation significantly influenced the abundance of soil eukaryote communities (P < 0.05). Our findings provide some reference for the effectiveness of local ecological restoration and the establishment of a soil eukaryotic microbe resource databases in a semi-arid area.
Highlights
Eukaryotic microorganisms comprise most of the natural microbes and they are closely linked with the sustainability of the soil-based ecosystem and biogeochemical processes (Coleman, Crossley & Hendrix, 2004; Falkowski, Fenchel & Delong, 2008; Delong, 2009)
Contrary to Logares et al (2014), who confirmed that several microbial taxa are unique to a single location and few are shared among different plots, our results showed that a large number of eukaryotic communities (25.6% of all operational taxonomic units (OTUs)) were shared by the different soil habitat types
Species diversity and composition of soil eukaryotic microbes in the area south of the Taihang Mountains was delineated for the first time in this study
Summary
Eukaryotic microorganisms comprise most of the natural microbes and they are closely linked with the sustainability of the soil-based ecosystem and biogeochemical processes (Coleman, Crossley & Hendrix, 2004; Falkowski, Fenchel & Delong, 2008; Delong, 2009). The soil eukaryotic microbial group plays a key role in litter decomposition, nutrient cycling, and soil structural formation (Brussaard, Ruiter & Brown, 2007). The majority of microorganisms are still unknown and cannot be isolated from complex environmental matrices or are not cultivable on microbiological media (Amaral Zettler et al, 2002; Rappé & Giovannoni, 2003; Bonkowski, 2004), so they require detailed studies. Knowledge of the role and dynamics of soil eukaryotic communities in semi-arid areas is rather fragmentary. Drivers and assemblies of soil eukaryotic microbes among different soil habitat types in a semi-arid mountain in China.
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