How does land-use change alter soil microbial diversity, composition, and network in subtropical China?

Abstract

Soil microbial communities play essential roles in degraded soil ecosystems. The “emergent trait” indices (e.g., microbial biomass C and N, and enzyme activity) and specific soil microbiota associations have been intensively studied, but the responses of soil microbial composition and network complexities to land-use changes remain unclear. Using amplicon sequencing of 16S rRNA genes and internal transcribed spacer (ITS) regions, we assessed the response ratio of soil microbial genomic diversity, community structure, and network parameters to primary evergreen broadleaved forest (control) conversion to conifer plantations, orchards, sloping tillage, and paddy fields. Agricultural lands had a higher soil bacterial and lower fungal diversity than primary forest. Overall, primary forest conversion reduced microbial network complexity, except in the sloping tillage. Moreover, land-use changes shifted the microbial community composition by either decreasing or increasing the relative abundance of dominant and putative keystone associations. The mean response ratio (indicator response percentage to primary forest conversion) of the microbial index to the land-use change varied depending on the soil microbial alpha diversity, network topological parameters, and dominant and putative keystone associations. Alterations in soil microbial diversity, composition, and network complexity were related to reduced soil resource availability following land-use change. Our study suggested that primary forest conversion to agricultural lands did not always negatively influences soil microbial diversity, composition, network complexity, and putative keystone associations. In addition, specific soil microbial associations showed highly sensitive to land-use change.