Abstract
Similar land-use types usually have similar soil properties, and, most likely, similar microbial communities. Here, we assessed whether land-use types or soil chemical properties are the primary drivers of soil microbial community composition, and how changes in one part of the ecosystem affect another. We applied Ion Torrent sequencing to the bacterial and fungal communities of five different land-use (vegetation) types in the Loess Plateau of China. We found that the overall trend of soil quality was natural forest > plantation > bare land. Dominant bacterial phyla consisted of Proteobacteria (42.35%), Actinobacteria (15.61%), Acidobacteria (13.32%), Bacteroidetes (8.43%), and Gemmatimonadetes (6.0%). The dominant fungi phyla were Ascomycota (40.39%), Basidiomycota (38.01%), and Zygomycota (16.86%). The results of Canonical Correspondence Analysis (CCA) and Redundancy Analysis (RDA) based on land-use types displayed groups according to the land-use types. Furthermore, the bacterial communities were mainly organized by soil organic carbon (SOC). The fungal communities were mainly related to available phosphorus (P). The results suggested that the changes of land use type generated changes in soil chemical properties, controlling the composition of microbial community in the semiarid Loess Plateau region. The microbial community could be an indicator for soil quality with respect to ecological restoration.
Highlights
Similar land-use types usually have similar soil properties, and, most likely, similar microbial communities
The differences of microbe community composition could signify that biogeography is driven by special soil chemical properties that fluctuate among land-use types[8]
Five land-use types representing natural and planted forests, and non-forest lands were selected for this study: (1) Liaodong oak (Quercus liaotungensis), the typical climax forest type, (2) oriental arborvitae (Platycladus orientalis) which occurs as a small stand, (3) shrub land including species of early lilac (Syringa oblata), rose (Rosa hugonis), and Caragana microphylla, (4) black locust (Robinia pseudoacacia), a fast-growing introduced species which contributes to major plantations in the region[14], and (5) bare land which was abandoned decades ago
Summary
Similar land-use types usually have similar soil properties, and, most likely, similar microbial communities. To remedy adverse impacts to ecological environments, vegetation restoration has been conducted on the Loess Plateau of China, leading to changes in land-use patterns and above- and below-ground environments These fluctuations, in turn, have profound indirect and direct effects on soil microorganisms[6,7]. There have been several reports on soil microbial composition in the Loess Plateau of China[14,15,16], the effects of land-use types and soil chemical properties on bacteria and fungi community composition during both growing and dormant seasons are still poorly understood. This study investigated the effects of (1) land-use types, (2) seasonality, and (3) soil chemical properties on fungal and bacterial communities in five different land-use types including natural and plantation forests, shrub land, and bare land. We aimed to understand whether land-use types and/or soil chemical properties are the primary drivers of soil microbial community structure
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