Molecular Ecological Network Complexity Drives Stand Resilience of Soil Bacteria to Mining Disturbances among Typical Damaged Ecosystems in China.

Jing Ma,Dong Xiao,Hui Wang,Yongqiang Lu,Fu Chen,Xiaoxiao Li

doi:10.3390/microorganisms8030433

Jing Ma, Dong Xiao + Show 4 more

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https://doi.org/10.3390/microorganisms8030433

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Journal: Microorganisms	Publication Date: Mar 19, 2020
Citations: 10	License type: CC BY 4.0

Affiliation: China University of Mining and Technology

Abstract

Understanding the interactions of soil microbial species and how they responded to disturbances are essential to ecological restoration and resilience in the semihumid and semiarid damaged mining areas. Information on this, however, remains unobvious and deficiently comprehended. In this study, based on the high throughput sequence and molecular ecology network analysis, we have investigated the bacterial distribution in disturbed mining areas across three provinces in China, and constructed molecular ecological networks to reveal the interactions of soil bacterial communities in diverse locations. Bacterial community diversity and composition were classified measurably between semihumid and semiarid damaged mining sites. Additionally, we distinguished key microbial populations across these mining areas, which belonged to Proteobacteria, Acidobacteria, Actinobacteria, and Chloroflexi. Moreover, the network modules were significantly associated with some environmental factors (e.g., annual average temperature, electrical conductivity value, and available phosphorus value). The study showed that network interactions were completely different across the different mining areas. The keystone species in different mining areas suggested that selected microbial communities, through natural successional processes, were able to resist the corresponding environment. Moreover, the results of trait-based module significances showed that several environmental factors were significantly correlated with some keystone species, such as OTU_8126 (Acidobacteria), OTU_8175 (Burkholderiales), and OTU_129 (Chloroflexi). Our study also implied that the complex network of microbial interaction might drive the stand resilience of soil bacteria in the semihumid and semiarid disturbed mining areas.

Highlights

Coal mining activities have resulted in surface subsidence, and have made the ecological environment more fragile by creating huge, overburdening dumps and voids [1]
After comparing the Chao and Shannon index for each mining area, we found that soil bacterial diversity in the Zoucheng (ZC) network was the highest and that in the PB network had the smallest value
The results showed that soil bacterial compositions and the network interactions were completely different across the semihumid and semiarid mining areas

Summary

Introduction

Coal mining activities have resulted in surface subsidence, and have made the ecological environment more fragile by creating huge, overburdening dumps and voids [1]. Increasing attention has been paid to the influences of coal-mining subsidence on the ecological environment [2]. Mining activities severely disrupt land soils, resulting in the deterioration of the existing local ecosystems, such as destroying or degenerating essential properties in the original soils [3]. Due to the protection of cultivated land and food security, the ecological restoration of mining areas with high groundwater levels has focused on soil reclamation in Eastern China. In the northern-western part of China, rapid and effective ecological restoration is in critical demand in order to ensure the sufficient management of semiarid, damaged mines

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