Effect of experimental warming on dissolved organic matter and bacterial diversity in a forest swamp soil

Abstract

Forest swamp ecosystems play an important role in the global carbon cycle, yet they are often overlooked. With global climate warming, it is inevitable that it will impact the relationship between soil microorganisms and organic matter. Dissolved organic matter (DOM) in the soil environment is extremely sensitive to environmental changes. Understanding the effects of climate change on DOM and microorganisms is crucial for assessing the stability of carbon (C) in forest swamp soils. Therefore, we conducted a 142-day laboratory warming incubation experiment (control: 10 °C, and warming: 20 °C) to investigate the response of forest swamp soil microbial and DOM properties to warming. Excitation-emission matrix (EEM) fluorescence spectroscopy was used to explore the changes in different material compositions of DOM over time at different incubation temperatures, and high-throughput sequencing was used to investigate the changes in soil bacteria. The DOM content (dissolved organic C, DOC) and the degree of humification index (HIX) increased with an increase in incubation time under warming conditions (p < 0.05). In contrast, microbial humic substances (C3) decreased with increasing time. Long-term warming has separated bacterial communities and gradually tightened the degree of connectivity between bacterial networks. The degree of soil humification (Mantel test r = 0.58, p < 0.01) and DOC (r = 0.21, p < 0.05) were the most critical indicators that changed the diversity of the bacterial community. Our findings suggest a degree of interaction between changes in forest swamp soil microbial communities and DOM under warming conditions. The results of this study contribute to our understanding of changes in DOM fluorescence indices in forest swamp soils under the influence of climate change and their associated microbial mechanisms.