Effects of O3 stress on physico-chemical and biochemical properties and composition of main microbial groups of a soil cropped to soybean

Abstract

Tropospheric O3 (ozone) stress can negatively affect forest productivity and crop yields. Yet, relatively little attention has been paid to the effects of O3 stress on belowground system. Here, a pot experiment was conducted in open top chambers to monitor the response of physico-chemical properties, main microbial groups, and potential enzyme activities of a soil cropped to soybean (Glycine max; a highly sensitive species to O3) and exposed to background O3 concentration (45 ± 5 ppb, control) and O3 stress (80 ± 10 ppb, O3+ and 110 ± 10 ppb, O3++) with sampling at branching, flowering, and podding stages. The growth of soybean was significantly inhibited by O3 stress, which showed significant effects on soil microbial biomass C and pH during the whole growth of soybean at the highest concentration. The O3++ stress significantly decreased soil pH at flowering stage, and increased soil pH at podding stage; the O3+ stress and growth stage × O3+ stress showed significant influences on the potential activities of acid phosphomonoesterase, invertase, and amylase. The O3 stress significantly reduced the abundances of total PLFAs (phospholipid fatty acid), bacterial PLFAs, and AMF (arbuscular mycorrhizal) PLFAs at branching and podding stages. Our results suggest that the main soil microbial groups might be indirectly affected by the O3 stress through the alteration of soil physico-chemical properties with changes in the potential enzyme activities of soil.