Responses of fungal–bacterial community and network to organic inputs vary among different spatial habitats in soil

Abstract

Interactions among the species in microbial communities are important for organic matter turnover and nutrient cycling in the soil. Their responses to organic amendments have been studied recently but the co-occurrence patterns in different spatial soil habitats such as those with different sized aggregates are still unclear. Thus, we investigated networks comprising bacteria and fungi after the application of a cover crop for 9 years. The microbial community compositions and their co-occurrence networks were examined in the whole soil and different sized soil aggregates (>0.25 mm, 0.053–0.25 mm, and <0.053 mm). The microbial community compositions and their responses to the cover crop varied in the whole soil and aggregate fractions. Network analysis in the whole soil and different sized aggregates showed that the competition between fungi and bacteria in the whole soil increased due to the annual organic material input, but the fungi–bacteria relationships varied among different sized aggregates. In particular, the competition between fungi and bacteria increased in macroaggregates but decreased in silt + clay due to organic material inputs. Thus, the co-occurrence networks determined for the fungal and bacterial communities in various soil aggregates were very different from those in the whole soil, and their responses to organic inputs also varied in different spatial habitats in the soil.